Wake Forest Adds Clark Lea as Linebacker Coach
2/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeFB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest head football coach Dave Clawson today named Clark Lea as the Demon Deacons' new linebacker coach. Lea was most recently the linebacker coach at Syracuse.
Lea spent three seasons with the Orange following a one-year stint with Clawson at Bowling Green State University in 2012. There, Lea worked with defensive coordinator Mike Elko to assemble a unit that ranked seventh in the nation in pass defense, ninth in scoring defense and sixth nationally in third-down defense while leading the Mid-American Conference in nine statistical categories.
"Clark will be a great addition to our coaching staff," said Clawson. "He has an intricate knowledge of our defensive scheme from the time he spent with us at Bowling Green."
Lea was a finalist for Linebackers Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com in 2012.
Lea is a 2004 graduate of Vanderbilt where he earned three letters in football and was a two-time All-SEC Academic Team pick. In 2005 he was a finalist for the John Wooden Cup and the recipient of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Award.
Following his graduation from Vanderbilt, he became a graduate assistant at UCLA in 2005-06 before moving to South Dakota State for two seasons in 2007. He returned to UCLA in 2009 to coach linebackers before taking the same position at Bowling Green in 2012.
Lea began his college career at Birmingham-Southern College where he was a member of the baseball team that captured the NAIA World Series title in 2001. He lettered in baseball at Belmont in 2002 before moving to Vanderbilt.
Lea and his wife Allison have a son, Clark III and a daughter, Mara.