Fulmer names Clawson to offensive coordinator position

Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer has named Richmond's Dave Clawson to the positions of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Clawson, 40, arrives as one of Division I football's rising stars after leading Richmond as head coach to its best season in school history.

His two head coaching jobs (58-49 record) were at Fordham and then Richmond, which twice advanced to the postseason. Before that, Clawson called the offensive plays for Lehigh and Villanova. Clawson coached alongside recent Vols assistant coaching hire Stan Drayton for three years in the late 1990s during a successful Villanova football era.

"I am very excited about naming Dave Clawson as our new offensive coordinator," Fulmer said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed the search and research process, and there certainly was a lot of interest in this position. I took the attitude that this was a great opportunity for me to evaluate the coaching talent out there and find the perfect fit for a new era of Tennessee offensive football."

Clawson twice has been named national Division I-AA coach of the year, winning once at Fordham and once at Richmond, and three times earned his league coaching honors. In 2005, the Richmond Touchdown Club selected him College Coach of the Year over the likes of Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and Virginia's Al Groh.

"Dave Clawson brings a great work ethic, high energy and is a great teacher of quarterbacks," Fulmer said. "His multiple offensive system using the talents of the players available to their fullest has been impressive. He has a great passion for recruiting, which is important for Tennessee, and his experience as a head coach will serve us well."

Fulmer's coaching search began when David Cutcliffe was named Duke's head coach Dec. 15. Cutcliffe proceeded to hire UT assistants Kurt Roper and Matt Luke as members of his staff, and assistant Trooper Taylor later departed for the offensive coordinator's position at Oklahoma State to necessitate Fulmer's first staff coaching hires in two years.

"He is young, highly intelligent and competitive, well-organized and a great person and family man - all attributes I was looking for," Fulmer said. "We welcome Dave, his wife Catherine, and their children, Courtney and Eric, to the Tennessee family."

A native of Youngstown, N.Y., located on the shores of Lake Ontario just 30 minutes north of Buffalo, Clawson played defensive back in football and also basketball at Williams College in Massachusetts. He graduated in 1989, and then began a two-year assistant coaching stop at Albany. From there, he coached two years at Buffalo and three at Lehigh, including his first two years, 1994-95, as an offensive coordinator.