Clarence Clifford Pendergast III (born November 29, 1967) is the former

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

for the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

, and

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

football teams.

Early coaching career

He was a graduate assistant or assistant coach at

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univers ...

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

, and

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

before joining the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

in 1995. After a year with the Oilers, he joined the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

, where he spent seven seasons, first as defensive assistant/quality control/linebackers coach (1996–99), and later handing responsibilities in nickel defense packages (2000) and the secondary (2001–02). Pendergast helped develop first-round draft pick Roy Williams into a

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

safety. In 2003, he was linebackers coach with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

Arizona Cardinals

While working in Cleveland, Pendergast impressed personnel man Jeremy Green to the point that when Green's father,

Dennis Green Dennis Earl Green (February 17, 1949 – July 21, 2016) was an American football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances in ...

, became the head coach of the

, Jeremy convinced him to interview Pendergast for the job. Green was so impressed that he hired Pendergast as the Cardinals' Defensive Coordinator. After Dennis Green's firing, he was retained as defensive coordinator under new Cardinals head coach

Ken Whisenhunt Kenneth Moore Whisenhunt (born February 28, 1962) is an American football coach and former tight end who is currently an offensive analyst for Penn State. He played college football at Georgia Tech and was drafted in the twelfth round of the 198 ...

. Pendergast helped lead the Cardinals into

Super Bowl XLIII Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champions Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

, but was fired on Friday February 6, 2009, less than one week after Arizona lost to Pittsburgh 27-23 in the Super Bowl.

Kansas City Chiefs

When the Cardinals fired Pendergast, he was immediately linked with a move to

. Clancy Pendergast officially became the

for the Chiefs on March 13, 2009, where he reunited with Head Coach

Todd Haley Richard Todd Haley (born February 28, 1967) is an American football coach who is the current head coach and general manager for the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL). From 1997 to 2006, he had stints as the wide rece ...

, who was offensive coordinator at Arizona during Pendergast's time there. On January 14, 2010, the Chiefs named former

head coach

Romeo Crennel Romeo Crennel (born June 18, 1947) is a former American football coach, who was the senior advisor for football performance for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). A former long-time coaching assistant to Bill Parcells, Cre ...

their new

. According to NFL.com Pendergast was not retained for the 2010 season by the Chiefs in any coaching position. Pendergast was hired to become the Oakland Raiders defensive backs coach on February 6, 2010.

California Golden Bears

On February 19, 2010, Pendergast was hired as defensive coordinator for the

, succeeding Bob Gregory. Under Pendergast, the Golden Bears led the conference in total defense, pass defense and fewest first downs allowed in 2010 and 2011. Pendergast also helped produce nine NFL players, including first-round pick defensive end

Cameron Jordan Cameron Tyler Jordan (born July 10, 1989) is an American football defensive end for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at California, and was drafted by the Saints in the first round of the ...

, and

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Defensive Player of the Year linebacker

Mychal Kendricks Marvin Mychal-Christopher Kendricks (born September 28, 1990) is an American football linebacker who is a free agent. After playing college football for the California Golden Bears, he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round ...

. He gained a reputation for containing the spread offense after his 2010 Bears slowed down

Chip Kelly Charles Edward Kelly (born November 25, 1963) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the UCLA Bruins. He came to prominence as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks from 2009 to 2012, whom he led to four consecutive BCS bowl game a ...

's No. 1 ranked

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conferenc ...

, holding them to 40 points below their average in a 15–13 loss.

USC Trojans

Pendergast was hired by the

as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2013. Under Pendergast, USC's defense shifted from a 4–3 alignment to a 5–2 with elements of the

3–4 defense In American football, the 3–4 defense is a common defensive alignment consisting of three down linemen and four linebackers. It is a called a "base defense" because it is the default defensive alignment used on "base downs" (1st and 2nd downs). ...

. Although head coach

Lane Kiffin Lane Monte Kiffin (born May 9, 1975) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels. Kiffin formerly was the offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans football team from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the Nati ...

was fired midseason, Pendergast's defense finished the season ranked 13th in the nation and led the Pac-12. He did not return to the team in 2014, but did so in 2016 after spending 2015 as inside linebackers coach of the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. Pendergast spent four seasons in his return to the Trojans, and was fired after a 49–24 loss to

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

in 2019 Holiday Bowl; in 2019, USC had the 78th-ranked defense and 77th in yardage allowed. He was fired after the 2019 season.

Personal life

The son of a farmer, Pendergast attended Tolleson High School, where his sister, Bonnie Pendergast, now teaches calculus. He graduated from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1990, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in agriculture. Pendergast did not play football in college, but did coach his fraternity team (

Phi Gamma Delta Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with more than 144 active chapters and 10 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendergast, Clancy 1967 births Living people Arizona Cardinals coaches Arizona Wildcats football players California Golden Bears football coaches Cleveland Browns coaches Dallas Cowboys coaches Houston Oilers coaches Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches National Football League defensive coordinators Oklahoma Sooners football coaches UAB Blazers football coaches USC Trojans football coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches Sportspeople from Phoenix, Arizona Players of American football from Phoenix, Arizona