CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Asiantii Woulard, who spent most of the season as the starting quarterback for the Clarion University football team, is no longer with the program.
(Photo courtesy of Clarion University Athletics)
“Asiantii Woulard is no longer part of the football program,” an e-mailed response to a question from exploreClarion.com about Woulard’s status from Clarion University Sports Information Director Sean Fagan on Friday.
When asked if Woulard had quit or was thrown off the team, all Fagan would say is that “he’s no longer on the roster.”
Woulard’s arrival at Clarion, after spending time at both UCLA and South Florida, this season created great interest considering he was ranked as ESPN’s 143rd best player in the Class of 2013 and as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the country coming out of Winter Park (Fla.) High School where he threw for 1,334 yards and 14 touchdowns as a senior before breaking his ankle in his final high school game.
But, Woulard’s time at Clarion was a rocky one.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound quarterback, who was named a team captain by head coach Chris Weibel before the season despite never playing a down at Clarion, struggled out of the gate going 2-for-22 for 53 yards and two interceptions in the Golden Eagles’ opening-game 36-0 loss to Tennessee Martin.
It never really got much better, as he completed 38.8 percent (62 of 160) of his passes for 880 yards, five touchdowns, and seven interceptions and eventually started sharing time with sophomore Jeff Clemens who even started the Sept. 30, 45-10 loss to Edinboro, a game that Woulard didn’t play in.
But after sharing reps for most of the first half of the Golden Eagles 33-28 win over Seton Hill on Homecoming — Oct. 7 — Woulard seemed to snatch the job back playing the entire second half and finishing with his best day as a Clarion player going 19 of 35 for 267 yards and two touchdowns.
After that game, Weibel said that was the Woulard he had been expecting all season.
“I have been waiting six weeks to see that Asiantti,” Weibel said following the win over Seton Hill. “That is why we brought him here, and that is what he can do. He is only going to get better. I think he took the right steps, and now he is playing the way he should.”
The junior, however, struggled in the first half and the first drive of the second half of the 21-19 loss at California (Pa.) last week going 3 of 11 for 23 yards and an interception as the Golden Eagles fell behind 21-0 at the half, and he was replaced by Clemens for the second drive of the second half. Clemens rallied Clarion to three scores in the two-point loss.
The dual-threat ability never materialized either, as Woulard ran 25 times for two yards with one touchdown on the season.
This is the second straight season Woulard has not finished the year with the team he started it with.
In 2016, after transferring from UCLA, where he never took a snap, to South Florida, Woulard competed for the Bulls starting quarterback job in the preseason but ended up as the third-string quarterback at the start of the season but was off the team by the end of September without taking a snap.
With Woulard gone, Clemens, who is 28 of 56 for 368 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions, becomes the starting quarterback starting with the noon kickoff Saturday vs. IUP.
The only other quarterback listed on Clarion’s roster is redshirt freshman DeAndre Clayton out of Lorton, Va., who has never taken a collegiate snap.
