The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
QB Profile: Clements Settling In After Journey From West Coast
8/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
EDITOR'S NOTE: UABSPORTS.com will profile the Blazer quarterbacks on a daily basis this week. Steve Irvine takes a look at the UAB signal-callers, beginning today with junior Cody Clements.
By Steve Irvine
www.uabsports.com
UAB quarterback Cody Clements kicked the soccer ball away for good about the time he first picked up a football and began slinging it around.
Since then, he's thrown the football around Southern California to Pullman, Washington back to Southern California and now to Birmingham. On Aug. 30, he'll throw the football around Legion Field when the Blazers open the 2014 season with a non-conference game against in-state foe Troy.
"I started off playing soccer as a kid," said Clements, a native of Whittier, California, who was 10 when he first played tackle football. "I asked my Dad if I could play football. He said "All right, you can try it but if you don't like it you can go back.' I tried it out and thought `I don't want soccer anymore.'"
Football has been the vehicle that took the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Clements on a journey which eventually landed him in Birmingham. He established himself as a winner at one of the most successful prep programs in Southern California. He was part of a La Habra High School program that captured four consecutive CIF Southern Section titles and was the starting quarterback as a junior and senior.
"Going in there, you kind of know what you're getting yourself into because it's a good football school," Clements said. "You don't do anything but win - that's the mindset. There is a tempo and work ethic that goes along with it. You work that hard and, in the end, it's not that you're surprised, you're used to winning."
Clements threw for 4,217 yards with 61 touchdowns in his final two seasons. He had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 32-to-1 during his final two seasons. Those type of numbers helped him land a scholarship to Washington State and off to Pullman he went. A year and a half later, he was headed back to Southern California.
"I redshirted and then we got a whole new coaching staff," Clements said. "I kind of felt those guys out a little bit. I wasn't their guy coming in, wasn't their recruit. Some things happened so I made a change when I had some time."
He landed at Cerritos College, which is the closest junior college to his home, and quickly earned a starting spot. He threw for 1,953 yards and 16 touchdowns and eventually directed his team to a 64-33 win over Grossmont College in the Western State Bowl.
Clements was recruited to UAB by the previous coaching staff and left home again this past January.
"I knew absolutely nothing (about Birmingham)," Clements said. "I had been away from home so that part wasn't tough at all. I just wanted to go somewhere where I was going to get a legit shot to play."
He not only received that but UAB head coach Bill Clark was impressed with Clements immediately.
"He's a pretty happy go lucky guy, one of those guys you just naturally like and gravitate to, but he's a competitor when he needs to be," Clark said. "He wants to be good, wants to win. Our whole group of quarterbacks are very driven."
Clements calls himself a "game manager and, when something breaks down a playmaker." Speed and quickness is one of his best attributes but he also has a strong and accurate arm. He brings something different to the table than Jeremiah Briscoe and the other quarterbacks battling for a starting job, which isn't a bad thing.
"I think it is good because you're not one-dimensional," Clements said. "The defense has to game plan for different things. It's just different things we do well."
