Steve Clarkson

Steve Clarkson is an American football coach. He is considered one of the premier quarterback coaches. Clarkson has tutored Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, J. P. Losman, Gino Torretta, Matt Barkley, and Jimmy Clausen, among others.

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. 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. His organization is now called Steve Clarkson Dreammaker.

Recently, Clarkson's newest protégé, 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).