Mike Macdonald is now the youngest head coach in the NFL as the Seattle Seahawks hired the 36 year old this week.
Macdonald adds veteran Leslie Frazier as Seattle Seahawks assistant head coach
When legendary Georgia head coach Mark Richt knew Macdonald back in the early-2010s, he was a young assistant on the Bulldogs’ coaching staff.
Macdonald’s first coaching job was at Cedar Shoals High School in Georgia in 2008 and 2009 when he coached linebackers and running backs. In 2010, he returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant on Richt’s coaching staff, and then spent 2011-13 as a defensive quality control assistant.
Richt shared his memories and impressions of the newest Seahawks head coach during an interview with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Thursday.
“Very sharp guy, great communicator, hard worker,” Richt said of Macdonald. “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.”
Being a grad assistant and then an analyst, Richt said there’s a “certain workload” those guys have, and their duties expand once it’s clear they can handle it.
“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.”
