MASSILLON, Ohio – Danny Clark met his father and two brothers in front of the massive Paul L. David Athletic Training Center after a Tuesday practice, then the four of them walked to the weight room.

Waiting inside the beautifully decorated sanctuary of steel was a piece of mail, a recruiting letter from the University of Arizona. It was a questionnaire the quarterback was supposed to fill out and return to show he's interested in hearing more from the Wildcats.

Clark's father, Jeff, held the envelope in his hands, the front decorated with Arizona's big Block A. He hesitated, then scoffed.

"Rich Rod, huh?" he said. "No thank you. Once a Wolverine, always a Wolverine."

The letter went to the trash.

• PART 1: Why colleges try so hard, and mostly fail, to recruit high school QBs away from home

If it wasn't about Rich Rodriguez, the former head coach at Michigan, it would have been something else. Clark, a sophomore who has been committed to Ohio State since his freshman year at Massillon Washington, was always going to be a Buckeye. There's nothing to sell him.

Clark is an Ohio kid, one who grew up as a child in the Columbus suburb of Dublin before Jeff moved his family to Massillon to give his son more exposure and the experience of playing at a high school football juggernaut.

Jeff Clark, the father of 2017 quarterback and Ohio State commit Danny Clark, holding a letter from the University of Arizona photo program.

The second Clark was named the starter as a freshman, his recruitment exploded. People began referring to him as a phenom, and the nickname his dad made for him inspired by an old UFC video game – "The Prototype" – caught on in Massillon, then on the internet.

College letters, much like the one from Arizona, started pouring in and they still haven't stopped. Yet when Clark was just beginning the recruiting process, he made it clear where he stood.

"If I get an Ohio State offer," he said, "I'm going to be a Buckeye."

Clark stayed true to his word. The second Ohio State offered, he committed.

And while the recruiting letters continue to clutter the Massillon mailbox, and assistants, like the one from Michigan last month, unexpectedly drop by, Clark has a polite, yet brief, message: "Thank you, but I'm not interested."

Clark doesn't hide his connection to Ohio, or the fact that he feels a responsibility to take whatever talent he has and use it to lift up the people around him. There's no other place in college football that can sell him anything the Buckeyes don't offer.

So while the discussion of whether or not a program's success is based off where an elite quarterback is born is ongoing, let's just say Ohio State is fortunate enough that Danny Clark didn't grow up in Texas or California.

Clark is the perfect scenario for Ohio State – An elite talent who plays in a tradition-rich high school program in the heart of Ohio who can't possibly identify with anything other than being a Buckeye.

"I want to do it for my state now, and I want to do it for my state in college," Clark said. "Ohio is my home, and there's nowhere I'd rather take the next step of my career and my life than at home."

*****

If you can block out the statue of Paul Brown as you walk into the 17,000-seat stadium that was named after him, and if you can forget the 85,000-square-foot indoor practice facility situated to the right, you'd find what looked like an otherwise normal high school football practice.

The sun was starting to set and the Tigers were going through team drills when an assistant coach got into Clark's face and yelled – "Are you going to lead this team? If not, go sit on the bench. You know what, go sit on the bench."

Clark walked over to the sideline with his head down, a look of insecurity splashed across his face because he doesn't know what sitting on the bench feels like.

It's so easy to forget that Clark, a 6-foot-4, well-spoken, polished and well-behaved man is actually a 16-year-old kid. He has been committed to Ohio State for a year and he's been the face of his town for even longer, but Clark is a kid.

"Hey, 6!" the Massillon assistant yelled to the bench, referencing Clark's number after three minutes. "Get back in there. Let's go."

And just like that, Clark was no longer a sophomore. He was older again.

An outside look at Massillon Washington's football stadium, a high school venue that can hold nearly 20,000 fans.

Because he's the driving force of the the Tigers, and though they lost their first game of the season on Friday – a one-point loss to Austintown Fitch – all Clark talks about is leading Massillon to a state championship, which would be the first since 1970 and the first by winning the state playoffs instead of a poll vote.

It's ironic that a place so crazy for its football team has been so starved for a championship for so long.

"I'm of aware of 1970," Clark said. "I know how much this team means to this community, and we work hard every day to be the next legends here. We all love Ohio, and we take great pride in being Massillon Tigers. We want to be remembered in this town and this state forever."

*****

Clark was midway through the crosswalk at the intersection of Lincoln Way and 3rd St. when a truck stopped at a green light to roll down the window.

Howard's Tiger Rags, conveniently located on Lincoln Way, is the apparel store for all things Massillon Tigers.

The man sitting in the passenger side of the truck stuck his head out and shouted in Clark's direction, "We need four touchdowns on Friday, Danny – Bring it home!"

Clark was prepared for such interactions, as he was walking down the major drag of Massillon, the football-crazed town that congregates around the Massillon Washington Tigers high school team like they were playing in the NFL.

"Playing at Massillon, man," Ohio State senior wide receiver and former Tiger Devin Smith said, "that gets you ready for Ohio State in a hurry."

Not that people wouldn't have recognized him anyway, but Clark was wearing the official Nike Massillon jumpsuit, and the orange has a way of standing out in these parts.

The quarterback, who has become numb to flattery because admiration is constant, put up his hand to acknowledge the fan, waved back and gave a head nod. The conversation he was having with his father went uninterrupted.

They've learned to block out the noise.

"This is the reality of living in a town like this," Jeff said. "Everyone knows who Danny is, and everyone is crazy about the Tigers. I don't know very many places in the country where high school football is the way it is here. That's why we live in Massillon."

*****

The "Prototype" is a shot at the Firehouse Grille & Pub named for Danny Clark.

Clark cleared the intersection and kept walking toward the Firehouse Grill & Pub, a rectangular building that's painted Orange & Black for, well, you know why.

It's a neighborhood hangout, a place the locals go to talk Massillon football around good food. The restaurant is known as "The home of the Dollar Burger," a miniature hamburger that has become a town favorite.

When Clark, his father and two brothers walked into the bar area, Katie Starn, the restaurant's general manager, smiled widely and said, "Welcome to Firehouse Grille & Pub, the home of the Dollar Burger and the home of the Prototype."

Clark offered that sheepish smile, his go-to when someone says something of that sort. Then he walked to the other side of the restaurant by seating area, only to find the restaurant had named a shot after him, "The Prototype."

"It's one of our best-sellers," Starn said. "People come in, they don't even ask what it is, and they order it so they can toast to Danny and Massillon."

If that seems strange considering Clark is still 16, there's also a bar that's five minutes away called "The Alibi" that has a blown up picture of the Tigers quarterback mounted on the wall behind it's bar.

When Clark saw that picture for the first time, he smiled again. The numbness to flattery? Yeah, it was gone this time. That struck him a little bit.

Danny Clark's photo hangs above the bar at "The Alibi," a bar and lounge in Massillon.

"That's crazy," Clark giggled. "You get used to this kind of stuff, but man, I feel so blessed that so many people care and know who I am. That's why I have such a connection to this area, because they really do care. And I care back."

*****

While Ohio State continues to find the most elite quarterbacks in the country and tries to bring them to Columbus, there's a sense of program security knowing that Clark is all but signed for 2017.

Nobody knows what will happen with Braxton Miller next year, or if J.T. Barrett is an emerging star, or if Ohio State will land quarterback studs in 2015 and 2016. But what Clark does know is that he's the only quarterback in the 2017 class, that much coach Urban Meyer has promised.

To have the quarterback of the future, a player who will all but certainly be a five-star prospect, locked up more than three years in advance, that offers Meyer the ability to take chances he maybe wouldn't be free to do in another scenario.

As Clark and his family made their way back to the car – an Orange hummer with the license plate "Proto 6" – his brother Caden, a 13-year-old with the nickname "Wallstreet," involuntarily said, "only a few more years until I get my Ohio State offer."

Caden is actually bigger than Danny was at that age, and the expectation is that he'll be the next starting quarterback at Massillon.

Maybe Ohio State has more of that homemade security than it thought.