Adam Clark enters his fifth season with ASU as Defensive Coordinator/ Assistant Head Coach. Clark has been coaching for nearly 20 years and has been a part of eight conference championship teams during his college coaching and playing career.
In 2021, the Rams had one of the top defenses in the country, ranking eighth overall in total defense, allowing only 253.3 yards of offense per game. ASU allowed only 76.9 rushing yards per game which was the sixth lowest average in all of Division II. Hunter Kyle was named the Lone Star Defensive Player of the Year while the Rams tallied nine LSC All-Conference honors and four All-Region honors on the defense. The Rams allowed 14 or fewer points in eight games on the season and ranked 11 in the country in turnover margin and 17th in scoring defense.
In Clark’s first year at ASU, the Ram defense was one of the top units in the nation. They ranked No. 3 nationally in scoring defense and were also in the top ten nationally in red zone defense (7), pass defensive efficiency (4), yards per play (10), and takeaways per game (10). The unit was in the top three in virtually every defensive category within the Lone Star Conference including being the top unit in various categories.
Before coming to ASU, Clark most recently worked at former LSC rival Tarleton State where he spent the 2018 season as the defensive line/special teams coordinator/Asst Head Coach for the Texans. The Tarleton defense was the top unit in the Lone Star in 2018 as the Texans won the LSC and made their deepest run into the NCAA Playoffs in program history, finishing with a No. 5 national ranking.
Prior to his lone season at Tarleton, Clark coached at yet another conference opponent in Western New Mexico, where he was the head coach from 2011 through 2017. Clark's Mustang teams won 33 games during his tenure, ranking him third in WNMU’s 100 + year program history for wins by a head coach. Clark coached a number of outstanding student-athletes while at Western New Mexico, including 42 All-Conference selections and 30 All-Academic honorees.
Before being the head coach at WNMU, Clark spent two years as the defensive line coach at Colorado School of Mines where they had back-to-back eight win seasons for the first time in school history. He has also served in the defensive coordinator role previously, working for one season at his alma mater, St. Ambrose where it won the conference and had one of the top defenses in the nation. Before going back to SAU, he was the defensive backs coach for three years at Graceland University where he was part of a staff that built Graceland into a conference championship program. He started his career as a GA at his alma mater St. Ambrose. Clark also served as strength and conditioning coach for the first eight years of his coaching career.
Clark has a bachelor's degree in sociology from St. Ambrose as well as a master's degree in organizational leadership from the same university.
A native of San Diego, California, Clark and his wife Mimi have two sons, Caden and Kai, and one daughter, Kalena.
