Clarence Holley began his collegiate coaching career at Northwestern Oklahoma State University before spending time at Arkansas Tech, Missouri Western State, and West Texas A&M. Holley’s defensive prowess began to shine at those schools as his record setting defenses were among the best in the region and were often nationally ranked in multiple categories. 

After serving as Defensive Coordinator at Missouri Western and Western Texas A&M, Coach Holley was hired to be the head coach at the University of Arkansas-Monticello where his teams set over 70 UAM and Gulf South Conference records. At UAM, Holley’s team achieved the school’s first ever national ranking and Coach Holley was named 2000 Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year. 

Coach Holley left UAM to become the head coach at Minnesota State University and also served as Offensive Quality Control Coach with the NFL Minnesota Vikings. After his time at MSU, Holley left the coaching field and pursued a career in business, working with State Farm as a Territory Agency Field Executive where he achieved great success, recruiting and hiring over 60 people into the industry, and becoming the #1 ranked Sales Leader in the Enterprise in 2016. 

After retiring from his corporate career, Coach Holley re-entered the coaching arena and accepted the position of Defensive Coordinator for Stillwater Schools. Holley’s defenses once again garnered much attention from opposing coaches for his teams’ aggressive play and attitude of dominance while winning multiple district and conference titles, they also played in three state championships, and were crowned State Champions in 2022. That same year, Holley was named Stillwater Virtual Academy Teacher of the Year. 

After Stillwater, Coach Holley served as an assistant coach at Tulsa Union High School, winning the district championship and finishing as state runner up in 2023. He then moved to the Defensive Coordinator position at Broken Arrow High School where they were a state playoff qualifier in 2024. 

Coach Holley is the founder of Eat the Captain Football, which is a defensive football coaching assistance and consultant program with over 100 member schools nationally. 

Clarence is married to his wife Vanessa and has a son, Kobe who will graduate from Emporia State University in May 2025