The new football coaching staff at Oregon continues to take shape as the university announced Thursday afternoon that Charles Clark will be a new defensive backs coach for the team.
Charles Clark (Courtesy Colorado Athletics)
Clark formerly coached with newly anointed Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt while at Colorado. In 2016, under Clark, the Colorado defense ranked sixth nationally in pass efficiency defense, holding opposing quarterbacks to a 49.8 completion percentage while intercepting 15 passes. Colorado finished 21st in the country in pass defense with 193.6 and held opposing teams to 5.7 pass yards per attempt, good for third in the nation. Clark coached a trio of 2016 All-Pac-12 second team defensive backs in Chidobe Awuzie, Tedric Thompson and Ahkello Witherspoon.
Before Clark coached at Colorado, he coached defensive backs under current Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre at San Jose State. While there, his group of defensive backs led the Western Athletic Conference in interceptions and forced turnovers. His coaching career began in 2008 at Duke University as a defensive quality control intern, working with McIntyre, who was the defensive coordinator at Duke at the time.
Clark is the third position coach to be named to the Oregon coaching staff, with Jimmie Dougherty set to coach wide receivers and Donte Pimpleton to coach running backs.
Andy McNamara, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications at Oregon, alluded in a tweet that Clark will not be the only defensive backs coach hired by the Ducks. Former Oregon defensive backs coach John Neal was the lone coach at the position for Oregon over the previous 14 seasons.
@KristenERodgers Specific title coming shortly. He’ll likely be one of the DB coaches, not the only one #GoDucks
— Andy McNamara (@McNamaraUO) January 5, 2017
Follow Zak Laster on Twitter: @zlast3445
