Omar A. Clayton is an American football

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

UNLV Rebels The UNLV Rebels are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The Rebels compete in the NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for college football) as a member of the Mountain West Confer ...

at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

Early life

Clayton was born on July 30, 1989 in

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Ce ...

to parents Dameon Clayton and Kelly Bradford. He attended

Normal Community High School Normal Community High School (NCHS or Normal Community) is a public high school located in Normal, Illinois that was founded in 1905. NCHS serves parts of Normal, Bloomington, and Towanda and is home to over 2,000 students (grades 9–12) with ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

during his freshman year. His family then moved to Texas, where he attended

Plano East Senior High School Plano East Senior High School (commonly known as East, Plano East, or PESH) is a public secondary school in Plano, Texas (USA) serving high school juniors and seniors, as well as freshmen and sophomores as a part of the IB World School (beginn ...

, which employed a

spread offense :''"Spread offense" may also refer to the four corners offense in basketball.'' The spread offense is an offensive scheme in gridiron football that typically places the quarterback in the shotgun formation, and "spreads" the defense horizontall ...

. He returned to Illinois and Normal Community for his senior season, where he led the team from the

I-formation The I formation is one of the most common offensive formations in American football. The I formation draws its name from the vertical (as viewed from the opposing endzone) alignment of quarterback, fullback, and running back, particularly when ...

. That year, he recorded 82 completions on 144 pass attempts for 1,080 yards and 13

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s, and had 128 carries for 630 yards and 10 touchdowns. Clayton led his team to the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

(IHSA) 6A state championship and a perfect 14–0 record. ''

The Pantagraph ''The Pantagraph'' is a daily newspaper that serves Bloomington–Normal, Illinois, along with 60 communities and eight counties in the Central Illinois area. Its headquarters are in Bloomington and it is owned by Lee Enterprises. The name is d ...

'' named him the Player of the Year. Clayton was also named the Big 12 Conference most valuable offensive player and an all-state selection.Player Bio: Omar Clayton
, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, retrieved August 4, 2009.

College career

Clayton enrolled at the

, where he is studying

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. In 2007, he walked onto the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

, and during the preseason, secured a position as the third-string quarterback. By Week 8, he was promoted to the starting position, and Clayton started three games before he fractured his hand. During the season, he recorded 58 completions on 95 attempts for 618 yards and four touchdowns, and 179 rushing yards and two touchdowns. His 61.1% completion rate set the school record for a freshman. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, Clayton completed 152 of 258 pass attempts for 1,894 yards, 18 touchdowns, and four interceptions, before he suffered an injury that forced him to miss the final three games. Prior to the 2009 season, Clayton is ranked 13th in terms of passing yards for a UNLV quarterback after having played in just 16 games. ''Athlon Sports'' named him a preseason All-

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

(MWC) second team. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' predicted UNLV to reach

bowl eligibility Bowl eligibility in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

largely because of Clayton, who when healthy, "can score enough points to keep the team in most games".Paul Myerberg
The Quad Countdown: No. 84 U.N.L.V.
''The New York Times'', June 9, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Omar 1989 births Living people People from Decatur, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois UNLV Rebels football players American football quarterbacks