Mike Macdonald discusses Georgia grad assistant stint, coaching career

Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald did not play college football, but during his time in the University of Georgia’s business school he started coaching. After two seasons as an assistant at Cedar Shoals High School in Georgia, he took a job as a graduate assistant under head coach Mark Richt in 2010. After a rollercoaster of career moves over the past decade, he now prepares to lead a defense against his alma mater in the Orange Bowl and College Football Playoff.

During a press conference, Macdonald reminisced about his early days in coaching, thanking many others for the impact they had on his career development.

“We were doing everything,” Macdonald said about his time as a graduate assistant. “We were setting up tables for dinner, you name it. Back then we didn’t have iPads, so we had the play books, and I remember just having a really rough relationship with the printer. But yeah, those were great days, man. Just learning from Coach Richt and Coach Grantham and Coach Bobo and really just what makes an organization tick, how does it go, just being in on the ground floor, doing anything you can to help the team win was really valuable. They’re great people in that building, and it was great, great experience for us.”

In total, Mike Macdonald spent four seasons with the Georgia Bulldogs, eventually working as a defensive quality control assistant.

Mike Macdonald’s coaching career

After finishing the 2013 season, Mike Macdonald considered leaving football in favor of business. He shared the story of that offseason, including some turns which led him back to his passion.

“Wow, that was – shoot, it was the spring of 2013,” said Macdonald. “I had signed a contract with KPMG and I was fortunate enough, I think Coach Rodney Garner actually recommended me to one of the Ravens’ scouts, and that kind of worked up the food chain there, and was just really fortunate that John Harbaugh was looking to start an intern program, and I was able to kind of go through that process and really fortunate enough that actually Jay Harbaugh, our coach here was one of the guys that kind of helped set the whole thing up.

Just extremely fortunate. Talk about just luck of the draw. Man, am I blessed that that happened, so otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Macdonald worked seven seasons under John Harbaugh, including one as defensive back coach and three as linebacker coach. This season, he left the NFL to work for John’s brother Jim as defensive coordinator. However, during the early days of his career Macdonald relied on the support of his parents.

“Man, my parents have been awesome,” said Macdonald. “I mean, really with both my siblings. Once you kind of tell them what you want to do, they want to see you go after it. They were more interested in how I was going to do it rather than what I was going to do. But they’ve just been there every step of the way. Both of them are going to be here at the game, so they’ll be making the trip down to Miami, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing them. But they were awesome.”