Bowling Green's Dave Clawson and the art of program building

Harry · October 24, 2013

When Clawson took over at Richmond in 2004, he crafted a completely different philosophy to win. He studied Wake Forest, Northwestern, Boston College and Stanford, attempting to emulate what worked at academically oriented Division I schools.

The two key tenants he adapted were redshirting players and recruiting nationally. Clawson turned the direction of Richmond's recruiting from the Northeast to the South and West. He targeted football-rich areas like North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, focusing on prospects with SAT scores around 1,100 instead of around 900. He pitched the value of education over level of play.

"The sell was, 'If you're not a Stanford, Northwestern, BC-type recruit, we're the 1-AA equivalent,'" Clawson said. "We could get Conference USA-type players who were good students. Instead of saying that academics were the reason we couldn't be successful, it was the reason we were going to be successful."

Clawson overhauled his offense to match the type of players Richmond could recruit, scrapping the perimeter-based offense from Fordham in favor of a between-the-tackles attack. Richmond could attract big offensive linemen, tailbacks and tight ends.

With an established football infrastructure and plenty of funding, Clawson's biggest priority at Richmond became changing the culture. Richmond players began spending the summers on campus, with the staff finding creative ways to get players jobs and housing and keep the weight room open. "We were trying to make football a priority for these kids," said Mike Elko, a former Richmond assistant who is now the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green.

Richmond reached the semifinals of the Football Championship Series playoffs in 2007, and Clawson left to become the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. Tennessee did not promise Clawson a coach-in-waiting position, but it was intimated that if things went well, he could be elevated to coach-in-waiting as Phillip Fulmer got closer to retirement.

Things didn't pan out. The Richmond team he left behind -- stocked with the first class of players he redshirted -- went on to win the 2008 FCS national title. Clawson led the SEC's worst offense as part of a 5-7 season in which the school ousted Fulmer in early November.

"Dave's an excellent coach," Fulmer said. "He took a lot of grief here and there are some things we would both do over again. But my feeling or opinion on him hasn't changed."

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