There’s No Holding Them Back

Jimmy Clausen might be the happiest little brother in the United States. He’s 14 and doesn’t need any Christmas presents. His brothers, Casey and Rick, have given him the gift of a lifetime.

For two years, Jimmy has been traveling from the San Fernando Valley to watch Casey play quarterback for Tennessee. He boards a red-eye flight from LAX and heads to Knoxville, Little Rock, Gainesville or wherever Tennessee is playing.

Casey escorts him from the stands, takes him into the locker room, lets him mingle with teammates and coaches, and allows him to observe the interaction between players and reporters.

“He’s taking me through all the steps he’s going through,” Jimmy said.

Rick, a freshman quarterback at Louisiana State, has followed Casey’s lead. He’s giving Jimmy behind-the-scene glimpses of what college football is all about.

“It’s given me a head start and a real big edge,” Jimmy said.

No seventh grader is receiving a better football education than Jimmy Clausen.

But it has left him and his family in a quandary.

Should he speed up or slow down his football aspirations?

After a wide-eyed Jimmy tagged along with Casey to a college party, he asked his mother, Cathy, “Can I skip middle school?”

“Slow down, Jimmy,” she said.

It’s difficult not to let Jimmy proceed full speed ahead with his football career.

His private coach, Steve Clarkson, said, “He’s the greatest quarterback of the future, bar none. He has all the qualities of Casey and Rick rolled together. Jimmy will go down with every record from whatever book was written. He is about as for sure as any Sunday player I’ve ever seen.”

Mike Anderson, Jimmy’s physical education teacher at Chatsworth’s Chaminade Middle School, said, “His composure and maturity are unlike any seventh grader I’ve ever seen.”

Jimmy started kindergarten when he was 6, like his two brothers and sister, then repeated the sixth grade at the urging of his brothers to help him mature athletically and socially. It means he’ll be 16 by his freshman year of high school, 19 when he graduates.

“We wanted our kids to be able to handle peer pressure and make the right choices,” Cathy said. “We didn’t want our kids to be the youngest. We wanted them to be leaders, not followers.”

The Clausens are trendsetters. Father Jim is a former high school coach who let Casey and Rick graduate high school in January of their senior years so they could compete in spring football practice before other freshmen arrived. That decision was crucial in helping Casey become a starter as a freshman last season at Tennessee.

Jim also refuses to let his sons play tackle football before they reach high school. “You’ve got people doing more screaming than teaching,” he said. “I didn’t want my kids burned out.”

Jim, 51, is no Marv Marinovich, who groomed his son, Todd, since birth to become a professional athlete.

But Jim doesn’t apologize for making controversial choices to help his children prosper.

On holding them back for school, Jim said, “I graduated high school at 17 and from an athletic standpoint, from a maturity standpoint and from every standpoint I could see, it was a disadvantage for me to graduate early.”

Because he is a successful insurance salesman, he has the financial means to offer opportunities to his children others can’t offer their kids.

He moved his family to a Woodland Hills apartment just so Rick could transfer to Taft High for his senior year. He bought a condominium in Knoxville that the family uses on trips to Tennessee and Casey lives in. He hires private coaches to work with his children.

He’s building a home in Valencia that could be used if Jimmy decides to attend high school nearby. The family lives in Westlake Village, where daughter Katie, a sophomore volleyball player, attends Oaks Christian.

“I get far too much credit and far too much blame,” Jim said. “I’m somewhere in the middle. What we do is hold our kids accountable. Our kids are free thinkers. I try to be a positive role model.”

Jimmy said his parents have never pushed him toward sports, but they have pushed him in school.

“They’re not strict about stuff,” he said. “The only thing they want us to do is get A’s and Bs on our report card.”

Jimmy is 6 feet and 145 pounds, and is expected to grow to 6-4 or 6-5. He’s already bigger than Casey as a seventh grader.

“He’s the most gifted of my three boys and he’s most gifted because he wants to emulate his brothers,” Jim said.

Jimmy caught passes for Casey in pregame warmups at Mission Hills Alemany High. He caught passes for Rick in pregame warmups at Taft. He’s gone on bus rides and listened to chalk talks.

He’s been on campus during the Vol Walk, when Tennessee players dress in suits and ties while being greeted by fans. He’s been at Casey’s side for autograph sessions and press interviews. He’s gone to college classes with him.

Twice this season, Tennessee had to play LSU. Jimmy, trying to stay neutral, wore a customized jersey, one side Tennessee and the other side LSU, with “Clausen” across the top.

Tennessee won the first meeting this season, but in the Southeastern Conference championship game, LSU won, denying Casey a chance to play in the national championship game at the Rose Bowl.

Casey is home this weekend to spend time with his family before rejoining Tennessee to play in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.

He’s supposed to help choose what high school Jimmy will attend.

Jimmy insists, “I’m in no hurry to do anything. I’m just excited to go see my brothers play.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached ateric.sondheimer@latimes.com.