RICHMOND, Va. — Dave Clawson estimates he’s had nearly 14 different addresses since he began coaching. But the principles and guidelines, which he uses today as head football coach at the University of Richmond, still hit close to home. That home would Williams College, where Clawson ’89, starred as a defensive back for the Ephs from 1985-1989, tutoring under the watchful eye of legendary Williams coach Dick Farley.

Dave Clawson '89, head coach University of Richmond

“Part of the reason I wanted to get into coaching was the fact I had such a great experience with coach Farley at Williams,” Clawson said. “The way he went about his business preparing the team in practice, the way he went about his business on the sideline and his conduct with his players and their parents, all had a big influence on me. We were a family on and off the field.”

Clawson’s trek to Richmond is one full of much success and little failure. Early in his coaching career, he was part of a Buffalo State staff that was fired after the 1992 season.

From there, he spent three years at Lehigh University, first as running backs coach, then offensive coordinator. In 1996 he moved onto Villanova University, where he also ran the offense and coached current NFL players Bryan Westbook (running back, Philadelphia Eagles) and Brian Finneran (wide receiver, Atlanta Falcons).

Clawson coached at Villanova for three years before taking the head coaching job at Div. 1-AA Fordham University in 1999. “Coaching is something I loved to do and wanted to do — not something I had to do,” Clawson said of the nomadic ways paramount to the sport. “I really view coaching as being an educator. It’s just that I teach a subject that kids learn by running around a practice field sometimes.”

If that sounds like something Farley might say, don’t be surprised. The two are still in contact from time to time, and when Clawson finds his way back to Williamstown for some golf at the Taconic Golf Club, the two get together and sometimes even discuss a little football.

“Whenever I go back to Williams, the one guy I always try and look up is coach Farley,” Clawson said. Clawson either listened more or Farley taught better from ’85 to ’89, because the former has turned into a coach who is well sought after when a job opening comes around.

At Fordham, Clawson’s Rams had a 29-25 mark, going 26-10 the final three years of Clawson’s tenure. The Rams set 16 team and 45 individual records during that time and produced the 14th-best winning percentage (72.2) in Division I-AA football.

The 19 wins over the final two seasons matched a school record for wins in back-to-back seasons set in 1918-1919. Clawson was named Patriot League Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2002 before leaving for Richmond.

“He out schemes people,” Farley said. “He has developed schemes and formations that create mismatches and advantages for his offense. He was always very intelligent and understood the game very well.”

It doesn’t surprise Farley one bit that Clawson has found the success he’s had, or that his former defensive back’s expertise is widely known to on the offensive side of the ball.

You see, Clawson came to Williams as a quarterback, but Farley and his staff switched him to defensive back because of his throwing arm and athletic ability. Clawson is just one of many quarterbacks who have come to Williams and found success in the defensive backfield. On this year's club, that would be Michael McCarthy. In recent years the likes of Johnny Kelly, Marshall Creighton, and Dan DiCenzo have all starred at a new position under Farley’s tutelage.

“He was a very good athlete when he came here,” Farley said of Clawson. “He couldn’t get arrested for assault and battery on anybody, but he did understand the game and he did a real good job for us. I always tell him we’re going to put ‘he was a quarterback,’ on his tombstone because that’s what he really was.”

In his first season at the University of Richmond, Clawson has made his mark. The Spiders have scored 99 points through their first five games of the 2004 season, compared to 64 over the first five games of the 2003 season.

And while Richmond sits at 2-3 after a heartbreaking 29-25 loss to Maine in overtime last week, Farley is optimistic his former player has the program on the right track.

“He’s been successful at every place he’s been because he works at it,” Farley said. “He’s very thorough, he’s smart, he does his research and he does his homework. Hopefully, what he did here for three or four years has something to do with the way he does things now.”

Clawson said his old coach doesn’t have much to worry about. Although he’s picked up a lot of knowledge of schemes and formations along the way, he’s always falls back on his experiences at Williams to help guide the way he runs a program. “There are certainly teaching and coaching styles [of Farley’s] that have influenced me,” Clawson said.

Like everybody associated with Williams football over the past 32 years — but especially Farley’s 17 seasons as head coach — Clawson had his favorite “Farleyisms”. “Oh yes, I remember a few,” he said. “One day he was trying to teach somebody a certain technique over and over again, and the player just wasn’t learning it. Finally he snapped and said, “Oh, the hell with it. If you were any damn good, you wouldn’t be here anyway.’ Then there was the familiar, ‘If you can’t play here, you can’t play anywhere. There is no Division IV.’ Coach was always brutally honest; he never fluffed things up for you. As our coach, he didn’t try and befriend us, he coached us, he instructed us, and he taught us.”

Farley chuckles when he thinks of Clawson’s parents spending the amount of money they did to help David earn a degree from Williams, then join the coaching ranks, which don’t have the same pay scale say of an investment banker or Wall Street wizard.

But Clawson says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “There are so many different parts of it I like,” he said. “When you recruit kids who are 17 and 18 and then get to see how they mature and progress over four years — not just as football players, but as people — that is something that is very special. So is going into a game most people think you can’t win and coming up with a victory. Whenever you can accomplish something people didn’t think you could, it’s very rewarding.”