Kent State's Da'Realyst Clark delivers clutchest play of college football Week 1 for Golden Flashes

Billy Heyen

Kent State's Da'Realyst Clark delivers clutchest play of college football Week 1 for Golden Flashes image

Kent State's got itself a real one.

Specifically, Da'Realyst Clark.

Yes, that's his name, and yes, he's the realest.

On Saturday, Kent State trailed Merrimack by three points late in the fourth quarter. And then Clark took the kickoff back for a touchdown.

Clark has had quite the football journey to reach Kent State, for whom he was making his debut on Saturday.

He's originally from Lima, Ohio, where he played for Lima Senior High School.

From there, he began at the Division III level as a player at Defiance College, staying in northwest Ohio.

After that, he spent a season playing for Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas.

Those stops led him to Kent, where he showed why the Golden Flashes wanted him with quite the flash play in the season opener.

Kent State probably wouldn't have minded a more comfortable win on Saturday.

But for Golden Flashes fans, Clark provided one of the realest moments they'll get all season. It was quite the way to start the 2025 campaign.

MORE: Toledo's Chip Trayanum traveled a high-powered journey to the MAC

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle