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OGDEN — There is probably no greater motivator than adversity in life; people doubting the capabilities of a person.
It happens in business, where a kid from a lower-income family uses that hardship to create a successful financial corporation; it happens in education, where a first-generation college student eventually earns a doctorate; and it happens in sports, where a person works to mold themselves into a product that can’t be denied, either as an athlete or as a coach.
Weber State offensive coordinator Steve Clark is that guy; the guy who took adversity and used it as a motivator on the way to becoming a college football coach. Clark didn’t play college football, which normally is an immediate strike against any young coach. However, an early love of football motivated him to reach to continue his passion.
“If we lined up 100 people against the wall, I’d be the last one that you would pick as the college football coach,” said Clark, who has now worked at four in-state schools (BYU, Southern Utah, Weber State, Utah). “My dream was to play college football, and I just realized being 5-foot-3, 110 pounds as a senior in high school, I wasn’t going to make it. So, I kind of started looking at it from the coaching angle, and how I could still stay involved in the game of football.”
Clark coached for Provo High, serving as the team’s offensive coordinator. However, his break into college coaching came in 2001, when he worked as a volunteer assistant to then-Utah defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham. Clark mentioned Whittingham among the several mentors he’s had in his career.
“(Whittingham) gave me a great opportunity to hang around with him for a year, where I kind of cut my teeth on college football,” he said. “Bronco Mendenhall gave me an opportunity at BYU. I’ve been around some great coaches: Urban Meyer; (SUU coach Ed Lamb) taught me a lot in my six years at Southern Utah. And now I’m learning from Jay (Hill).”
Still, because of his untraditional background in the world of college coaching, comments regarding Clark have come with every step of coaching he’s been a part of. Still, he said that the doubts have driven him to succeed.
“It’s been a learning process; it’s been a long process,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of jokes, and I continue to hear a lot of jokes. That’s part of the deal, and I try to use that as a motivating tool. If I can fight, scratch, and claw my way to get somewhere, where I never played college football, (it shows people) they can do whatever they want to do.”
Football is Clark’s love, and he credits his wife, Suzanne, for encouraging him to chase his dream.
“The No. 1 thing you’ve got to have to get into college coaching, if you’re going to get married, is you have to have a good wife,” said Clark of his wife, with whom he has four children. “And I have a great wife. She said, ‘If this is your dream, go after it. We’ll be fine.’
“Through our marriage, probably five to seven years, I volunteered at different places or coached for close to nothing; just trying to prove myself, and prove myself to other coaches.”
When then-Utah assistant coach Jay Hill interviewed for the Weber job, he had in mind a few assistants that he was eager to work with. Both Hill and Clark worked together at Utah under Urban Meyer, and Hill said Clark left an impression upon him.
“Steve Clark and I go way back to McBride days when we were both at Utah,” he said. “And, even back then, he was one of the smarter football coaches I’d ever been around. (Whittingham) always used to make the comments down at the University of Utah how smart Steve Clark was, and how much he understood the game.”
In Clark, Hill was getting an offensive coordinator who helped lead Southern Utah to its first-ever FCS playoff berth in 2013. He also was getting a coach who admittedly believes his greatest success as a coach has been the graduation of his players.
“What I’m proud of is some of the kids that have gone on and gotten their degrees,” said Clark, who has an undergraduate degree from BYU. “When you’re able to help them get that, and some of them nobody in their family has ever gotten a degree, so seeing them walk is great.”
Weber’s offense ranked at the bottom of the Big Sky Conference last season, and Clark is hoping to change the offense’s mentality to one of toughness and grace under pressure.
“I would like to be more balanced here, and just a fighting, tough-nosed offense,” said Clark, whose offense at SUU was known for prolific passing. “And, I don’t think we’re that far away. I think we’ve got a great offensive line coach and a great running coach who can instill some toughness in this team."
Southern Utah had some notable players over the last few years who contributed to the offense’s success, but none more so than San Diego Chargers quarterback Brad Sorensen. Sorenson, who began his career at BYU, transferred to Southern Utah and turned into one of the nation’s best quarterback prospects. In the meantime, he set school records in passing yards (9,445) and touchdowns (61).
Clark said he still keeps up with his protégé, and described their relationship now as a mutually beneficial friendship.
“I smack him around every once-in-awhile when I get the chance,” he exclaimed. “We stay in contact, and I have a lot of questions for him about how they do things down there, and he’s not big-timing yet. We actually became really good friends, and that was a huge day (when he got drafted).”
Having mentored Sorensen, and having worked for a variety of successful head coaches in college football, one would expect that Clark would be eagerly looking toward one day being a head coach. However, unlike most assistants, Clark said he does not yearn for the spotlight.
“I don’t have any desire to be a head coach,” he said. “You’re too far away from the game, I think. There’s so much that goes into being a head coach that has nothing to do with football. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes with rosters, and meals, and flight arrangements, and getting things coordinated with the weight room. There’s so much to it.”
At the end of the day, Clark is just happy developing players — a job he considers to be among the most fun in all of coaching.
“The fun part of coaching is building a system around the talent,” he said. “And not only the talent but the mental makeup; what they know.”
