On autumn Saturdays in his childhood, Georgia Tech A-back Clinton Lynch and his mother shared a routine that nurtured a dream.
After playing his youth league game in the morning, or before he played later in the day, Lynch and his mother Shelly Haynes – a single mother and her only child – shared their khaki-colored couch and fed on hot wings and game after game of college football.
“As long as we could keep our eyes open, we were watching it,” Haynes said.
The custom began about the time he began playing at 5 and continued through middle school. Those afternoons painted brush strokes of a vision for Lynch, one that he has realized with the Yellow Jackets.
“That’s what I dreamed about since I was a little kid,” Lynch said. “It’s really a dream come true, if you think about it. So that’s why I go hard.”
A sophomore from Norcross High, Lynch has developed into a vital cog in the Jackets’ offensive machine, a highly productive member of the A-back rotation with a knack for big plays. Since his freshman season, out of a combined 84 rushing attempts and receptions, one out of every four has either gone for 20 yards or a touchdown or both.
“So far, he’s been really explosive,” coach Paul Johnson said.
His is the triumph of a young man who was rarely the star, whose ability and potential may not have been quite as clear as his passion.
As his mother tells it, Lynch was hooked on football from the time he began watching as a toddler. The world became his gridiron, often unwillingly. He tackled a girl in his daycare class. At 4, he played basketball and tackled the player with the ball.
“He did the same thing with soccer,” Haynes said.
Haynes put her son in ninjutsu and gymnastics, anything to try to absorb his energy and thirst for contact. Finally, when her son was five, she – and perhaps parents of young children in Norcross along with her – was delighted to find the Tucker Football League.
“From that point on, he became this calm, Zen person,” Haynes said.
Lynch often found himself overshadowed. Among his Tucker teammates was Dominick Sanders, the Georgia safety. The pattern continued at Norcross, where the Blue Devils won the 2012 and 2013 Classs AAAAAA state titles with defensive end Lorenzo Carter, considered one of the top two prospects in the state as a senior, and tight end Chris Herndon, a close friend who signed with Miami.
Lynch, a wide receiver, was committed to Georgia State, without a scholarship offer from a power-conference school until Tech snuck in on the day before national signing day in 2014.
Even then, not only was he not the top A-back prospect in the Jackets’ signing class, he wasn’t the top A-back prospect from his own school. That status belonged to Myles Autry, who was later released from his letter of intent after his brother Anthony was dismissed from Tech’s team.
Lynch was drawn to Tech by its proximity to home, the academics and, he said, “I noticed that the A-backs get the ball in their hands a lot.”
While touches for A-backs often depend on the defense’s approach to the Jackets’ spread-option offense, Lynch has been dynamic when the ball has come his way. As a freshman, he led Tech in yards from scrimmage as a freshman last year with 730 and tied for the team lead with eight touchdowns.
He leads the Jackets again thus far in yards from scrimmage – 388 yards on 25 touches, 15.5 yards a pop – and is tied for 10th in the ACC with seven scrimmage plays of 20 yards or more. He has done it without blinding speed or great size.
“I don’t know,” quarterback Justin Thomas said. “When he gets the ball, he makes plays. It opens up for him.”
In last Saturday’s last-second loss to Pittsburgh, Lynch took a toss and rocketed down the sideline for a 45-yard touchdown run, turned a wheel route into a 29-yard reception from quarterback Justin Thomas and made a leveling cut block to clear a path for A-back J.J. Green’s 10-yard scoring run late in the game, something of an A-back hat trick.
Saturday, he’ll be an essential element of Tech’s chances against Georgia Southern at Bobby Dodd Stadium as the Jackets try to break their three-game losing streak. He vows to give it his all.
A dream come true demands nothing less.
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