Kevin Weston put on a white hard hat with a Clark Atlanta logo on the front and looked ready to accomplish school president Carlton E. Brown’s goal of an “aggressive turnaround in the football program.”
Weston, introduced as Clark's new coach on Tuesday, inherits a team that went 2-8 last year. He said the first priority will be to recruit metro Atlanta with the goal of finding positive young men and winning games.
“We are going to put the Atlanta back in Clark Atlanta,” he said. He signed a four-year contract. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
This will be Weston’s first head-coaching job on the college level, but he said his experience coaching all aspects of the sport has prepared him.
He played on the offensive line at Tusculum, graduating in 2002. After starting his coaching career at Morgan County High School, where he coached offense and defense, he moved to Tusculum’s staff in 2005. While there he held a variety of roles, including strength and conditioning coach, assistant head coach (promoted in 2008), where he learned how to handle the administrative duties, defensive coordinator (2010, ’11) and defensive line coach in 2012. Tusculum’s defense in 2011 finished second in Division II in pass defense.
Weston said Clark will run a 4-2-5 system and he will be his own defensive coordinator. He said the offense will focus on the run, but declined to say what system he will run.
He should have a good nucleus from which to build. Despite the Panthers going 2-6 in the SIAC last year, they had a stout defense, finishing No. 20 in Division II in total defense (311.10 yards per game). The team returns key players on defense in Bernard Williams, Terrance Pryor and Se’Cortney Gardner, the SIAC freshman of the year.
“We’ve got some really aggressive kids that run to the football really well,” Weston said. “It looks like the transition to get this thing moving in the right direction is there.”
Weston will have six full-time assistants that he hopes to hire soon. Signing Day is three weeks away.
He said the team will focus on doing the “little things” correctly. He wants to make sure everyone is on the same page to create an atmosphere geared toward winning.
“Let’s make sure we do a good job of gelling together … so that when we bring recruits on the trains are moving and they are joining the train,” he said.
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