Mizzou Football should try to steal Dave Clawson from Wake Forest

Could Mizzou football lure away Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson with the opportunity of the SEC and opportunity? Let’s highlight why Clawson could be a fit with the Tigers.

Perhaps an interesting entry into the coaching search is Dave Clawson, who the Missouri Tigers should at least check in with during their search to see if he’s interested. Clawson is currently the head coach at Wake Forest and has done some nice things during his tenure there.

After four consecutive bowl seasons at Wake Forest, does Clawson look to parlay that success into a bigger job? Every year or two, a coach moves to a new job we didn’t see coming. Could this be that move?

The question, coaching in the same conference as big kids in the state North Carolina, and faced with both Virginia and Virginia Tech along with Clemson and South Carolina in bordering states, attracting recruits to Wake Forest can be tough. That makes the job he’s done at Wake Forest, a program without a lot of history of succeeding, all the more impressive.

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The issue isn’t whether Clawson would be a fit at Missouri or not. The question is would the Tigers be willing to pay the freight to get him and would he be willing to move to Missouri?

Why Dave Clawson makes sense

This will be quick.

Clawson can coach. In six seasons, Clawson has coached Wake Forest to now it’s fourth consecutive bowl game to go along with wins in their previous three bowl trips. Missouri would love to win bowls – heck – even just go to them.

Before Wake Forest, Clawson coached at Bowling Green where, you guessed it, the program reached three bowl games during the five years he was there.

In the shadow of the North Carolina program in state, but also the behemoth known as Clemson to the south and strong Virginia and Virginia Tech programs to the north, Clawson has developed Wake Forest into a consistently competitive team.

This is something that always comes into play when talking about a coach moving on from a job. The AD that hired and signed Clawson is no longer there, having been replaced by John Currie, last seen being fired as the AD at Tennessee and before that the AD at Kansas State.

Why Dave Clawson doesn’t work

Is Dave Clawson really interested in moving? He did sign a new deal just this past offseason to stay at Wake Forest and the buyout on the contract would likely be prohibitive.

After building up the program, would Clawson really cash out in that manner with a program such as Missouri? Why wouldn’t he try to cash out at a program perhaps with more cache, such as Florida State or wait another year to see on other programs? That’s the big question here with Dave Clawson.

Also, a year after signing a new deal, the buyout is likely rather high. Wake Forest has not released that number, but one can infer it’s not cheap. Clawson would have to really want to move.

My Opinion

If Dave Clawson is interested and wants to come to Missouri, Jim Sterk should get the money people involved and make it work.

Clawson is a great coach and would be a home run type hire for the Tigers. I question if he would be interested and if Mizzou truly has the funds available to make a move like this happen. It’s a move the Tigers would surely like to make, but I don’t foresee it being a move they can afford to make.