Cal Football: After Turning the Page as Player, Stefan McClure Finds Coaching Joy at SMU

Former Golden Bears cornerback is coaching that position for the unbeaten Mustangs.

Stefan McClure, a senior cornerback and captain of the 2015 Cal team that closed out the Jared Goff era with a bowl game victory, hoped to still be playing football today.

Instead, at 28, he has taken the next step in his career. After spending parts of two seasons trying to get a foothold as a player in the NFL, McClure became a coach.

Former Cal coach Sonny Dykes offered him a graduate assistant job at SMU in 2019, and McClure took the opportunity to learn the profession and earn his master’s degree.

This is his first season as the Mustangs’ full-time cornerbacks coach, and he has helped SMU to a 5-0 start and a No. 24 national ranking. The Mustangs hit the road this week for a Saturday game against American Athletic Conference foe Navy.

Update: SMU defeated Navy 31-24 to improve to 6-0 on the season.

SMU cornerbacks coach Stefan McClure / Photo courtesy of SMU Athletics

“Coaching is a lot of fun. I love it.” McClure says in the video at the top of this story. “There’s no greater feeling than when you see an offensive concept, you talk about it, how you’re going to scheme it up . . . and then they go out there and make a play.”

While he is enjoying every step of his new assignment, simply deciding to make the change in his career path was wrenching. McClure had played football much of his life and the NFL was his dream.

Undrafted in 2016, he signed with the Indianapolis Colts, although he never made his way onto the 53-man roster. That happened for him in 2017 with the Washington Football Team, and McClure saw action in seven games.

He was cut loose after one season, signed by the Detroit Lions but cut again in August of 2018.

McClure says the series of injuries he sustained at Cal — missing one entire season and parts of two others — finally caught up to him.

“You’re just kind of hanging on. Man, this is frustrating.” he recalls thinking. “This isn’t enjoyable when your body’s hurting and it’s not doing what you know you can do. That kind of forced that decision on me pretty quick.”

By the end, he describes being “kind of just a shell of myself.” Even so, finally saying goodbye to his playing days was “surreal” and difficult.

“It’s absolutely one of the hardest things to do . . . make a decision to say I’m going to be done playing,” he says.

Now, three years later, McClure’s focus is on two young SMU corners with whom he can relate. True freshman Bryce McMorris has started every game for the Mustangs and redshirt freshman Jahari Rogers, a transfer from Florida, has started three of five, including the past two.

McClure played in 11 games as a freshman at Cal in 2011, two of them as a starter. He talks in the video above about how the game is pretty fast for most freshmen — including him — and that it takes time for it slow down.

“So being able to digest, being able to just breathe out there and not feel like I’m always trying to play catch-up mode is what those guys are going to experience coming here shortly," he explains in the video above.

McClure’s experience at Cal ran the gamut. He was recruited by Jeff Tedford but by Year 3 was playing for Dykes.

Between 2012 and ’14 he made his way to the field for just 12 games because of injuries. In 2013, he and the Bears endured a 1-11 campaign.

But by 2015, the Bears were 8-5 and beat Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. McClure played a full season, was team captain for the third time and earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors.

He talks about his experience in Berkeley in the video above. “That time at Cal taught me so much and instilled a lot of things that are who I am today.”

Stefan McClure during his Cal playing days / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Cover photo of Stefan McClure courtesy of SMU Athletics