Cape Fear Heroes Re-Sign Former Penn State Quarterback

 

The Cape Heroes are pleased to announce the re-signing of Daryll Clark for the 2018 season. Daryll came to the Heroes the week of the May 6th game against the Cap City Bulls and lead the team to victory. The next week he led the Heroes on the road against the Triangle Torch and was injured when he was tackled into the boards. With only a few weeks left in the 2017 season Daryll was placed on the injured reserve list.

 With his injury behind him Daryll is anxious to show the Cape Fear Heroes and their fans what he can do.

Daryll is a four time Big 10 Offensive Player of the Week and the former starting quarterback from Penn State University.

Clark went undrafted in the 2010 NFL Draft where he was courted by the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers, before ultimately signing with the Washington Redskins to a future contract. Clark attended the Redskins' training camp, but was not offered a contract.

Shortly after Washington's training camp, Clark signed with the Calgary Stampeders on July 23, 2010 where he spent the remainder of the season. Clark has also been a member of the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL and the Chicago Rush of the AFL. In 2016 he signed with the Myrtle Beach Freedom of American Indoor Football where he started at quarterback and led the Freedom to the AIF league playoffs

In college at Penn State University Daryll played as a redshirt freshman where he appeared in five games during the 2006 season. He completed 14 passes in 27 attempts for 116 yards and ran for 48 yards with 3 touchdowns as a backup to Anthony Morelli. He made his college football debut in a loss to Notre Dame, scoring on a five-yard run near the end of the game.

Clark saw more playing time as a sophomore in 2007, again as a back-up to Anthony Morelli. He completed 6 passes out of 9 attempts for 131 yards and ran for 78 yards and two touchdowns. Clark saw significant playing time in the 2007 Alamo Bowl versus the Texas A&M Aggies.

Penn State trailed the Aggies 14-0 in the second quarter when Paterno sent him in the game in place of Morelli to provide an offensive spark, Clark responded by running for 50 yards on six carries and one touchdown. The game marked with debut of Penn State's new spread offense which replaced the traditional pocket passing- and tailback-oriented offense used by Penn State that season.

Clark was named the starting quarterback for the 2008 season after a highly publicized pre-season quarterback competition with redshirt sophomore Pat Devlin, Paterno cited Clark's game experience as a key factor in choosing him over Devlin. Clark's mobility allowed Penn State to continue development of its "Spread HD" offense where Clark's balanced, mistake-free performance throughout the first half of the season earned him the #6 spot on the Sporting News' list of the season's "Most Indispensable Players. At the conclusion of the season, Clark was granted extended eligibility from the NCAA after meeting certain academic benchmarks required of "partial qualifiers.

Clark was elected team captain by his teammates prior to the 2009 season and by the end of the season Clark established many Penn State records for quarterback position. He surpassed Todd Blackledge in career touchdown passes with a total of 43 and also became Penn State's single season leader in yards passed with 3,003 yards and the single season leader in touchdown passes with 24. His record as a starting quarterback is 22 wins and 4 losses. The losses were twice to the Iowa Hawkeyes, once to Ohio State and once to USC in the 2009 Rose Bowl.

Clark was twice named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week during the 2008 season on October 11, for his three-touchdown game versus Wisconsin and on November 22, following his career-high 341-yard, four touchdown performance in the regular season finale against Michigan State. He was a semifinalist for the 2008 Maxwell and Davey O'Brien awards, the awards are given annually to the top collegiate football player and top quarterback, respectively. At season's end, he was named a consensus first team All-Big Ten selection.

Prior to the 2009 season, Clark was selected as one of 20 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award candidates and was named to the Davey O'Brien Award watch list. He earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week accolades twice that season: September 4 and October 24, following wins over Akron and Michigan, respectively and was named first-team All-Big Ten after the 2009 season.

Clark was co-winner, with Michigan’s Brandon Graham of the 2009 Chicago Tribune Silver Football, awarded by the Chicago Tribune to the college football player determined to be the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference.