Former Centennial Knights Mike Macdonald hired as new Seattle Seahawks head coach

The Seattle Seahawks have hired Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator and Centennial graduate, Mike Macdonald, as the teams new head coach.

The former Ravens DC is a graduate of Centennial and played multiple sports during his time in the Knights athletic program. Coach Macdonald was involved in both the baseball and football programs, playing linebacker at Centennial before beginning his coaching career.

“Mike is one of the finest young men I had the pleasure of coaching,” said former Centennial football coach Mike Cloy. “He was an excellent teammate, leader, was a good athlete and very intelligent.”

When injury plagued his senior season, Macdonald helped work with the Centennial football program in anyway he could. He would help coach the linebackers and would do anything he could to help to make sure everyone was where they needed to be on the field.

BREAKING: The #Seahawks are hiring #Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as their new HC, sources tell @BleacherReport.

Macdonald, 36, helped guide Baltimore to one of the NFL’s top all-around defenses last season. pic.twitter.com/eYgtF5ViSx

— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 31, 2024

While attending the University of Georgia, Coach Macdonald wanted to get involved in coaching. Due to coach not having any college or professional playing experience, Coach Macdonald took a different route on his way to becoming Seattle’s new head coach.

Xarvia Smith, one of Macdonald’s former high school coaches, helped him get his start into coaching by giving him an opportunity at Cedar Shoals in Athens while he was attending UGA. Macdonald began as a 9th grade defensive coordinator and in seven games, his defense shut their opponent out in six times.

Smith helped Macdonald get his start into coaching at the next level as he was able to join the UGA football program as a student assistant while attending the school. From there he was able to work his way up to safeties and defensive quality control coach by the end of his tenure in Athens.

“When he was with Georgia, Mike took my family and I out to breakfast one morning and he gave me what seemed like 1000 cut-ups from the NFL and college and as we were discussing those clips I said to him ‘Mike your gonna be a coach, a linebacker coach, a coordinator, man your going to be a head coach by the time you are 36’,” Smith said.

While Smith’s prediction was pretty spot on, Macdonald’s career was only taking off with plenty of more opportunities ahead.

In 2013, Macdonald was hired as a defensive coaching intern with the Baltimore Ravens. The next couple years were pivotal for Macdonald’s coaching career as he received multiple promotions within the organization such as defensive assistant in 2015, defensive backs coach in 2017 and linebackers coach in 2018.

Macdonald remained in Baltimore from 2014-2020, until he was hired to become the defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan in 2021. After spending a season in Ann Arbor, Macdonald was rehired by the Ravens, and was named the organizations defensive coordinator in 2022, where he remained until taking up the opportunity in Seattle.

After coaching in numerous levels and with plenty of experience now under his belt, this will be Macdonald’s first opportunity as a head coach. Though that may be something fans look into, those that know Macdonald know that he is going give his team the best opportunity to succeed.

“He’s multiple, he is going to put his players into position to be the best for them and what is going to fit the scheme,” said Coach Smith. “He is going to break down the film and he is going to see what he needs to do and see where he needs to bring his blitzes from and when he needs to bring a blitz as well as which coverage to use.”

In last year’s Ravens defense led by Macdonald, Baltimore led the league in sacks and takeaways as well lowest opponent points per game. He was a major factor into the teams AFC-best record of 13-4 and helped them win the AFC North in 2023.

Macdonald, 36, is now the youngest head coach in the NFL and is replacing longtime Seattle head coach, Pete Carroll, who held the position for the last 14 seasons. Seattle is giving Macdonald a six-year contract beginning next season. Macdonald is taking over the reins of a young Seattle Seahawks whose defense gave up the third most yards per game in the NFL last season.