Vince GarciaSanta Ana College turned a page in the Dons playbook by hiring Kevin Clune as its new football coach.
Coach Clune, who brings more than 30 years of Division I coaching experience to SAC, has an extensive resume that includes Division I teams like BYU, Memphis, Oregon State, and Hawaii among others. His most recent stint was as linebackers coach for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo under Paul Wulff.
The opportunity to coach for SAC began when Coach Geoff Jones contacted Clune about the job opening.
Both had known each other already for 25-plus years, so Clune was a top candidate for Jones. Clune had some discussions with the staff and after observing potential in the program decided to come on board.
An Orange County native, Clune’s return to the area comes after a period of significant coaching changes for Dons football. The opportunity to coach for SAC began when Jones contacted Clune about the job opening. Jones led the program in 2024 before Simon Fuentes took over in 2025. Jones, who has spent 25 years with the Dons program, has stepped back and is now serving as offensive coordinator under Clune.
Before Jones and Fuentes, Coach Anthony White led the Dons for three seasons. White helped establish a winning culture by taking the Dons to the Southern California Bowl and even winning it for the first time before his passing in 2023.
Rather than attempting to change the team’s identity and completely reshape them around his defensive philosophy, Clune stated his goal is to establish an overall “identity” for the team.
“Football is very segmented,” Clune said, referring to the separation between offense, defense, and special teams. “I want to set a standard for toughness, and I want to build leaders. ”
Clune’s familiarity with junior college football goes beyond his position at SAC. Before beginning his Division I coaching career, he spent four seasons at Fullerton College from 1996 to 1999 as the Special Teams Coordinator/Linebackers coach. Furthermore, Clune also played at Fullerton Junior College until blowing out his knee, leading to his transition to coaching in 1996.
After building his coaching resume at the junior college level and Division I level, Clune spent the past two seasons as Cal Poly’s linebackers coach. “It is a great place, my brother went to school two hours away from there, so I was close to my family.”
Although Clune enjoyed his time with Cal Poly and found success developing players at his position, the program struggled to show it on the field. Following his 2025 season, Cal Poly made a change with their head coach, which resulted in Clune and the rest of the coaching staff being let go.
While leaving Cal Poly was not the outcome Clune wanted, and according to him, was not his “favorite moment,” the change opened the door to come back home to Orange County.
“Santa Ana has grown and evolved, and the school is so clean and nice,” Clune said. “You can see the vision that President Nery has for improving all the different aspects of the college. Maybe things aren’t perfect right now, but piece by piece we are going to put things together.”
