Steve Clarkson is an American football coach. He is considered one of the premier quarterback coaches.[1] Clarkson has tutored Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, J. P. Losman, Gino Torretta, Matt Barkley, and Jimmy Clausen, among others.[2][3]
Clarkson is a 1979 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles, CA, where he led the Mighty Mules to three Los Angeles City Championships with a 39-1 record during three seasons. Clarkson was named to the All-City teams during his junior and senior seasons, and was the All-City Player of the Year in 1978 after leading the state in passing yards and total offense. He later was a three-year starter for coach Jack Elway at San José State University, where he holds several passing records and was named to the Academic All-American teams in 1981 and 1982.
After going undrafted in the 1983 NFL Draft, Clarkson played a season for the Denver Broncos and two seasons for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders. He then became a district manager for a steakhouse chain, before turning to football coaching.[4] He founded “Air 7”, a quarterback academy, that offers tutoring to high school players. Clarkson has since coached more than 20 Division I-A quarterback starters and, including other positions, Air 7 has produced about 80 I-A starters.[1] His organization is now called Steve Clarkson Dreammaker.
Recently, Clarkson's newest protege, a 13-year old from Delaware named David Sills verbally committed to USC (he cannot be offered a scholarship legally, for it will violate NCAA regulations).