They may not be doing it as Sun Devils, but a pair of former Arizona State Football teammates will be going head-to-head in the College Football National Championship.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Notre Dame graduate student defensive back Jordan Clark and Ohio State senior long snapper Josh Ferlmann spent two seasons together in The Valley before departing for their new schools and will now play each other for a national title on Monday.
Clark and Ferlmann spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons together at ASU.
Ferlmann was in and out of Arizona State quickly, redshirting in 2021 before being named as the Sun Devils snapper in 2022. He would transfer to Ohio State following the hiring of ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham, claiming the same role as a Buckeye. His 2023 season ended in a 14-3 loss to Mizzou in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl while Arizona State repeated a 3-9 conclusion.
Clark’s time with the Sun Devils was significantly longer.
The defensive back joined the program in 2019 alongside Washington Commanders rookie phenom Jayden Daniels. The duo began to heat up in The Valley, notching two 8-5 seasons between 2019-2021 before Daniels transferred to Clark’s hometown school LSU, where he would become one of the greatest college football players in history. Though his buddy left, Clark decided to stay and take on some tumultuous years in the process.
The Herm Edwards saga kicked off following Daniels’ departure, leaving Arizona State a sinking ship. But Clark never folded. The graduate student sat through the firing of Edwards and Dillingham’s rebuild, playing in back-to-back hopeless seasons before making the move to ASU. He tallied 139 total tackles, 17 passes defended, three interceptions and a pick six over the course of five seasons.
The former Sun Devils made their way to the College Football Playoffs with their new squads and were surprisingly met by their former team in the bracket.
Arizona State claimed the fourth seed in the playoffs after winning the Big 12 title. A controversial double-overtime loss to Texas in the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl stopped the opportunity for Ferlmann to take on his former teammates in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl semifinal. Clark would have had to wait until the National Championship to play the Sun Devils, but he and his father, ESPN analyst and Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark, have been vocal about the support of his former team all season.
In a clip from his podcast The Irish Scoop, Clark talks about how much he enjoyed his time at ASU.
“It was hard to leave,” Clark said. ” They didn’t make it tough on me… I love (Dillingham) to death.”
Jordan Clark is so proud of his teammates at Arizona State for their incredible run. #ForksUp@Jclark21_ tells @Ian_Book12 about his decision to transfer and how @KennyDillingham went out of his way to help him. #GoIrish
Watch/Listen & Subscribe! https://t.co/WBNAd3J5UT pic.twitter.com/cd82XHwK2h
— The Irish Scoop (@TheIrishScoop) January 2, 2025
His father re-emphasized the sentiment with a heartfelt X post Monday ahead of the game, telling how he needed to convince his son to take the opportunity with the Fighting Irish. Clark recorded 25 tackles, five pass deflections and one interception for Notre Dame this year.
“He didn’t want to leave ASU because he felt a loyalty to that school because he felt like, ‘They recruited me, when some of these other people didn’t think I was good enough to be recruited,'” Ryan Clark said.
“You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be you… and that’s enough”
I’ll never forget leaving Penn State after a High School football camp, & Jordan telling me, “I had to be perfect & I wasn’t”. I was sad because that was the level of pressure he felt while working… pic.twitter.com/FJzGmApDl3
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) January 20, 2025
Both players were good enough to play at Arizona State when many overlooked them. Their place in the national championship isn’t just their story, but the story of ASU that the school and its players deserve to be in the national spotlight.
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Reporter Jordyn Bennett covers the Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State, Phoenix area sports and sports related topics. You can follow him on his X account, @j_bennett_live
