Mike McCarthy pressed on if he has considered returning to coaching college football

The college coaching carousel is looking like one of the largest in the history of the sport. That’s going to leave plenty of open jobs for coaches. Of course, that includes those currently out of coaching, like Mike McCarthy.

The Super Bowl champion head coach appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday. There, he was pressed on whether or not he’d consider going back into coaching at the college ranks. Incidentally, that’s a level of the sport he loved before ending up in the NFL‘s ecosystem.

“There was a time when I first got into coaching, I got into it for college football,” McCarthy said. “I mean, that was my goal back at the University of Pittsburgh. I was there back in 1989 to 1992. If you would’ve told me I could stay there for 25 years on an assistant coach’s contract, I would’ve signed it. I just felt that college football was superior to the young man’s life, that you could make the biggest impact.”

McCarthy is a Pittsburgh native who would play college football at the NAIA level. He even spent some time early in his career as a graduate assistant and wide receivers coach at Pitt. However, in 1993, he made the jump to the NFL. For the rest of his career, he coached at that level. That includes two stints as a head coach with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. He even won the Super Bowl with Green Bay.

“So, that was my initial goal, getting into coaching and what attracted me to get into coaching. But then, in 1993, I got an opportunity at a young age from Marty Schottenheimer to be in the National Football League at Kansas City. Really, from there, that’s been my flight professionally. I looked at some things early in my time in the NFL,” McCarthy said. “But back then, it was so hard to get in the NFL. I could remember the first staff I was on, I think I was 29 years old. The next oldest guy might’ve been in his late 30s, early 40s. It was such a hard league to get into, even more so at that time. I’ve always viewed it as, I’m here. I’ll do everything I can to progress here and I’ve been .”

One thing McCarthy has noticed is that the college game is different from what it was when he was there. The most obvious is, of course, NIL and the House Settlement. In other words, players can make money now, and money does change that coach-to-player dynamic.

“I do agree with you,” McCarthy said. “You see the parallels now, how the college landscape has gone more toward the professional with the payment of players and so forth. I know just the friends that I have in college football, they do feel the regularity of the college game is starting to get more and more balanced and there is more clarity, but it’s a tough gig. Especially seeing what’s going on the last two weeks with some of these buyouts. So, I thought you made a lot of excellent points.”

When Bill Belichick was initially hired by North Carolina, part of the argument in favor of the hire was that he understood building a roster when working with a salary cap. That hasn’t worked very well so far, but it’s an argument another team could agree with. If that’s the case, then there’s a chance someone does kick the tires on a veteran coach like Mike McCarthy.