Every Super Bowl-winning coach has a story. But for the Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald, his path to the Lombardi Trophy began with a single leap of faith from a college legend he barely knew. During the busy week of the Super Bowl, Mike Macdonald took the time to give all credit to former Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt for taking a chance on him.

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

When you talk about people that you look up to, who walk the walk and talk the talk, it doesn’t happen as often as you’d like. 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. 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 2010. Back then, Mike was just a two-star recruit at Centennial whose football career ended because of an ACL injury.

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 with safeties.

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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 how 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 Richt back in 2024 when Mike Macdonald got named as HC. “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.”

Richt’s foresight proved remarkably accurate. In just his second year, Macdonald established himself as one of the league’s elite minds, guiding the Seahawks to the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense by allowing only 17.2 points per game. Mike Macdonald saved his best for last in Super Bowl LX to earn the title of one of the youngest head coaches to win the Lombardi.

Mike Macdonald makes history

At just 38, he joins an elite club. Mike became the third-youngest head coach to win that Lombardi Trophy, sitting behind the likes of Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin. Both of them won theirs at 36. But what sets him apart is not just the victory, but how he achieved it. He called his own defensive plays, a rarity in this day and age that speaks to the confidence Richt first saw in him years ago. His Seahawks defense racked up six sacks and a pick-six in the big game against the MVP runner-up, Drake Maye.

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, Macdonald proved you don’t need a very long playing career or decades of gray hair to outsmart some of the best in the business in his second year.

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.