From what I've read, Nkemdiche isn't as good nor had the stats that Clowney did. Hand has really good stats, but take into consideration his level of competition isn't equal everywhere.

Hand is better than Nkemdiche at this point in time (comparing their Jr years.) Hand is faster and has a greater wingspan, while only giving up a little weight but maintaining the same height.

Clowney was a once in a decade prospect, Hand is very talented and will have another year to show it. I'm sure Hand is focusing on being the best he can be and making a name for himself rather than comparing himself to Clowney or Nkemdiche.

We are in Hand's Top 5, so that's a great position, but it will be a battle to pull him out of Va Tech's territory. Notice he also had a great relationship with Lawing. When Lawing went to UF, Hand dropped UNC and put UF in his top 5.

I don't know how likely it would be that we would get Hand, but I feel comfortable in saying 2 things I rarely say about a prospect.
1. If he came to USC, he is a program changer, we're going to win a bunch of games b/c he's on the field for us. I've only said that about Gilmore, Lattimore and Clowney.
2. If he came to USC, he would start, at some point in the season Looking at the 2 Deep projection for 2014, we have English, Washington, some hybrid MB's, Dixon, Covington, and Harris. Most of those guys are weakside size DE's. I'm confident that Hand will be a strong side size DE (for a 4-3), by the time he walks on campus. So I see him starting from the first game on.
Clowney could have done that, but he had an All American 5 year Sr, Ingram, starting ahead of him.

This post was edited on 2/13/13 at 3:47 pm