UCF still processing loss of Shawn Clark, seeks to fill offensive line position
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It’s been nearly three months since UCF lost offensive line coach Shawn Clark, who unexpectedly passed away on Sept. 21 after suffering a medical emergency on Sept. 9.
While Clark’s time with the program was short, his impact was still being felt among the coaches and players.
“I don’t think a lot of us had time to process it,” coach Scott Frost said Wednesday. “I can’t tell you how good a guy he was. Of all the people I’ve ever coached with, he’s one of my favorite guys that I’ve ever been around. I loved seeing him every day. He was such a positive influence on everybody in our building.”
Clark was a West Virginia native who previously served as head coach at Appalachian State from 2020 to 2024 after being promoted from offensive line coach with the Mountaineers. Before his time in North Carolina, he served as offensive line coach at Kent State, Purdue and Eastern Kentucky.
He joined Frost’s coaching staff on Jan. 4.
Frost recently spoke with Clark’s widow, Jonelle, sharing that she’s still processing the loss.
After Clark’s passing, the Knights relied on several familiar faces, including offensive quality control coach Alex Farah and former Purdue coach Danny Hope. Farah and Hope not only coached with Clark, but were close friends.
“Coach Bear [Farah] did a great job of keeping it on the rails and doing what he could to make sure that position kept performing,” said Frost. “Danny was a friend of Shawn’s who wanted to help because of how much he cared about Shawn. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but the problems of the football team are insignificant compared to the impact that it can have on a family and human beings.”
UCF finished 11th in the Big 12 in rushing offense this season, averaging 158 yards per game. The Knights were also 8th in the league in sacks allowed (20) and 11th in tackles for loss (68).
Now that the season is finished, Frost said he’ll turn his attention to filling the offensive line coach position for next season.
“We’ve been keeping our eye open at that position for a while now and I’ve spent a lot of this week trying to narrow down the list,” he said. “I would like to get something done there sooner rather than later.”
Frost indicated that there are no plans to make any changes to the rest of the coaching staff, but you never know what can happen, particularly with so many coaching changes across the country.
“You can be surprised by some things, but for a first-year program that brought 70 new players in, I thought there were a lot of good things that happened. I think everybody’s committed to doing the little things better to try to get us to the next step,” he said.
Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com
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