Even though former Bulldog lineman Jared Wilson and the New England Patriots failed to walk out of Levi’s Stadium in triumph, the Georgia Bulldogs still deserve plenty of credit. In fact, the Bulldogs are one of the reasons the Seattle Seahawks won their Super Bowl, their first since the Russ–Pete Carroll era. Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald even showed some “love” to the legendary coach who took a chance on him when he was basically just a high school coach.

During the busy week of the Super Bowl, Mike McDonald took the time and gave all credit to former Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt for taking a chance on him.

“You know I was a high school football coach in the area, i had no connections, but (Mark Richt) gave me that chance, and felt like you kind of wanted to make him right by giving you those chances. So I love Coach Richt,” McDonald showcased his gratitude.

When you talk about just like people that you look up to, that walk the walk and talk the talk, it doesn’t happen as often as you like. And he’s definitely really the first person I saw. ‘I was like, Man, this guy, he’s the real deal.’ He backs up what he says. Players love him. He’s about the right stuff. I love Coach Richt.”

Back in 2010, Macdonald was just a regular summa cum laude student at Georgia with a finance degree and a dream to coach.

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He had been working with a local high school (Cedar Shoals) team when he started ‘knocking on the door’ at the university. Mark Richt saw something special in him and hired him as a graduate assistant back in May of 2010. Mike was just a two-star recruit at Centennial whose football career ended because of an ACL.

Looking back, it was one heck of a gamble at the time because Macdonald never played D1 defense a day in his life, nor did he have any connections or outright football pedigree. During his four years under Richt, Macdonald worked his way up to a defensive quality control role, also helping in safeties as well. That early “yes” from Richt opened the door for Macdonald to eventually join the NFL with Baltimore and become a defensive mastermind.

The former Bulldogs HC Richt shared that Macdonald was one of the brightest young minds he’d ever come across.

“(Mike’s) Very sharp guy, great communicator, hard worker. Just an 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.” Said back in 2024 when Mike McDonald got named as HC.

He even went as far as predicting a successful career.

“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.”

Indeed, he’s very good at what he does. The former Bulldogs assistant graduate led the Seahawks to the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL by allowing only 17.2 points per game. Mike McDonald saved his best for last in Super Bowl LX to earn the title of one of the youngest HC to the Lombardi.

Mike MacDonald makes history

At the very peak age of 38, he joins an elite ‘young guns’ club. Mike became the third youngest head coach to win that Lombardi, sitting behind the likes of Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin. Both of them won theirs at 36.

What makes his win even more impressive is that he did it while calling his own defensive plays. That’s borderline impossible in today’s day and age. His Seahawks defense racked up six sacks and a pick-six in the big game against the MVP runner-up in Drake Maye. Even with all that success, Macdonald says he still models his leadership after Richt, calling him a man who truly “walks the walk” when it comes to character.

Mike’s now the first coach under 40 to ever win 17 games in a single season (counting the playoffs). By leading the Seahawks to a 29-13 dub, McDonald proved that you don’t need a very long playing career or decades of gray hair to outsmart some of the best in the business in your year 2.

While Michigan fans (because he was their former DC) are claiming credit for the Super Bowl win, MacDonald made sure everyone knows that his career wouldn’t have been possible without that first opportunity in Athens.