After spring practice wrapped up on Saturday, Memphis has added another linebacker to the roster with the addition of JJ Clayton. The linebacker spent his redshirt freshman season at Garden City Community College, and he will have at least three seasons of eligibility remaining.
Clayton was unranked out of high school and elected to go the JUCO route. It appears he didn’t play as a true freshman, but he appeared in 10 games in the 2025 campaign.
In those 10 games, the linebacker recorded 58 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, two interceptions and recovered a fumble. His best game came in early November when he recorded 12 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss against Iowa Central Community College.
Clayton didn’t receive a ton of interest following the season, but he recently announced that he received an offer from Oklahoma State.
In addition to Memphis and Oklahoma State, Clayton had FBS offers from Western Michigan, Nevada, South Alabama, Georgia State and Charlotte. The linebacker took a visit to Charlotte over the first weekend of April.
Clayton spent this past weekend on an official visit at Memphis, and Charles Huff and his staff secured a commitment before he left, announcing the signing on Monday morning. Through one offseason, Huff has done a great job securing commitments from players while they’re on campus, and it looks like the coaching staff feels confident they can lock in a player once they get them inside the building.
Clayton will make it 11 linebackers on the team going into the 2026 season, but he will be the only linebacker who didn’t participate in spring practice. That could put him in a weird spot heading into the fall, but the coaching staff clearly likes what he can bring to the roster.
It will be interesting to see if they bring in any more players before the fall. This season is different because there will be no second transfer portal following spring practice, so the players who are currently on the roster will be the same players on the roster in the fall.
In previous years, players had the opportunity to enter the transfer portal following spring practice, but the NCAA eliminated that portal ahead of the 2025 season.
While the lack of a transfer portal after the spring comes with pros and cons to both players and coaches, it will be interesting to see if Huff and his staff look to fill some holes on the roster with players who are still available.
Clayton is also a unique case. Most JUCO players graduate in the winter to be able to enroll before spring practice, but the linebacker didn’t graduate until the spring. This means he wasn’t able to transfer at the same time as most of the other JUCO prospects.
Clayton is an athletic nickel, and it’ll be interesting to see what type of hole he plays for the Tigers in 2026.