Top Dawgs: Dell McGee

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Top Dawgs: Dell McGee

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Dell McGee is an Auburn graduate and that aligns his history with some other Dawgs like Vince Dooley and Erk Russell. Of course, Pat Dye was ‘man enough’ to coach at Auburn. I’m thinking that was a fair trade.

After his playing days on the Plains, McGee played professional football from 1992 through 2001 with stops at Arizona and Detroit. He also had stints in the XFL, Arena League and NFL Europe before beginning his coaching career with Harris County (GA) High School. The young coach came to UGA as head the running backs room after a stint as running backs coach. In his last year at Southern he was name assistant head coach, and he served as interim head coach before leaving for UGA.

In his three seasons at UGA, McGee coached four 1,000-yard season rushers: Nick Chubb (1,345 in 2017 and 1,130 in 2016); Sony Michel (1,161 in 2017); D’Andre Swift (1,049 in 2018); and Elijah Holyfield (1,018 in 2018).  In the 2018 NFL draft, Michel was the 31st player picked by the New England Patriots and Chubb was 35th pick of the draft by the Cleveland Browns.  Chubb and Michel finished their careers as the Nos. 2 and 3 career rushers in UGA history, amassing over 8,400 combined yards and 87 touchdowns.  Additionally, Rivals.com named McGee the 2018 National Recruiter of the Year after the Bulldogs signed the consensus No. 1-rated recruiting class.

In 2018, Georgia finished first in the SEC (16th nationally) in Rushing Offense (238.8 ypg) and second (14th nationally) in Scoring Offense (37.9 ppg).

georgiadogs.com

Dell McGee is a recruiting machine. His recruits have staked UGA to some of its biggest recent wins :

 

 

 

 

Specifically in 2018, McGee was instrumental in helping Georgia sign 5-stars QB Justin Fields and RB Zamir White. McGee was also the primary recruiter for 4-stars Chris Smith and James Cook and helped the Bulldogs land other 5-stars Brenton Cox and Jamaree Salyer. During the 2017 recruiting cycle, McGee was impactful in helping the Bulldogs land future star RB D’Andre Swift.

SDS
Dell McGee

While at Georgia Southern, he dropped a couple of quotes that provide hint to to energy and passion for the game:

“The football part is easy and fun,” McGee said. “I think that part takes care of itself. I really like pouring into the lives of my kids and trying to mentor them and grow beyond football.”

“It’s what I love,” he said. “I don’t really consider this a job. I’m not like, ’Aw, I’ve got to get up in the morning. I don’t even have to wake up to an alarm clock. I just wake up. It’s been like that with me for a long time. I’m just fortunate to be living in my passion.”

Savannah Now

The rumor mill has been full of speculation about McGee as a candidate for several head coaching jobs, but so far, the recruiting wizard has been content to add to his resume at Georgia. As I compose this series on Georgia’s assistant coaches, two characteristics stand out. First, they are great recruiters. Second, if anyone of them was named a FBS head coach this afternoon, no one would be shocked.

 

 

 

 

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Greg is closing in on 15 years writing about and photographing UGA sports. While often wrong and/or out of focus, it has been a long, strange trip full of fun and new friends.