Shawn Clark to be named Appalachian State football coach

Shawn Clark, offensive line coach at Appalachian State the past four seasons, will be named head coach of the football program Friday, according to multiple reports.

Clark, who was named the Mountaineers’ interim head coach earlier this week after Eli Drinkwitz left for the head coaching position at Missouri, is finishing his fourth season as offensive line coach.

The 13-member Appalachian State University Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet in closed session at 1 p.m. Friday to consider a personnel decision. An announcement is expected after that.

The Mountaineers are wrapping up their most successful season, with a 12-1 record, a No. 20 College Football Playoff ranking and a berth in the Dec. 21 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl against UAB.

Clark has been popular with players, who say he often leads the team in singing after victories — a tradition that began when Clark was an offensive lineman at App State under now-retired head coach Jerry Moore.

Clark earned all-America honors for the Mountaineers in 1996 and ‘98. He then was a graduate assistant at Louisville and an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky, Purdue and Kent State. He joined the Mountaineers staff in 2016 and took on the additional title of assistant head coach this season.

Drinkwitz left for Missouri after one year at the helm in Boone. He replaced Scott Satterfield, who left a year ago to become head coach at Louisville.

Clark earned a bachelors degree in criminal justice from Appalachian State in 1998 and a masters in education five years later from Louisville. He is a native of Charleston, W.Va., and earned all-state honors in football at George Washington High.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 2:08 PM.