Donald Eck (born November 30, 1961) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach. Until November 2021, he was the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

Clearfield High School Clearfield High School is a secondary school in Clearfield, Utah, United States. It is part of the Davis School District. The school's mascot is the peregrine falcon, and its colors are green and white with an accent of gold. In 1960-61 students ...

Clearfield, Utah Clearfield (Shoshone: , "Place where the wind blows hard") is a city in Davis County, Utah, United States. The population was 31,909 at the 2020 census. The city grew rapidly during the 1940s, with the formation of Hill Air Force Base, and in ...

, a position he held since the summer of 2020. Eck previously spent 28 years as an assistant coach at the collegiate and professional levels, including stints as offensive coordinator of the

Berlin Thunder The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe. History The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season. Home games f ...

and

Rhein Fire Rhein Fire may refer to either of two American football franchises: * Rhein Fire (NFL Europe) The Rhein Fire were a professional football team in the NFL Europe, formerly the World League of American Football. Established in Düsseldorf, Germany ...

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

. Eck was the original head coach at

Corner Canyon High School Corner Canyon High School is a public school in Draper, Utah. It is the newest high school in the Canyons School District. Its colors are navy, silver and white, and its mascot is the Chargers. History Corner Canyon High School opened in 2013. ...

Draper, Utah Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah counties in the U.S. state of Utah, about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. As of the 2020 census, the population is 51,017, up from 7,143 in 1990. Draper is part of two metropolitan area ...

Playing career

Eck played as

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

from 1980 to 1982. He was voted Utah's Most Valuable Lineman all three years. He made the all-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC) second team in both 1981 and 1982. Eck was team captain as a senior in 1982.

Coaching career

Eck began his coaching career as student assistant at

in 1983. After a one-year stint as assistant coach at Woods Cross High School (Utah) he returned to his alma mater in 1985, where he served two seasons as a graduate assistant before becoming the offensive line coach (1987–1989). In 1990, Eck coached the centers and guards for

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

’s Aloha Bowl team. From there, he went to James Madison as offensive line coach. The Dukes’ 1991 team finished 12th in the nation in total offense. He was promoted to assistant head coach/offensive line coach prior to the 1992 season. Eck's third coaching stint in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

began in 1994, when he was added to

Ron McBride Ronald Douglas McBride (born October 14, 1939) is an American former college football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1990 to 2002 and at Weber State University from 2005 to 2011, compiling a career co ...

’s Utah staff as offensive line coach. After leaving Utah, Eck spent five seasons in

. He was the offensive line coach for the

Scottish Claymores The Scottish Claymores, were an American football team based in Scotland. The franchise played in the World League of American Football (later renamed NFL Europe) between 1995 and 2004, initially playing all home games at Murrayfield Stadium, ...

(2003) and served as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the

(2004–2006) and

(2007). Eck returned to

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

in 2008 as the offensive line coach at Weber State. In January 2009, he was promoted to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, but left WSU at the beginning of spring workouts to join the Las Vegas franchise of the United Football League. In the summer of 2020, Eck took the job as the offensive coordinator at

, coaching under former NFL player and Clearfield alumnus

Andre Dyson Andre Dyson (born May 25, 1979) is an American college football coach and former player who is the cornerbacks coach for Weber State University, a position he has held since 2021. He played professionally as a cornerback in the National Football ...

. Eck was fired from this position on November 23, 2021, for leaving a harassing voicemail on a student's phone, which included, in part, "Hey, give me a call when you can. I want to meet with your parents, man, ’cause I keep hearing your mom's putting all sorts of (expletive) on social media talking (expletive) about the coaches here and I'm gonna put a stop to that, bro."

References

External links

Scottish Claymores bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eck, Don 1961 births Living people American football centers Arizona Wildcats football coaches Berlin Thunder coaches James Madison Dukes football coaches Las Vegas Locomotives coaches Rhein Fire coaches Scottish Claymores coaches Utah Utes football coaches Weber State Wildcats football coaches High school football coaches in Utah Sportspeople from Norwalk, California Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California