The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Tampa (FL) Carrollwood Day high offensive lineman, Clay Wedin, made his first trip to East Lansing over the weekend for an official visit. Wedin was offered by Michigan State in January and has grown a tight bond with Associate Head Coach and Offensive Line Coach Chris Kapilovic.
The four-star offensive lineman is ranked the No.128 overall recruit and the No.11 offensive tackle in the country, according to Rivals.com.
Wedin holds offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, USC, and many more. He took spring unofficial visits to UCF, Florida, Miami, USF, and Auburn. He will see the Tigers again for his second official visit at the end of the month.
SpartanMag.com caught up with Wedin on Sunday evening.
Before the visit began, Wedin looked to a familiar resource in current high school teammate and 2023 Michigan State defensive back commitment Eddie Pleasant for what to expect.
“I listened to and asked Eddie lots of questions before I visited MSU," Wedin said. "He had and still has nothing but compliments and praises for virtually all of Michigan State.”
Wedin made the flight to East Lansing on Thursday evening.
"How they planned the official visit was more of the off the field aspect of the program and meetings on Friday. We got into academics, support staff, player development," Wedin said. "Then Saturday was more about ball. Strength and conditioning, nutrition, offensive philosophy, and offensive line."
On his first trip to campus, Wedin got the full rundown including a series of meeting with advisors from different departments.
"We got into player development. They talked about how you can build yourself there. One thing I was very impressed with was how you will get developed as an athlete but they will also highly stress academics and developing you as an individual, as a man," Wedin said. "Yes you are here to play football and get your degree but at the same time they want to develop you as a man for after ball. It was great to see how they approach it, anything from financing to internships was really impressive."
Wedin has an idea of a major, hoping to study Kinesiology in college.
"I hope to be a strength and conditioning coach, maybe something in the nature of exercise science," Wedin said. "It is great because at MSU I know Luke (Campbell) just ended his football career, but he is now interning with the strength and conditioning staff. They describe him as a mentor on the roster and it is awesome that he has the opportunity to learn under such a highly experienced staff with Coach Novak."
He was able to have meeting with the academic advisors to learn more of the life on campus.
"They showed us, from an academic side of their support staff, how the tutors and counselors will help structure the players day out and schedule their school year ahead of time. They can catch problems six months ahead of time and fix it by scheduling it all out."
With an obvious interest in the strength and conditioning aspect of football, and also on the academic side, Wedin was already impressed with Jason Novak before even stepping on campus.
"I talked to the majority of the strength staff just picking their brains. I sat down with Coach Novak for quite a while. We talked motor control, what their preference is on stance, width, grip, etc. when working out. I can translate that now, I have the resources and to get that knowledge from him to help me translate from high school to college was great," Wedin said. "I also got to talk to Amber (Rinestine) the dietitian. We talked about what lineman from high school to college usually struggle with and how they help with the transition. I also saw more of the physical training side and how much they emphasize rehab and body tempering that was very interesting."
After the on campus meetings the recruits went out to lunch and participated in some activities. They returned to Spartan Stadium in the evening for a photo shoot and dinner on the field.
"We had dinner in the stadium to end the day. My host was JD Duplain. It was cool getting to pick his brain. When I go up to schools I like to talk to the upperclassmen," Wedin said. "Seeing how their experience was see what they did better than others and why that was and also what they may have lacked. It was good picking his brain."
During the entire weekend, Wedin and his father were surrounded by Michigan State coaches. The most impactful was likely Kapilovic, a coach he has grown very close with over the phone.
"I have been building our relationship ever since January when I was offered by Michigan State. It has been good building that strong bond but it has never been in-person with him not really being able to come down here and really talk with me," Wedin said. "Getting up here and having free range so to speak to pick his brain and seeing his knowledge and coaching philosophy was really great. He went through a great presentation."
"The presentation showed his coaching career from 20 years ago until now. It was an awesome presentation. Coach Kap is definitely a great coach but he is a great guy as well. That is something I am looking for. I don't want to just be a number on the team I want to be a person," Wedin said. "At the same time I want to be developed at a very high level. I know Coach Kap can do that because he is currently doing that at Michigan State but he also done it at previous other schools in the past."
The two were able to sit down, along with Wedin's father, for a meeting in Kapilovic's office.
"It was a little diverse. He wanted to make it known I was wanted at Michigan State which was great. It was also the first time my dad had ever talked to him. It was kind of a first impression with him meeting my dad," Wedin said. "Since it was my first time in East Lansing, it was kind of a first impression with the whole program as a whole."
"My dad was really impressed with it. He knows the football side and more the culture side. Both aspects of that he was very impressed with," Wedin said. "He is on the same page as I am. He knows they can develop me as a football player, a student and as a person. I am not going to be the same Clay Wedin from high school when I graduate college."
Another coach who spent a lot of time with Wedin was Offensive Graduate Assistant Jarrod James.
"I spent a good amount of time with Coach Jarrod as well. It is very similar to Coach Kap with him being a great coach and a great person as well. I know he has some great experience. He will be right on Coach Kaps side helping develop the offensive line."
Of course, Wedin spent time with Mel Tucker as well, seeing a more playful side of the head coach while at his house, and participating in photo shoots. The offensive lineman also saw the serious side when meeting with Tucker in his office.
"That is one of the things I really like about Coach Tucker. Off the field he is an awesome, genuine guy, but on the field he is going to get after it. There is no nice Coach Tucker on the field, but he is a very personable guy and real nice. That is something unique I like about Coach Tucker," Wedin said. "The culture and background that he has instilled, and he is still instilling it, is very impressive. I haven't saw too many programs with a culture like this while maintaining a high level. Coach Tucker somehow has found a way to make it one big family. It is a true family, people don't just say it to say it, I can really feel it there but at the same time they are competing. Coach Tuckers mindset is that he wants it all or wants to go home. I have nothing but compliments for him."
"He was really trying to emphasize that he wants me. They don't recruit people just because. It means that they really want you. I could be a key role in their offensive line and he wants to have me playing for him and getting that train rolling, so to speak," Wedin said.
As far as what is next for Wedin, he will make a second trip to Auburn, this time for an official visit on June 24. After that he may be ready to announce a decision.
"As for a decision, I don't have a specific date. I will probably do it in July after my visits. I don't want to wait for the season, I want to get it done and focus on my senior year," Wedin said. "I am not going to close the door on anyone before July. If a school can be a good fit for me I will do my due research."
"At the same time, it will be hard for anyone to beat out a good relationship plus a really good fit at the same time so it will all depend on that," Wedin said.
