Courtesy photo Garrett Clawson (center) is a special teams assistant coach for the Michigan football team.

The past three years have been a whirlwind in the major college football coaching career of Hollidaysburg Area High School graduate Garrett Clawson.

And he has certainly paid his dues.

While beginning his NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision coaching career as Old Dominion University’s special teams quality control coach in 2022, Clawson put in long hours in the coaching room, while supplementing his income as an Uber driver and a restaurant waiter in order to pay his bills.

Clawson moved on to a position as the senior quality control/special teams analyst for the Southern Methodist University football program in 2023, and stayed in that job for a season before catching his biggest career break to date and joining the University of Michigan football coaching staff as a special teams assistant coach in 2024.

Clawson, a former all-state placekicker at Hollidaysburg who went on to become an all-Northeast Conference college kicker at Robert Morris University, is humbled by, and grateful for, the upwardly mobile trajectory that his coaching career has taken.

He is in his second season at Michigan — one of major college football’s blueblood programs and its all-time winningest program — and couldn’t feel more fulfilled.

“These last three years have just flown by, but I couldn’t be more thankful to everybody who has given me the opportunities to get to this point,” Clawson, 38, was saying in a recent telephone interview. “There’s a blue-collar mindset playing, coaching and working here at the University of Michigan.

“This is a place where you’re definitely going to work hard to earn the right to be called champions, and to be called one of the Maize and Blue,” Clawson added.

Led by second-year head coach Sherrone Moore, the Wolverines coaching staff puts forth a very comprehensive, collaborative effort, according to Clawson. In Moore’s first year as Michigan’s head coach last season, the Wolverines produced an 8-5 season record, highlighted by a regular season-ending upset of Ohio State in Columbus, and a victory over Alabama in the Relia Quest Bowl.

The 2025 Wolverines, who opened this season with a 34-17 home-field victory over New Mexico this past Saturday and will visit Oklahoma this Saturday in a blockbuster inter-conference showdown, were ranked 14th in the nation in The Associated Press preseason poll.

“The (expectations) here are pretty high, and I think that goes for all of us in the coaching room and the players room in general,” Clawson said. “Everybody is just trying to focus on what is their responsibility, and where they can help us win — whether it’s offense, defense or special teams.

“This coaching staff works tirelessly to bring out the best in themselves, and I think that’s what allowed us to win a lot of games late in the season last year — the Ohio State game, the Alabama bowl game and several others. The work ethic, and everything that Coach Moore instills in us, isn’t just about playing winning football — it’s about developing winning habits to become the best version of ourselves. And as long as you apply yourself and you’re looking to do the greater good for the guy next to you, you’re going to have success.”

Clawson said that his duties as an assistant special teams coach under the direction of Michigan head special teams coach J.B. Brown are similar to the responsibilities that he held at SMU in 2023, when the Mustangs won the American Association Championship.

“Last year here, I spent a great deal of time with the specialists, ran their meetings, gave them individual drill work, and had everything transferred over to the overall game plan,” Clawson said. “One of my primary jobs is to give Coach J.B. a ton of information on our opponents with scouting reports, and any data that can be found in terms of significance to our game plan.”

Elite kicker returns

Michigan is breaking in a large group of new players on its special teams unit this season, but senior placekicker Dom Zvada will provide veteran stability.

Last season, Zvada produced 89 points on 21 field goals in 22 attempts — his only missed kick was blocked — and 26 extra points to earn NCAA First Team All-American status and recognition as the Big Ten Conference’s Kicker of the Year.

“We have a completely new group of specialists this year, but the exception is that we are returning the top kicker in the country this year,” Clawson said. “Dominic Zvada is phenomenal. He finished last season as the all-time Michigan single-season record-holder for percentage on field goals (95.4 percent), and was 7-for-7 beyond 50 yards (which is an NCAA as well as a Michigan school record).

“He’s going into this season as one of the top guys by percentage in a career, and I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Clawson said of Zvada, who is a top three National Football League kicking prospect.

Zvada, an Arizona native who played his first two seasons of FBS level college football at Arkansas State before transferring to Michigan, had high words of praise for Clawson.

“I think he’s excellent,” Zvada said. “He’s one of my favorite college coaches who I’ve ever worked with. I’ve worked with a lot of fantastic coaches who’ve been very successful, and he really stands out to me as one of the best that I’ve ever worked with.

“One of the reasons that he’s so good is that he’s got the personal background in kicking. He’s done all of that stuff, and he knows a lot of the stuff mechanically about kicking.”

Zvada said that Clawson also possesses excellent people skills and emotional intelligence, which help him navigate the intangible aspects of coaching.

“He understands his players and he understands when it’s a good time to chime in, and when it’s just a good time to let the players do their thing,” Zvada said. “And with specialists, mindsets are just as important — if not more so — than our physical mechanics. I think that he does a really good job of managing his players, and taking good care of us.

“I’m super happy that I get to continue to work with him for another season.”

Michigan’s full-time newcomers on special teams this year are punter Hudson Hollenback and long-snapper Greg Tarr. Beckham Sunderland, who Clawson said has a “mega-leg,” is competing with Zvada for playing time on kickoffs.

Hollenbeck, a redshirt senior and Tennessee native, made his presence known in a big way against Alabama in last year’s Relia Quest Bowl, punting six times for 277 yards. He will take over Michigan’s punting chores on a full-time basis this year, and appreciates Clawson’s input and help.

“Coach Clawson is definitely a family-team-first kind of guy,” Hollenbeck said. “He respects us for who we are and what we can do. A lot of us have grown really close to Coach Clawson for that reason. We all genuinely appreciate him for all that he does for us.

“Knowing that he used to be a kicker himself during his college days, we know that he understands what it takes to do this at a high level. He’s always there to help us out.”

Tarr is replacing Will Wagner, who recently survived the final preseason cut with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals and earned a spot on that team’s roster.

“I am very proud of the (specialists) room and what they have been able to contribute,” said Clawson, who said that he still keeps in contact with Wagner. “This year, there’s another room to develop and grow, and to continue to kind of push that excellence in what we do and in the standard that we have set.”

Exciting wins

Clawson’s first season, and Moore’s first year as a head coach, at Michigan in 2024 was an exciting one. The Wolverines closed last season strong and set the stage for this season, by routing Northwestern (50-6), before taking down archrival Ohio State, 13-10, in the Horseshoe in the regular-season finale on a 21-yard Zvada field goal with 45 seconds left in the game.

Michigan continued rolling with a 19-13 bowl game win over Alabama last Dec. 31.

The Wolverines have now defeated Ohio State four straight times in the storied, bitter Big Ten Conference rivalry that Clawson was personally exposed to for the first time late last November. The two teams will meet again this Nov. 29 in Ann Arbor.

“It’s incredible — I knew a little bit about “The Game,” as they call it, and the magnitude of this rivalry, but I didn’t really necessarily know how important that it was to the people of this community, to the University of Michigan, and to the entire state of Michigan, until I took part in the game,” Clawson said.

“The atmosphere there (at Ohio State) last year was electric — it was obviously a hostile environment. And when those two forces collide, it’s a show. It was an incredible experience.”

Scandal fallout

Jim Harbaugh was the head coach at Michigan in 2023 and Moore was an assistant coach on his staff then before being promoted to head coach in 2024 when Harbaugh departed for an NFL head coaching position with the Los Angeles Chargers.

In the 2023 season, the Wolverines were involved in an impermissible scouting scheme, led by former staffer Connor Stalions, in which electronics were used to steal opposing team’s signs during games. Harbaugh was given a three-game suspension that season by the Big Ten Conference.

The NCAA recently finalized the imposition of significant penalties against the Michigan football program, including a multi-million dollar fine, and a four-year probationary period.

The NCAA did not impose a postseason ban for the Michigan football program, but Moore was suspended for two games this season by the university and a third game by the NCAA to be served in the 2026 season.

Clawson wasn’t on the Michigan football staff when the infraction was committed, and therefore, could not comment on it.

“I honestly can’t really comment too much on that because I wasn’t here when that was all taking place,” Clawson said. “I don’t even remember hearing too much in house when the verdict did come out.

“We’ve been so focused on fall camp this August. It’s a routine, and our focus has been on what we can control, and about taking it one day at a time, and doing our best.”

Long hours

Clawson’s parents, Alan and Linda, along with his younger sister Lennie, all still reside in Blair County. Clawson’s sister, Kasey, and Clawson’s niece and nephew, live in the Pittsburgh area.

Clawson — a devout Christian — praised his parents for their love and support throughout his lifetime, and only wishes that the long hours that are involved in his profession didn’t prevent him from returning home to visit his family more often.

“It’s tough, it’s the hardest thing about what I do,” Clawson said about the hours that his profession demands. “I haven’t seen a Christmas in two years, I haven’t been able to come back for my niece’s or nephew’s birthdays. We put a lot of hours into this profession, and I understood that when I signed up for it.

“You make sacrifices, and I pray in the long run that I’m still going to be responsible about my decisions, stay strong in my faith in Jesus Christ, stay strong with my family, and that I look out for those that are currently representing Michigan. I’ll look back on it all someday and just say, ‘Wow … how did it all come to be?'”