Quick Facts
Biography
Ron McBride (born October 14, 1939) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1990 to 2002 and at Weber State University from 2005 to 2011, compiling a career college football record of 131–101.
A native of Los Angeles, California, McBride was an all-city football and baseball standout at South Gate High School. He graduated from San Jose State University where he played for the Spartans from 1959 to 1962 and served as team captain his senior year. He later played professionally with the San Jose Apaches of the USA League.
Coaching career
McBride began his coaching career at San Jose State in 1965, serving as the freshman coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. He then spent two years as an assistant coach at Piedmont Hills High School (1966–1968) and three years as an assistant at Gavilan College (1969–1971), before returning to the NCAA ranks.
From 1972 to 1973, he served as an assistant coach at University of California, Riverside, where he was in charge of the offensive line and served as offensive coordinator. He then served in the same capacities at California State University, Long Beach from 1974 to 1976.
McBride first came to Utah in 1977 to serve as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator under Wayne Howard at Utah. In 1983, he accepted a position as the offensive line coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he served two seasons before returning to Salt Lake City, coaching the offensive line from 1985 to 1986 under head coach Jim Fassel.
In 1987, he left the Utes to join Dick Tomey's staff at the University of Arizona. He served two years as the offensive line coach and was elevated to assistant head coach during the 1989 season. Following that season he became the head coach at Utah.
Head coach at Utah
McBride inherited a program that had only had five winning seasons in the previous 16 years, and had not posted a winning season in Western Athletic Conference play since 1985. He didn't take long to turn the program around. In 1991, his second season, he posted a 7–5 record, but a blowout loss to rival BYU kept them out of a bowl. A year later, he led the Utes to the 1992 Copper Bowl, the program's first bowl appearance in 28 years. He took the Utes to six bowl games during his tenure, a noteworthy feat considering the Utes had played in just three bowl games in the previous 97 years. His teams posted bowl wins over USC, Arizona and Fresno State. During his tenure at Utah, McBride posted an overall record of 88–63 (.582), the second most wins by a coach in the history of Utah football.
| "Utah was a soft program, an underachieving program and a program that was going nowhere. Their expectations weren't that high. When they hired me they said, 'Well, if you cannot embarrass us against BYU and be in about the middle of the league, and be respectable you can stay here as long as you want.' The bar was low. The expectations were they just didn't want to get embarrassed on Saturday." |
| — McBride on the state of Utah football when he took over. |
His best season came in 1994 when the Utes won a then-record 10 games and attained the highest post-season ranking, at the time, in school history climbing to No. 8 in the USA Today/ESPN poll and No. 10 in the AP poll. In conference games, he guided the Utes to a 58–42 record and won a share of two conference championships, 1995 in the Western Athletic Conference and 1999 in the Mountain West Conference. McBride excelled in the rivalry games within the state of Utah. His Utes held their own against perennial power BYU; winning six of their last 11 against the Cougars after losing 16 of the previous 18 before he took over. He also dominated Utah State (11–2). In 1998, he was a serious candidate to take over the moribund program at Hawaii, a position that eventually went to June Jones.
McBride's tenure at Utah began to falter in 2000. The Utes were the favorites to win the Mountain West after tying for the conference title a year earlier, but lost their first four games en route to a 4–7 record, their first losing record since McBride's arrival. Season-ticket sales fell 15% as a result, problematic given the costly rebuilding of Rice-Eccles Stadium, and pressure rose to fire McBride. The Utes rebounded in 2001, achieving a winning record and scoring an upset win in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl over the USC Trojans in Pete Carroll's first season. With the Utes slipping again into a losing season, McBride was fired by Utah after the 2002 season and replaced by Urban Meyer. Despite the inglorious end to McBride's tenure, he is credited with laying the foundation for Utah's rise to national prominence under Meyer and his former defensive coordinator, Kyle Whittingham.
After Utah
After leaving Utah, McBride took over as the inside linebacker coach at Kentucky in 2003. He returned to the state of Utah in 2004, when he was named head football coach at Weber State University. The Weber State Wildcats were an NCAA Division I-AA team that played in the Big Sky Conference.
Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP/TSN° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Utah Utes (Western Athletic Conference) (1990–1998) | |||||||||
| 1990 | Utah | 4–7 | 2–6 | 7th | |||||
| 1991 | Utah | 7–5 | 4–4 | 4th | |||||
| 1992 | Utah | 6–6 | 4–4 | T–5th | L Copper | ||||
| 1993 | Utah | 7–6 | 5–3 | 4th | L Freedom | ||||
| 1994 | Utah | 10–2 | 6–2 | T–2nd | W Freedom | 8 | 10 | ||
| 1995 | Utah | 7–4 | 6–2 | T–1st | |||||
| 1996 | Utah | 8–4 | 6–2 | T–2nd (Mountain) | L Copper | ||||
| 1997 | Utah | 6–5 | 5–3 | T–2nd (Mountain) | |||||
| 1998 | Utah | 7–4 | 5–3 | T–3rd (Pacific) | |||||
| Utah Utes (Mountain West Conference) (1999–2002) | |||||||||
| 1999 | Utah | 9–3 | 5–2 | T–1st | W Las Vegas | ||||
| 2000 | Utah | 4–7 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 2001 | Utah | 8–4 | 4–3 | T–3rd | W Las Vegas | ||||
| 2002 | Utah | 5–6 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
| Utah: | 88–63 | 58–42 | |||||||
| Weber State Wildcats (Big Sky Conference) (2005–2010) | |||||||||
| 2005 | Weber State | 6–5 | 4–3 | T–4th | |||||
| 2006 | Weber State | 4–7 | 3–5 | T–6th | |||||
| 2007 | Weber State | 5–6 | 4–4 | 5th | |||||
| 2008 | Weber State | 10–4 | 7–1 | 1st | L NCAA Division I Quarterfinal | 9 | 7 | ||
| 2009 | Weber State | 7–5 | 6–2 | 2nd | L NCAA Division I First Round | 17 | 15 | ||
| 2010 | Weber State | 6–5 | 5–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| 2011 | Weber State | 5–6 | 5–3 | T–3rd | |||||
| Weber State: | 43–38 | 34–22 | |||||||
| Total: | 131–101 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title | |||||||||
Coaching tree
Assistant coaches under Ron McBride who became NCAA or NFL head coaches:
- Gary Andersen: Utah State (2009–2012), Wisconsin (2013–2014), Oregon State (2015–present)
- Derek Mason: Vanderbilt (2014–present)
- Rick Rasnick: Eastern Michigan (1995–1999)
NFL players coached
McBride has coached over 70 players who have moved on to play in the National Football League (NFL):
- Jamal Anderson, All-Pro running back, played for the Atlanta Falcons
- Mike Anderson, 2000 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, played for the Denver Broncos
- Kevin Dyson, first wide receiver taken in the 1998 NFL draft and a starter for the Tennessee Titans in the 2000 Super Bowl
- Andre Dyson, cornerback selected by the Tennessee Titans in 2nd round of the 2001 NFL Draft and brother to Kevin
- Luther Ellis, All-Pro defensive lineman, played for the Detroit Lions
- Steve Smith, led the NFL in kickoff returns in 2001 and the only rookie named to the Pro Bowl team, Carolina Panthers' all-time leading receiver in receptions, yards, and touchdowns; currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens
- Jordan Gross, eighth pick in the first round of the NFL draft and current starting offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers
- Pat McQuistan, offensive lineman selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the 7th round of the 2006 NFL Draft (Weber State)
- Paul McQuistan, offensive lineman selected by the Oakland Raiders in the 3rd round of the 2006 NFL Draft (Weber State)
- David Hale, offensive lineman selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the 4th round of the 2008 NFL Draft (Weber State)
- J. D. Folsom, inebacker selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 7th round of the 2009 NFL Draft (Weber State)
- Marcus Mailei, fullback signed to Philadelphia Eagles practice squad in 2009, before signing with the Super Bowl-winning New Orleans Saints midseason. (Weber State)
- Tim Toone, wide receiver, Mr. Irrelevant of the 2010 NFL Draft, selected by the Detroit Lions with the 255th pick in the 7th round