Seahawks' Mike Macdonald Praised by Ex Georgia Coach Mark Richt: 'Very Sharp Guy!'
There may be no prouder feeling for a coach than seeing their pupils become head coaches as well some day, and new Seattle Seahawks head man Mike Macdonald did just that for his mentor earlier this week.
Macdonald, now the youngest coach in the NFL at just 36 years old, began his coaching career not too long ago, coaching at Cedar Shoals High School while attending the University of Georgia. It was there that he caught the eye of then-Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt, who brought MacDonald on as an assistant coach from 2010 to 2013. Macdonald then continued to work his way up the coaching ladder, culminating in him earning the Seahawks' head-coaching job.
With his former pupil ascending to the highest rank a coach can hold, Richt looked back on his earliest days with Macdonald during an appearance on Seattle Sports' Wyman and Bob.
“Very sharp guy, great communicator, hard worker,” Richt said. “Just a intelligent, eloquent guy that has a mental toughness and physical toughness when it comes to football. You could tell good things were gonna happen to Mike.”
Richt, who spent 15 years at Georgia before and tree with the Miami Hurricanes, also praised Macdonald for his work ethic, noting how he went above and beyond as a graduate assistant.
“Mike was the kind of guy that you knew if you gave him an assignment, it was gonna get done, it’s gonna get done well and get done in a timely manner,” Richt said. “And then you could just see him relate to players, a guy that is genuine. A lot of coaches try to be somebody they’re not, and players kind of sniff that out pretty quick, especially, I would think, at the NFL level, it’s even more so. You’d better be genuine, you’d better be who you are so you don’t have to sit there and act like somebody else, which is exhausting to begin with. And Mike’s just a real genuine human being, a guy that can relate to all kinds of people, and he’s very, very good at what he does.”
Macdonald has risen through the coaching ranks very quickly, as his first defensive coordinator job came just last year with the Baltimore Ravens. After his unit led the league in many important categories, he became one of the hottest coaching candidates on the market, and the Seahawks were the lucky team to land his services.
As Macdonald embarks on a head-coaching journey for the first time, Richt's advice to his former assistant is to just keep doing what he's been doing.
“Be genuine. Be who you are. Because who you are is what got you where you are to begin with,” Richt said. “Earn the trust of the people around you. I think think in the NFL, you’ve got to earn the trust of these players … In the pros, sometimes they need it know why we’re doing it. And when you motivate grown men, it’s a little bit different. They’ve got to know you and trust you and believe that you have their best interests at heart because it’s their livelihood. So I think just be true to yourself, be honest with everybody, and do what you think is best in the end, because the buck is gonna stop with you.”
