Last Updated on February 12, 2022 6:45 pm
BOONE, N.C. —
A champion as an Appalachian State player and coach, Shawn Clark has
been chosen to lead App State's championship football program.
Clark, 44, has agreed to become the 22nd
head football coach in App State history. His five-year contract, which
runs through the 2024 season, was approved Friday afternoon by
Chancellor Sheri Everts and the Appalachian State University Board of Trustees and is subject to North Carolina Board of Governors approval.
Clark will be the head coach when the 20th-ranked
Mountaineers (12-1) wrap up the 2019 season by facing UAB on Dec. 21 in
the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. He will be formally introduced today
during a 4:30 p.m. press conference that's open to the public and can
be seen by clicking HERE.
“I am thrilled to officially welcome Appalachian alumnus Shawn Clark as our new head football coach,” Everts
said. “I appreciate his steadfast leadership and know we all look
forward to his continued success with our history-making team.”
“It's a great day to be a Mountaineer,” Director of Athletics Doug Gillin
said. “We are thrilled to announce Shawn Clark as our new head coach.
He's been a great leader for us since the day he returned to his alma
mater. He has experience at both Power Five and Group of Five schools
and is highly respected among his peers, his players, on campus and in
the community. His experience as a leader, play-caller and recruiter
will help us to continue to raise our football program to new heights.”
Today, you can renew your App State season tickets and Yosef Club membership or purchase new seats for the 2020 season by clicking HERE, calling 828-262-2079 or visiting the App State Athletics ticket office, located at the Holmes Center.
Clark
has helped lead record-setting runs to conference titles and bowl
victories, not just at App State, where he played from 1994-98 and had
served as an assistant since 2016, but also in four other leagues during
his two decades of college coaching experience.
Working for
championship-winning programs at Louisville and Eastern Kentucky before
being part of a bowl win for Big Ten member Purdue and coaching at Kent
State, Clark has been a vital part of App State's historic success in
the last four seasons.
Overseeing talented, hard-working
offensive lines the entire time, he followed a December 2018 coaching
change involving college teammate Scott Satterfield's
departure for Louisville by excelling as an aggressive offensive
play-caller in a 45-13 bowl victory against Middle Tennessee. With
valuable experience at his disposal, Clark was promoted to assistant
head coach before the 2019 season with Eliah Drinkwitz in his first year as a college head coach.
In
each of Clark's four seasons coaching App State's offensive line, with
the Mountaineers earning four straight Sun Belt Conference titles while
compiling a 42-10 record in that span, the line has ranked in the top 25
nationally in both rushing yards per game and fewest sacks allowed. The
unit has been recognized by the Joe Moore Award as one of the nation's
top 15 offensive lines in each of the last two years, and all five
starters on this year's line have received All-Sun Belt Conference
recognition.
An offensive lineman in college, Clark was a
two-time All-American (1996 and 1998) and three-time all-conference
selection (1995, 1996, 1998) for teams that went a combined 45-16 during
his first five years in Boone. In fact, as a player during the 12-0
start in 1995 and a coach for the 2019 team that has set a single-season
record for wins by an FBS program in the state of North Carolina, Clark
has been part of the two App State teams to post 11 regular-season
victories.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime to be named
the head football coach at my alma mater, the school that I love so
much,” Clark said. “I would like to thank Chancellor Everts, the Board of Trustees and Doug Gillin
for entrusting me with this great responsibility. I am excited to keep
pushing our players to greatness on and off the field and to work with a
great coaching staff to win championships. My family and I are grateful
to stay in Boone and keep pushing this program to new heights.”
Clark
graduated from App State with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice
in 1988 and earned a master's degree in education from Louisville in
2003.
His wife, Jonelle, was a standout softball student-athlete at Eastern Kentucky and was inducted into EKU's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. The Clarks have two children: a daughter, Giana, and a son, Braxton.
Clark
began his college coaching career at Louisville in 2001 and has been
part of six teams that won at least nine games. The Cardinals won a
Conference USA championship and bowl game during an 11-2 season in 2001,
when Clark was a graduate assistant, and he coached the offensive line
at Eastern Kentucky from 2003-08.
The Colonels had a winning
record in each of those six seasons, and Clark coached three
All-Americans who went on to play in the NFL. Eastern Kentucky went a
combined 17-7 with back-to-back league titles and FCS playoff
appearances before Clark moved on to Purdue for a stint that ran from
2009-12. Two offensive linemen from the 2010 team were drafted, the
Boilermakers capped a seven-win season in 2011 with a victory in the
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, and they made another bowl appearance a year
later.
A head coaching change contributed to Clark relocating to
Kent State, where he coached the offensive line from 2013-15. He was
quickly promoted to run game coordinator at Kent State and served as the
program's assistant head coach in 2015, before Satterfield brought his college teammate back to Boone.
In
2016, the Mountaineers led the Sun Belt in rushing offense (250.9 yards
per game to rank No. 10 nationally as well as No. 2 in Sun Belt
history) and ranked 16th nationally in sacks allowed. The line also paved the way for running back Jalin
Moore to be named the Sun Belt's Offensive Player of the Year
and steered Marcus Cox toward becoming the program's all-time leading
rusher with more than 5,000 career yards.
The Mountaineers led
the Sun Belt in both rushing yards and fewest sacks in 2017, as they
allowed only eight sacks (No. 2 nationally) and averaged 223.6 rushing
yards per game to rank 22nd nationally. App State averaged
315.8 rushing yards during its 4-0 finish, going over 300 yards in each
of the last three games, and it became the first Sun Belt program with
three offensive linemen (Colby Gossett, Beau Nunn, Victor Johnson) named to the all-conference first team.
The 2018 team ranked 14th nationally in rushing yards per game (240.3) and 20th nationally with only 18 sacks allowed. Quarterback Zac Thomas was named the Sun Belt's Offensive Player of the Year, and Darrynton
Evans rushed for 1,187 yards even though he didn't become the team's
primary back until after a season-ending injury sidelined Moore in Game
5.
Offensive linemen Parker Collins, Gossett and Nunn joined NFL franchises after learning from Clark at App State, and Johnson has accepted an invitation to play the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. He's the only senior starter on an offensive line that's helped the 2019 team rank 17th nationally at 229.2 rushing yards per game and No. 19 with only 17 sacks allowed.
By
defeating Louisiana in last weekend's Sun Belt Championship Game, App
State joined Clemson and Oklahoma as the only FBS programs with at least
four straight conference titles.
