STARKVILLE — Many Mississippi State fans don’t know Jon Clark, but they probably have seen him on television.
The assistant athletic director of football operations doesn’t have many gameday duties, but he is on the sidelines for every game and is charged with the responsibility of attempting to restrain coach Dan Mullen when he disagrees with a decision made by an official. He will resume the duty at 9 p.m. Saturday when MSU kicks off the season against Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Fox Sports 1 will broadcast the game live.
“If I didn’t do that, I don’t know what else I’d be doing on gameday,” Clark said. “I try to stay out of the camera as much as I can, but people always catch me on the camera when I’m trying to pull him back.”
Clark does much more than pulling Mullen back to the sidelines. In his sixth season with the MSU football program, Clark oversees administrative operations of the team, including its schedule, budget, travel, and office staff, as well as other duties.
Most recently, Clark oversaw the development and construction of the Leo Seal Complex, a $25 million football training and office facility that opened in the spring of 2013. He also played a role in the re-design of the new football practice fields behind the Leo Seal Complex.
“He really runs the programs behind the scenes,” Mullen said. “You talk about football Xs and Os, no, but everything else he’s involved in and making sure it runs smoothly.”
Clark began his career as an administrative graduate assistant at Bowling Green under coach Urban Meyer in the early 2000s. Mullen also was on that staff as the quarterbacks coach.
Meyer was hired as the Utah coach before the 2003 season and Clark and Mullen followed him to Salt Lake City. Clark severed as Meyer’s director of football administration at Utah and Florida, where he spent five seasons with the Gators.
“I’m involved in everything except for football,” Clark said. “If people don’t know me, the better off I am.
“The most important part of my job is coaches can coach and I try to take as much off their plate so they can coach and do what they’re paid to do.”
Mullen jokes he doesn’t know if Clark is his boss or if he’s Clark’s boss.
“Within the program, you’re kind of on equal footing and everyone knows that,” Mullen said. “He’s kind of my go-to guy in how we run the program and every decision we make within the program.”
But Clark doesn’t see it that way. Between coaches and administrators in the athletic department, Clark sees himself having 15 bosses. But there are times Clark has to tell Mullen yes or no.
“The only thing I can be boss of him over, ‘Hey Dan, yes we are able to do that. No we’re not able to do that,’ ” Clark said. “If it’s a no that we’re not able to do that, I better have a good reason of why it’s a no.”
Mullen was hired as MSU’s coach in 2008 and he wanted Clark to follow him to Starkville. The Gators were coming off a national championship, and Clark wanted to stay in Gainesville, Florida.
“With everybody coming back, I was just like, ‘You know, I know what we’ve got coming back, I want that shot at another title, I just can’t right now,’ ” Clark said of the conversation he had with Mullen. “I had no idea what Starkville was like.”
After going through his first season in Starkville, Mullen decided to make another run at Clark. This time Clark decided to move to Starkville. Looking back, Clark is happy with his decision.
“Unbelievable, both professionally and personally,” Clark said. “I met my wife here, got married here, and had my first child here.”
Clark is married to the former Caitlin Redlich, a former MSU trainer. The two welcomed their first child, Cooper Hill Clark, to the world in early June.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.