TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Ask anyone at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility about Ronnie Clark, and they will all have something positive to say about the Alabama running back. They’re more than likely to answer questions about the fifth-year senior with a wide smile on their face, too.

“Amazing guy,” tight end Hale Hentges said. “I mean, he’s a guy who just comes to work every single day. Ronnie has always done everything that this university’s asked of him, and someone like him is someone that you want in your room or on your team just because he provides a great example of what you should do and how you’re supposed to be playing the game of football -- or just living life.

“Ronnie’s extremely unselfish, and if everyone on our team was more like Ronnie, we’d have a really amazing team.”

Clark is not a star on the Crimson Tide’s 2018 squad, but a lot of the names everyone recognizes on Saturdays look to the veteran for guidance while giving him humorous elderly nicknames.

All jokes aside, though, he’s a player everyone inside that building respects.

“Ronnie Clark is like the grandpa of the (running back) room,” tailback Josh Jacobs said. “I mean, I’m not saying it like in a bad way. Like when I came in, Ronnie Clark basically -- him and (Derrick) Gore -- taught me everything. How to study, how to learn the playbooks, tracks, everything. So, he’s definitely like the biggest mentor. He doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves.”

Clark chuckled when told his teammate called him a grandpa. “I am the oldest one in the room,” he said. But on a more regular basis, Alabama’s running backs and other guys on the team refer to him as “Unc,” as Clark is always willing to provide words of wisdom on and off the field.

“I just try to lead them in the right direction and try to keep them positive as the game goes on when they get frustrated,” Clark told BamaOnLine in an exclusive interview. “I’ve always been that type of player and that type of teammate that you can come talk to and explain what you’ve got to explain because I’m going to give you advice on what you need to do or what I think you need to do, how you should handle a situation.

Clark chats with now-former Alabama tight end O.J. Howard after the Western Kentucky game in 2016.

“... I just try to keep them calm because I know they kind of get frustrated at times. They may throw their helmet or do something exaggerated on the sideline, but I grab them and be like, ‘Hey, look. People are watching. We’ve got to do this in a certain style and fashion. Just get back to your game, don’t let nothing get to you and your game.’”

Saturday will be Clark’s final game at Bryant-Denny Stadium where he will be one of 19 seniors honored before Alabama’s regular-season finale against Auburn (2:30 p.m. CT on CBS). UA’s current senior class has posted a record of 52-3 (.945), has won two national championships and two SEC titles and has appeared in three College Football Playoffs. The 52 wins rank No. 2 in NCAA history behind Alabama’s 2017 senior class, which posted an NCAA record 53-5 (.914) mark.

Clark and the other seven fifth-year seniors claim an overall record of 64-5 with four straight College Football Playoff appearances and three SEC championships entering Week 13 of the season.

Like many of the Tide seniors, Clark is astounded at how quickly his college career has passed.

“It’s crazy. This time has flown by,” Clark said. “I was thinking about it last night, actually, that this time is coming to an end, and I probably won’t be playing any (football) in my future. So, it’s very sad, but I enjoyed every minute I was here.”

Clark committed to the Tide on Oct. 4, 2013, after a stellar senior season at Calera (Ala.) High School where he played quarterback and safety, accounting for more than 2,500 yards and 35 touchdowns. Clark, a 4-star recruit, was the nation’s No. 72 overall prospect, the No. 6 outside linebacker and the No. 5 player in the state of Alabama, per the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

He redshirted during his first season in Tuscaloosa and then played in three games the next year before tearing his left Achilles tendon at practice. After recovering from the injury, Clark tore his right Achilles during the final period of Alabama’s last spring practice session of 2016.

Those two injuries were mentally and emotionally draining, at least initially.

Clark scores a touchdown against Ole Miss.

“It was very hard,” Clark said. “Being one of the top athletes, a lot of people expected me to be one of the guys in my later years here and with that not happening, it frustrated me a lot.

“My way of dealing with it was just praying to God and just always understanding there’s a better plan, there’s a bigger plan. It might not be running that ball up and down the field like I used to. It may be in coaching or anything else that I may want to do. So, I still have opportunities to have an impact on the world. That’s how I look at it.”

Last season, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound tailback saw carries in four games, including a career-best performance at Vanderbilt where he rushed for 49 yards on 10 carries. The following week, he scored the first touchdown of his career against Ole Miss, and Alabama’s entire bench nearly met Clark in the end zone at Bryant-Denny to celebrate with their “Unc” who had been through so much.

Moments like those will last with Clark for the rest of his life.

“Just the relationships I’ve built here with the coaches and with the players and with the staff here just in general, just being a family and being together. I think that’ll be the thing I miss the most,” Clark said. “Being able to come up here every day, sweating and grinding with the guys all day, crack jokes and have fun like we always do. I think that’ll be the thing I miss the most because that’s what keeps us going, when we have fun together as a team.”

That was last season, Clark’s fourth in the program, and his first fully healthy campaign since 2014. So, why in an era of college football where transfers are the norm did he choose to come back to Alabama and again suit up for the Crimson Tide when it was clear players like Damien Harris, Jacobs and Najee Harris would be leading the charge out of the backfield this fall?

“I just believed in the process and believed in the system,” Clark said. “Just because I didn’t get all the accolades on the field doesn’t mean that I can’t make a great life for myself outside of football and all of that.

“But I just look at it as being thankful and being grateful for the opportunity that I did have, to see the things that I know and to learn from the coaches, the great coaches like Coach (Nick) Saban and (Mike) Locksley, (Lane) Kiffin and all of these guys that have been through here through the years. Kirby Smart. Playing both sides of the ball from a freshman to playing offense my senior year. So, I’ve learned a lot, seen a lot, and I’m just grateful for the whole opportunity.”

Clark catches a pass at a rainy Alabama practice.

The injuries kept Clark off the field, and when he returned to it, he was relegated to the scout team. A role that some don’t want to serve, Clark said he takes pride in giving his teammates a look.



“I’ve been doing that for the past three years, and I look at it as trying to go out there and get better,” Clark said. “It used to frustrate me at first because I was always wanting to get on the big field, wanting to be with the big guys. But I also looked at it as I’m playing against the best defense in the country, probably, every year that I’ve been here. And I made those guys miss and I made those guys have their fair share of mistakes.

“But the way that I look at it is like if I can do it to them, I know that when I get in the game, I’ll be able to do it against anybody because this is the best defense. They’re pushing me to go harder, I’m pushing them to go harder. We’re just all working together that way there won’t be no fall-off when the ones come out of the game, twos come out of the game, threes.”

That approach is why so many people shower Clark with compliments, including Nick Saban.

“It’s great for me to see Ronnie Clark every day, knowing what he’s sort of put into this program, the injuries he’s overcome, some of the personal challenges he’s had at home,” Saban said. “The way he contributes, the way he affects his teammates in a positive way. These kinds of guys are very spiritually uplifting to everybody in the organization, including me.

“We certainly appreciate that, and I hope sometimes that our fans cannot truly appreciate what some guys who maybe don't become star players, what is the significance of what they do for the program. And Ronnie Clark is one of those guys who has certainly had a tremendous impact in a lot of ways that has been helpful to his team and our program.”

In 13 career appearances on the field, Clark has rushed for 174 yards and one touchdown on 40 carries. But more importantly off of it, he has already earned a degree in human environmental sciences from Alabama and said he is currently working on another in financial planning.

Clark doesn’t regret his decision to commit to and enroll at Alabama or to stay for five years -- although he sometimes wonders what would have happened had he focused more on basketball. He committed to Saban and the Crimson Tide because they “never sugar-coated anything and they were always up-front with you on what they wanted and how they wanted it to be.”

“I still feel the same way,” Clark said. “I appreciate everything they’ve done for me, giving me the opportunities because anybody would love to be on the stage that I’m on, even if I’m not playing as much. People would love to be on this stage. So, I just take advantage of every opportunity I can.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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