DT Khairi Clark embracing role as mentor to UF's defensive line

Entering his fifth and final season in a Gators uniform, Khairi Clark is embracing his role as a vocal leader along the defensive front, and certainly knows how important this time of year is regards to UF's overall success during the 2018 campaign.

The 6-foot-1, 311-pound Clark, who was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll in each of the previous three seasons, has started 15 games during his collegiate career, including all 11 contests in 2017.

"I would just tell the young guys this is the time we've got to grow, right before the season, fall camp," Clark said on Monday. "We've all got to come out with the mindset to keep going every day. Bodies are going to get tired, we've just got to keep going, keep pushing through adversity and all the heat. We'll be a dominant team if we keep doing those things I just said."

For Clark, Dan Mullen will be his third head coach at Florida, and fifth if you want to pencil in interim coaches D.J. Durkin and Randy Shannon. Going through a coaching staff can be a strenuous process for current players, especially underclassmen, and Clark has no problem taking on the role of a go-to figure for those settling in.

"Oh, most definitely," Clark said. "There's some guys that actually transferred here from other schools, because I've been through a lot of coaches since I've been here, so they look at me as a leader to come talk to about different situations."

Dan Mullen is obviously the face of Florida's football program, but strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage is the staff member who continues to do wonders and make a splash in the offseason headlines.

Savage has instilled a different level of discipline during his time in Gainesville, and also looks to roll out a unit that ranks second to none in conditioning and mental toughness.

"I felt like coach Savage, what I've seen from him that I haven't seen from these other staffs is that he stays on us," Clark said. "I've done some things with him that I've never done with the other staffs. Like running the stadium, I've never done that since I've been here. That was a big transition for me. I feel like that right there, that was something that's just in the mind, you've just got to fight through that kind of stuff.

"Everything else that he does for us, like just constantly lifting heavy weights so we can just maintain our strength, just running us to death, man, so we can just have that momentum of practicing in the games so we can be conditioned, higher conditioning than the other teams.

"Building mental strength is just doing extra reps when they notice that we're tired. So you just continue to fight through everything so that we can be better for ourselves. Just doing the extra reps."

In regards to 2017, Clark says it was rare occurence for him to have enough in the gas tank for all four quarters of a game. The presence of Nick Savage has not only made a difference with his cardiovascular, but the South Florida native says there's a different level of assertiveness from the staff as well.

"Last year I felt like we weren't as strong as what we are right now, because of, you know, the staff we had last year, we didn't get pushed as hard as to what this staff does for us," Clark said. "I feel it's a big difference now, because this staff has actually made all of us very stronger, and we're noticing it during practice."

Clark considers Todd Grantham as a player's coach and says the players are certainly buying into his recipe for success on the defensive side of the ball.

"Oh man, I like coach Grantham because he's about us, man," Clark said. "He always tries to stress to us that we all got to make plays, get in the backfield, run to the ball, man, and just be a consistent defense. If we want to be the best defense in the nation, we've just got to do everything he tells us to do because the guy's been there, he's coached college football, he's coached the NFL and we all believe in him."

Grantham shies away from the label of being a well-reserved defensive coordinator, and Clark says his the coach's fiery passion and vocal approach is nothing new entering year No. 5 in Gainesville.

"I feel like it didn't take me a while to adjust to it, because I've been through it for a lot of years," Clark said. "But you're right, he does yell a lot. But it's all for the benefit of us.

"It's all about being coachable. When he yells at us, that only means that he believes in us to be the best that he can be."

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