There’s No Slackin’ with Coach McMackin
Greg McMackin loves horsing around with grandkids Taylor and Kayla, but with his Warrior team the new coach is a tough taskmaster and vows they’ll play aggressive, attacking football in Saturday’s opener at Florida. Greg McMackin is clearly his father’s son. He is a look-you-in-the-eye sort of guy
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Springfield, Ore., the future Seattle Seahawk defensive coordinator injured his ACL while returning a punt. For all practical purposes, his football career was over. Knee injuries at the time were were not well understood, and treatment amounted to little more than surgery and draining the fluid that collects in the area.
Doctors operated, and six weeks after the surgery, Mac gave football another shot. The knee just wouldn’t allow it, and his doctor’s opinion that he would never play again seemed written in stone. He was even told that further injury could be crippling. His coaches weren’t about to take any chances without the doctor’s consent, and that was not about to happen, so Mac filled the void with baseball, basketball and track. With football his first love and with his senior year approaching, he knew that he had one last shot of putting on a helmet. So he got creative.
“So my senior year, I couldn’t stand not playing, and I told the coaches I was going back to the doctor. He said the same thing, that there is no way I can play, so when he left the room and I took one of his prescription deals - and this isn’t probably nice to say - but signed a note saying it was OK, and I’ve played ever since.”
It was a gamble that paid off. He played his senior year and then, to the thrill of his parents, was offered an athletic scholarship to play football at Southern Oregon. His father had only a sixth-grade education and his parents wanted more for their son, but money in the McMackin house was limited and the scholarship was a blessing.
“I grew up with two sweaters and two shirts,” says the coach about the early days. “I remember one Christmas, I bet I was in the seventh grade, we had a walnut tree in the back yard, and we had to break them open to get out the meat to take it to the walnut factory so we could have Christmas.”
Things got better in later years. When Mac was in college, his father and uncle opened the Alpine Village Inn in nearby Eugene, Ore. The business was a success, but his father never took it easy. It was yet another valuable lesson.
“I learned my work ethic from him. He worked two jobs and then, when he was in the restaurant business, he’d go to work at 5 and come home at 1. He worked until he was 75 years old. Any time I get tired, I remember my dad. My mom was the same way ... they both taught me a lot about work ethic, loyalty, passion and family.”
Commitment to family is of major importance to the coach. The first thing he and wife Heather did after getting the job was to bring the entire family, daughter Shannon, grandson Taylor, granddaughter Kayla and her adopted Arabian horse Cabaret, to Hawaii.
Such values were never on better display than when he took his talents to the United States Naval Academy,whose pledge of"Honor ... Courage ... Commitment"had a big impact on the coach.
“I got a great appreciation from coaching at the Naval Academy. Just seeing what they go through. Just to see what they have to do to keep us free because the first Iraq War, Desert Storm, was going on when I was at the Naval Academy. Players I had would leave to go fight in the war. I had SEALs and Marines and guys like that who were loyal as heck, but you didn’t know if you were going to see them again.”
Though Mac retains a majority of the coaches from last season’s record-breaking year, the new head man is putting his own twist on the offense that made Manoa famous. He says his coaching preference is to incorporate the styles of both Mouse Davis and June Jones. He’ll stick with the shotgun as the basis of his offense, but will run more plays under center than did Jones.
“We are still going to be a passing team that sets up the run by passing the ball,” he says.“But from being under center, you can run more misdirection.We want to be able to run a certain package under center. It helps our running because the angles are better. The only thing you can really do in the gun is run the draw and shuffle passes. It gives us a little more variety.”
Another change from past seasons is that the head coach will no longer be calling the offensive plays. That big responsibility now falls on the hands of coordinator Ron Lee. Coach Mac will handle the defense, with Cal Lee coaching up the squad during the game and making adjustments.
“Ron Lee has total control of offense,” says Mac.“I will not tell them what to run. I’m going to give them the parameters. I want a package for playing under center and in the shotgun for the first two games.”
Limiting turnovers also will be a major focus.
“Last season we averaged four turnovers per game.I want to limit those. It’s going to take time to get our timing down. We’re going to have to play team football and not just try to outscore them.”
Sharing a philosophy with men’s basketball coach Bob Nash, Coach Mac promises that physical conditioning will improve:
“We are going to be in shape. There will be no hands on knees. That’s more for mental toughness. We don’t want to show any weakness.”
As far as Saturday’s season opener at Florida (kickoff at 6 a.m. HST), Mac’s not promising anything but a tough game.
“We’re going to blitz the heck out of them and go after their running game. If (Heisman Trophy winning QB Tim) Tebow is play-action passing, we are going to go after them. What do we have to lose? If we go down and pull an Appalachian State (who defeated No. 5 Michigan last year), it would be the greatest thing to ever happen. They are a good football team and I respect them, and it’s going to be a big challenge, but we are going to be aggressive against them.We are not going to sit around and play it safe and try to keep the score down and run 30 times and that type of thing. We’re going to go with our basic offense.”
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