Team meetings are usually all about film and strategy. But sometimes Northwestern wide receivers coach Garrick McGee likes to have a little fun.
“He’ll come into the meeting rooms showing us his old highlight tapes,” said junior receiver Jonathan Fields. “He’s in there trying to brag and stuff, showing us what he looked like. He has to have his glory once a week.”
Once a week?
“Maybe not once a week, but a couple of times a month,” said sophomore receiver Shaun Herbert. “He’s got this one Syracuse game that was an Instant Classic on ESPN.
“He’s out there at quarterback looking about 6-4, 185, looking all skinny. He’s just trying to brag.”
NU receivers all know that Syracuse game, a 30-29 Oklahoma win in which McGee made his debut as the starting quarterback of the Sooners.
After that opening game of the 1994 season, every sports fan in Oklahoma knew the name Garrick McGee.
“In the state of Oklahoma, where there’s no professional team, the Sooners are the professional team,” McGee said. “Being from Oklahoma, I know and realize the impact of being the starting quarterback for the Sooners. That’s a big deal to kids growing up in Oklahoma.”
The Tulsa, Okla., native landed a starting job with the Sooners after transferring from Arizona State and Northeast Oklahoma A&M, all in an attempt to be closer to home.
And McGee immediately showed Oklahoma fans why he was the leader of one of college football’s elite programs.
The junior captain was the Big Eight Conference Newcomer of the Year and totaled 2,014 yards and 10 touchdowns that season, the eighth-best offensive season in Oklahoma history.
But 1994 and 1995, McGee’s two seasons with the Sooners, were rebuilding years in Norman, Okla.
“I was part of the transition from Barry Switzer,” McGee said. “I was there when Oklahoma went from being king, and we went through the slump.
“Then (coach Bob) Stoops came in, and now they’re back. I am one of the guys, and the teammates that I had, we were the ones that went through the tough times at Oklahoma.”
After 6-6 and 5-5-1 seasons, McGee earned a degree from Oklahoma and began his coaching career as quarterbacks, defensive backs and special teams coach at Langston (Okla.) University, a school unaffiliated with the NCAA but involved in NAIA athletics.
In 1999 McGee moved on to coach receivers for one year at Northern Iowa, where NU offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar was the head coach.
“Lovie Smith called me and recommended him when I was looking for a wide receivers coach, and I liked what I heard,” Dunbar said.
After two years as an offensive quality control coach with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, and two years coaching receivers at Toledo and UNLV, McGee came to NU last December and found a refreshing environment.
“There are some things that happen at Oklahoma that you don’t have to worry about here,” McGee said. “Because our kids were highly academic in high school, they understand how to be on time. They understand, for the most part, how to make the right decisions.”
McGee said he brings a variety of influences into his coaching, from tips his father gave him — such as looking players in the face and telling them exactly what they did wrong — to techniques he learned under the strict Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville.
“I worked for Tom Coughlin, who is one of the most disciplinary coaches in the world,” McGee said. “And I kind of like his style.
“I was young when I worked for Tom, and there are a lot of people who say they would never want to work for him. I’m not one of those people. I’m one of these young guys that likes discipline, too.”
Since McGee arrived NU’s passing game has only gotten better, and the Wildcats receivers are putting together one of their best seasons in recent team history.
NU is averaging 253.9 passing yards per game this year, much higher than last season’s 163.2.
Maybe what the Cats needed was a little guidance from the Sooner State.
“If you take care of him, he will take care of you,” said junior receiver Mark Philmore. “We just see eye to eye when it comes to a lot of things, and I think when it comes to a position coach, that’s what you need to have.”
Reach Teddy Kider at [email protected].
