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As the lone five-star recruit from Florida’s 2016 recruiting class, defensive end Antonneous Clayton arrived in Gainesville with plenty of hype and expectations for his debut campaign.
However, he wasn’t at the ideal playing weight when he first entered the program, weighing at just 215 pounds at about 6 feet, 3 inches. Much of Clayton’s first year with the team was spent adding bulk to his frame – and he succeeded in that capacity, getting his weight up to about 250 pounds in roughly three months time, as Florida head coach Jim McElwain had noted in late September 2016.
“Coming in at 215 I wasn’t that SEC body that I wanted to have,” Clayton said. “I was highly ranked but when I got here those stars didn’t mean nothing. I still had a huge learning curve. I had to get up, right now I’m 250. My teammates coach me up, my coaches still coach me up. I’m still learning as of right now. I’m just a sophomore. It’s going to be a pretty good two years after this season. I’m looking forward to it.”
Clayton has maintained that weight, as he says he currently weighs about 245-250 pounds. Much of it was put on the right way, as Clayton has adhered closely to Florida’s nutrition program and watched what food he puts into his body closely.
“We have a great nutritionist, a great nutrition program. Collier Perno, she’s been getting with me, what I need to be eating,” explained Clayton. “It’s a lot of lean foods, then you have the training table we go to. I went and did a scan over my body and they measured my body fat percentage, they measured how much muscle I have, how much I need to gain and the nutrition program helped me gain weight and the right weight. It’s not like my belly’s sticking out. I’m more agile. I’m able to move at 245. It’s great. I feel as if I was still 215. The reason I know it’s not bad weight is because I don’t feel any slower than when I first came in.
“I’m burning a lot off every day but right after I leave practice there’s a little shake bar right here, a protein bar that we get and that helps with recovery,” he continued. “You burn off but you put back in. Also when I leave here I got to the training table and get things like baked chicken, baked fish, broccoli, mozzarella, lasagna, really help put on that good weight. Not just late night snacking, eating every 3-4 hours, snack bar, wheat thins, stuff like that. I need to keep those carbs inside so I can keep the weight on. I lose weight really, really fast. Getting with Collier and the magnificent nutrition program just really helped me out to maintain the weight.”
While Clayton has done a good job up to this point of improving his body in the weight room and via the nutrition program, he feels more comfortable and confident on the field. At first, adjusting to the tempo and physicality of the college game was a challenge, he admits.
“There’s no more coming off the ball with your hands slow, playing slow, it’s all about physical, striking, fast, speed, power athleticism. That’s the main curve I had to overcome,” Clayton said. “I had a hard time learning the plays (last year). Just overall, just physicality, you know? Being strong off the ball, good get-offs, coming around the edge, bending, things like that.”
Clayton didn’t see the field during the first month of the 2016 season but then saw his redshirt burned as Florida’s defensive line took a hit with injuries. He made his collegiate debut against Vanderbilt, where he logged a fumble recovery on a punt return. On the year, Clayton finished with three tackles and three quarterback hurries in five appearances, not seeing the field during Florida’s final four games of the 2016 campaign.
Although CeCe Jefferson, Jabari Zuniga, Keivonnis Davis and Jachai Polite have seen most of the reps at both defensive end spots with the 1’s and 2’s this spring at an incredibly deep position, while Jordan Sherit (knee) is sidelined, Florida could certainly use a player with Clayton’s talent to spark the pass rush. McElwain has made it no secret that the Gators are looking for more consistency on that end, plus at least one player who can develop into a dominant pass rusher.
Clayton could see an increased role in 2017, but he still has plenty of areas of his game he’s looking to improve.
“What I want to work on the most is coming off the ball faster,” he said. “I haven’t been coming off the ball well, I’m still working on that. I’m not fully developed as a run-stopper. I’ve got the pass rush pretty much down, a little bit. It’s just the run stopping; coming off that ball, setting the edge. … They’ve been emphasizing coming off the ball, striking guys, setting that edge and playing your gap. That’s been a huge emphasis for me. I’ve been trying to really focus on that. If I get that down I’ll be that much better of a player.”
Still, a number of his teammates, including redshirt junior defensive tackle Khairi Clark, are high on what Clayton could bring to the table for the Gators this upcoming season and onward.
"I feel like Clayton is really stepping up to the plate, man. I feel like he can actually probably potentially be a Dante Fowler role in his near future because he just has that dog in him, in my opinion,” Clark said. "I've seen Antonneous grow a lot. Just from a thinking aspect, because before then he would always think a lot. He wouldn't really know what was going on and now he's actually using more of his brain a lot. He's getting off the ball and he's using his hands and he's getting to the quarterback a lot."
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