Austin Clark spent two seasons as defensive line coach at Illinois in 2018 and 2019 after being hired by head coach Lovie Smith on Feb. 9, 2018. Clark came to Champaign-Urbana after two seasons on the University of Southern California defensive staff, working with the Trojan defensive line and outside linebackers. He left to join the Miami Dolphins staff on Jan. 15, 2020. 

Clark led defensive end Bobby Roundtree to a productive season in 2018, as the sophomore led the nation in PBUs for a defensive lineman (7) and had 7.5 sacks (42nd in FBS / 6th in B1G) on the season. He closed the season strong, ranking fifth in the Big Ten in sacks during conference games (6.5) and second in the B1G with 3.5 sacks during the month of November. 

Following his playing career at the University of California-Berkeley, Clark served one year with the Golden Bears as a recruiting assistant, before moving to Southern Cal as a defensive graduate assistant.

Clark coached three NFL Draft picks while at Southern Cal and helped the Trojans win the 2017 Pac-12 title. Uchenna Nwosu and Rasheem Green were second-round and third-round picks, respectively, in 2017 and Stevie Tu’ikolovatu was a seventh-round selection in 2016. Nwosu and Green were both All-Pac-12 first team honorees and Tu’ikolovatu, the 2017 Rose Bowl Game Defensive MVP, was named All-Pac-12 second team as a senior.

Clark spent six years (2009-14) as a defensive tackle at California, enduring an injury-plagued career. As sixth-year senior in 2014, he started 11 games, had 22 tackles and was named All-Pac-12 honorable mention while also winning Cal’s Joe Roth Award (awarded to the player who best exemplifies courage, sportsmanship and attitude).

He redshirted as a true freshman at Cal in 2009, played in three games as a redshirt freshman in 2010 and in 12 games as a sophomore in 2011. He was injured for most of his junior season, seeing action in only two games as a reserve, then he did not play in 2013 after he was granted a medical redshirt due to injury. 

Clark received his bachelor’s degree in American studies from California in 2014.

He prepped at Plant High in Tampa (Fla.), where he helped his team to the 2008 state championship as a senior. He made 219 tackles as a junior and senior.

Clark’s sister, Adrienne, is an assistant softball coach at Purdue after previously serving as an assistant at Connecticut, Delaware, Columbia and her alma mater Hofstra, where she starred as a pitcher (she once went 31.0 consecutive innings in the NCAA tourney without allowing a run, second most in NCAA history).

Clark and his fiance, Alyssa, got engaged in June 2019.

Clark's Coaching History

Clark File

Birthdate: Aug. 3, 1990
Family: Single
Hometown (High School): Tampa, Fla. (H.B. Plant High School)
College: Bachelor's degree, American studies, California, 2014
Playing experience: California, defensive tackle, 2010-12, 2014
Years in Coaching: 5th in 2019