Tom Clark (American football)

Tom Clark is an American college football coach. He served for nine non-consecutive seasons as the head coach at The Catholic University of America, where he compiled a 58–32–1 record and a 0.643 winning percentage. Currently, Clark is the defense coordinator for the VMI Keydets.

Early life

Clark was born and raised in Silver Spring, MD. He attended the University of Maryland where he graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. His first coaching position was as the head coach at St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C. from 1983 to 1984.

Coaching career

Clark's first college coaching experience was as the secondary coach for the football team at Catholic from 1985 to 1986. He then moved on to Colorado, where he served in the same capacity for the 1987 and 1988 seasons. He returned to the Washington metropolitan area to serve as athletic director and head football coach at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland from 1988 to 1994.

In 1994, Clark returned to Catholic to take the head coaching position. He remained there for seven seasons and compiled a record of 56–14–1 and a 0.792 winning percentage. Each year from 1997 to 1999, Catholic advanced to the Division III playoffs before being eliminated. In 1999, the team won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) championship with a 9–2 record. It was the first year that Catholic was eligible for the ODAC title as a new member.

From 2001 to 2003, Clark served as the defensive coordinator for William & Mary. The Tribe won a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference championship in his first year. In 2004, Clark returned to Catholic again as head coach. He stayed for two seasons, but was less successful, compiling a 2–18 record.

In 2006, Clark became the defensive coordinator for Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He installed a 3-4 defensive scheme, which had previously never been used at Liberty. During that first season, the Liberty Flames ranked 12th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 15.64 points per game, and 36th in total defense, allowing a total of 306.0 yards per game.

He returned to Williamsburg in 2012 to serve as the Tribe's defensive backs coach.

After three seasons with the Tribe, Clark was hired by Scott Wachenheim as the defensive coordinator of the Virginia Military Institute. In addition to being a defensive coordinator, Clark will also handle the defensive backs and secondary.