THE CLEMENTS FILE

PERSONAL

Year in Coaching: 27th in 2026
Year at K-State: 12th in 2026
Hometown: Emporia, Kan.
Education: Kansas State, 1999 (Bachelor's in Mass Communications); Kansas State, 2009 (Master's in Counseling
Wife: Pelusa
Children: Orianna, Chance, Emma, Kaden

COACHING EXPERIENCE

1999-2000: K-State (Student Assistant)
2001-02: K-State (Graduate Assistant)
2003-05: K-State (Defensive Ends)
2006-07: San Diego State (Defensive Line)
2008: Kansas (Defensive Line)
2009-11: K-State (Defensive Line)
2012: K-State (Defensive Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Ends)
2013-21: Oklahoma State (Defensive Line)
2022: Oklahoma State (Linebackers)
2023-24: Oklahoma State (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers)
2026: K-State (Assistant to the Head Coach/Forward Scout for Offense)

POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE

1994: Aloha Bowl (K-State)*
1995: Holiday Bowl (K-State)*
1996: Cotton Bowl (K-State)*
1997: Fiesta Bowl (K-State)*
1998: Alamo Bowl (K-State)
1999: Holiday Bowl (K-State)
2000: Cotton Bowl (K-State)
2001: Insight.com Bowl (K-State)
2002: Holiday Bowl (K-State)
2003: Fiesta Bowl (K-State)
2008: Insight Bowl (Kansas)
2010: Pinstripe Bowl (K-State)
2011: Cotton Bowl (K-State)
2012: Fiesta Bowl (K-State)
2013: Heart of Dallas Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2014: Cotton Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2015: Cactus Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2016: Alamo Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2017: Camping World Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2018: Liberty Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2019: Texas Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2020: Cheez-It Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2021: Fiesta Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2022: Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Oklahoma State)
2023: Texas Bowl (Oklahoma State)
* As a Player

A four-year letterwinner for the Wildcats and 11-year Kansas State staff member, Joe Bob Clements returns to Manhattan for the 2026 season as assistant to the head coach/forward scout for offense.

Clements, who has coached the defensive line and linebackers during his 23-year coaching career, most recently served 12 seasons on the Oklahoma State staff from 2013 through 2024. He originally went to Stillwater as the defensive line coach (2013-21) before moving to linebackers (2022) and adding the title of co-defensive coordinator (2023-24).

During Clements’ 16 combined years as a player, staffer and full-time assistant coach at K-State, the Wildcats won two Big 12 championships, four Big 12 North championships, while they won 10 or more games in a season nine times.

Serving as the defensive run game coordinator and defensive ends coach in 2012, Clements helped the Wildcats win the Big 12 title thanks in part to the defensive unit leading the conference in scoring defense, ranking second in rushing defense, turnovers gained and sacks, and third in both total defense and pass efficiency defense. One of Clements’ defensive ends, Meshak Williams, earned Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year honors after leading the Big 12 in sacks. Another end, Adam Davis, was an All-Big 12 Second Team honoree who led the league with four forced fumbles.

In 2011, Clements helped Williams and Davis earn All-Big 12 honors. That duo, along with former walk-on Jordan Voelker, combined for 91 total tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks.

Clements tutored All-Big 12 defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald in 2009 and helped a Wildcat defense improve from 117th nationally in 2008 to No. 39 in total defense. Fitzgerald went on to sign a free-agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs after collecting 40 tackles, 10 for losses, and 7.0 sacks as a senior to lead the Wildcat defensive front.

During his 12-year run at Oklahoma State, Clements helped the Cowboys earn a combined 102-53 record, which included six seasons with at least 10 wins, 11 bowl appearances and a trip to the 2023 Big 12 Championship Game.

In 2023, Clements coached linebacker Nick Martin to All-Big 12 First Team honors in Martin’s first year as a starter. Martin finished third in the nation with 83 solo stops, while his 140 total tackles were the most by a Cowboy since 1984. Collin Oliver was an All-Big 12 Second Team selection under Clements’ watch. In his first season working with the linebackers in 2022, Clements coached Mason Cobb to All-Big 12 honors, as Cobb and Xavier Benson were also two of OSU’s three leading tacklers.

Oklahoma State had an All-Big 12 First Team defensive lineman in seven of Clements’ nine years working with the position group in Calvin Barnett (2013), Emmanuel Ogbah (2014 and 2015), Vincent Taylor (2016), DeQuinton Osborne (2017), Jordan Brailford (2018) and Brock Martin (2021). Ogbah led the Big 12 in sacks in 2015 (1.00 per game), while Brailford led the league in 2018 (0.69 per game).

Seven of Clements’ 12 seasons in Stillwater produced a team tackles for loss total that ranked among the top 10 single-season marks in school history, which included a school-record 114 in 2021. In his nine seasons as the Cowboy defensive line coach, the unit averaged 26.5 sacks per season.

In 2021, Clements’ line helped OSU lead the nation and set the school record with 57 sacks, while the Cowboys finished second nationally with 114 tackles for loss. Collin Oliver was a Freshman All-American after finishing seventh in the country and setting an OSU freshman record with 11.5 sacks.

Despite losing every starter from the previous season, the 2019 defensive line had just one fewer tackle than the 2018 unit. Clements tutored the inexperienced group to 30 quarterback hurries and 12 pass breakups, both of which represented the highest marks since his arrival in 2013.

In 2018, Clements’ unit helped the Cowboys lead the Big 12 and rank 10th nationally with 3.00 sacks per game, while they were second in the conference and 20th in the nation with 7.4 tackles for loss per game. That came on the heels of his 2017 unit that finished with 53.5 tackles for loss, the most by any defensive line since 2005.

Taylor finished 2016 as the nation’s leader with four blocked kicks, while Clements coached him to the tune of 12.5 tackles for loss and 7.0 sacks, the most for any interior defensive lineman in the Big 12 en route to All-Big 12 First Team accolades.

Clements’ top pupil in 2015 was Ogbah, a First Team All-American who was a finalist for the Ted Hendricks Award and the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. In 2014, Ogbah became the first Oklahoma State player ever named Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year and became just the fifth OSU defensive lineman – and the second in Clements’ first two years in Stillwater – to earn All-Big 12 First Team honors.

Clements broke into coaching as a student assistant at K-State in 1999, was elevated to a graduate assistant post with the Wildcats in 2001 and earned his first full-time coaching position when Bill Snyder promoted him to K-State defensive ends coach in 2003. That season, he helped the Wildcats claim the 2003 Big 12 Championship with a 35-7 victory over No. 1 Oklahoma.

In 2004 and 2005, Clements served as K-State’s recruiting coordinator. The two recruiting classes he spearheaded produced future NFL players Zac Diles, Yamon Figurs, Tearrius George, Justin McKinney and Reggie Walker.

He became the defensive line coach at San Diego State for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, while he worked as the defensive line coach at Kansas in 2008. Clements’ time at San Diego State was highlighted by the performance of All-Mountain West First Team defensive lineman Antwan Applewhite, who was the first Aztec defensive lineman to earn first-team honors in seven years.

Clements played defensive end at K-State from 1994 through 1998, earning All-Big 12 accolades as a senior. He was a member of five bowl teams with the Wildcats, highlighted by trips to the Cotton and Fiesta Bowls.

Clements graduated from Kansas State in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, while he added a master’s degree in counseling (student development) from Kansas State in 2009. He and his wife, Pelusa, have four children, Orianna, Chance, Emma and Kaden. Chance is a linebacker at Emporia State.