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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Elite Staff: How MacIntyre and Rodriguez Are Shaping the Rebel Football Culture
9/19/2019 | Football
Former Pac-12 Coach of the Year Winners Mike MacIntyre and Rich Rodriguez are Key Components of the Rebuild in Oxford
This story originally appeared in the Sept. 14, 2019 issue of Rebel: The Official Magazine of Ole Miss Football Gameday.
Coming off a 5-7 2018 football season and suddenly with openings at both coordinator positions, head coach Matt Luke wanted to seek out the best there was on each side of the ball. Now, as he embarks on his third full season at the helm of the Rebel program, Luke says he's joined by some of the best and brightest college football has to offer.
The Rebels made two splash hires in the offseason, nabbing a pair of former head coaches, Rich Rodriguez and Mike MacIntyre, to lead a new-look Ole Miss program. As the Rebels get underway with the 2019 season, they will be just one of two schools in the nation with two one-time Power 5 head coaches at each coordinator positions.
"When you look at the options that were out there, you say, 'Okay, who's out there, who can help us win football games?'" Luke said. "That's why I was hired, to win football games and get this program back on track. And when you have guys like Rich and Mike, with that much experience and that much talent, it was really an obvious and easy decision."
Rodriguez joins the staff by way of West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona, while MacIntyre was welcomed to the Rebel staff following a five-year stint as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, where he was named the 2016 AP Coach of the Year.
"They have a 30,000 foot view of the field," Luke said. "They've sat in the head coach's chair, and they understand the big picture. They want to win football games, and they both bring it every single day. It gives me a lot of confidence when I'm away from the office that they're here."
Luke's 2019 season will be the first with his fingerprints all over the program – two new hand-picked coordinators and a freshman recruiting class not burdened by NCAA sanctions, but it's far from 'year one' for Luke and the Rebels. It's a young team, with a brand-new system and a handful of new faces on the coaching staff, but the mission hasn't changed since the coaching overhaul – to get this Ole Miss program back on track.
"Obviously there's a lot of change coming off probation and having 65 freshman and sophomores on the team, but, you're just trying to keep building and get better," Luke said. "There are no quick fixes, there is no easy way. It's just rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. These young guys will get there."
Rodriguez was named the offensive coordinator this past summer following his first year off from football in quite some time. The Rebels came calling at just the right time, according to Rodriguez, who was eager to rejoin the ranks of college football.
"It was frustrating at times to sit out. I was able to watch my son play a little bit, and that was kind of neat, but I was still hungry to be in the game, and to still coach," Rodriguez said. "I was hoping the right opportunity would come up, and it did here at Ole Miss."
Rodriguez, or Rich Rod, as he's known around the building, brings with him an unmatched passion for the game and a knack for developing the hurry-up, spread offense, something he's keen to enjoy with a Rebel offense spearheaded by the likes of Matt Corral and Scottie Phillips.
"Rich Rod coaches with passion, coaches with an edge," Luke said. "He holds everybody accountable from start to finish."
Rodriguez knows he has his hands full with a relatively inexperienced Ole Miss offense that saw the departure of their top three wide-outs from 2018, but he's been pleased with the receptiveness he's seen from the entire team this offseason – both young and old.
"We got young guys, so they're all starting from scratch, so to speak," Rodriguez said. "Everybody is kind of a freshman in the system. They're eager to learn, and I've been really pleased with their attitude. We got a lot of work to do, but I'm really excited about the future, because they have a great attitude and they want to win for Ole Miss."
MacIntyre, meanwhile, is no stranger to Oxford and Ole Miss. He and Luke both worked on the staff of David Cutcliffe in the early 2000s, and then again on Cutcliffe's staff at Duke.
"We just have a lot of mutual respect for each other," Luke said. "We have very similar beliefs. We were both brought up under the same guy and our coaching roots are very similar. I know when we were at different places I would always call for advice. We've always had a great relationship."
When Luke was announced as the interim head coach of the Rebels in 2017, one of his first calls went to a fellow head coach in MacIntyre, who was then coming off a record season at the University of Colorado. It's a relationship that goes back decades, the two say.
"I thought it was a really smart hire," MacIntyre said. "I talked to Matt the day he got the interim job, he called me, and we talked about things to do. We talked throughout the season, and we even talked the next year some. I was just really excited for Matt, and I was really excited for Ole Miss. He really cares about this school."
MacIntyre immediately instituted a 3-4 defensive system upon his arrival, and it's already paying dividends for the Rebel defense. Ole Miss finished 14th in the SEC in 2018 in total team defense, but in MacIntyre's first game as defensive coordinator, he was able to hold the high-powered Memphis offense to just 15 points.
One area where the Rebels have shown significant improvement over the offseason is on the line – something MacIntyre attributes to the depth of this roster.
"Freddie Roach has done a phenomenal job with those D-linemen," MacIntyre said. "We have quite a few that we can rotate in. You need to be able to rotate D-linemen in. Everybody says, 'Well, why is that?' Well, if you've ever wrestled and then sprint twenty yards over and over, it wears you out."
More than anything, however, MacIntyre just wants his defense that finished last year at the bottom of the SEC to buy into the new system and rebuild the Landshark D.
"I told them I believe in them, and they believe in us," MacIntyre said. "We have to believe in each other, we have to care about each other, and we have to push each other. There's a trust factor built, and if there's a trust factor built, we can push each other and challenge each other to be the best we can be."
Both MacIntyre and Rodriguez, a pair of former head coaches with quite the notoriety and the accolades to back it up, are stepping into new roles – working under a coach that they have a combined 21 years of experience on. The duo, however, is ready for the challenges that lie ahead, and they're excited to be doing it all under the tutelage of Matt Luke.
"Working with Matt has been awesome," MacIntyre said. "He's an excellent head coach. He's been able to just keep rallying the troops, which is a huge testament to his leadership."
Coming off a 5-7 2018 football season and suddenly with openings at both coordinator positions, head coach Matt Luke wanted to seek out the best there was on each side of the ball. Now, as he embarks on his third full season at the helm of the Rebel program, Luke says he's joined by some of the best and brightest college football has to offer.
The Rebels made two splash hires in the offseason, nabbing a pair of former head coaches, Rich Rodriguez and Mike MacIntyre, to lead a new-look Ole Miss program. As the Rebels get underway with the 2019 season, they will be just one of two schools in the nation with two one-time Power 5 head coaches at each coordinator positions.
"When you look at the options that were out there, you say, 'Okay, who's out there, who can help us win football games?'" Luke said. "That's why I was hired, to win football games and get this program back on track. And when you have guys like Rich and Mike, with that much experience and that much talent, it was really an obvious and easy decision."
Rodriguez joins the staff by way of West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona, while MacIntyre was welcomed to the Rebel staff following a five-year stint as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, where he was named the 2016 AP Coach of the Year.
"They have a 30,000 foot view of the field," Luke said. "They've sat in the head coach's chair, and they understand the big picture. They want to win football games, and they both bring it every single day. It gives me a lot of confidence when I'm away from the office that they're here."
Luke's 2019 season will be the first with his fingerprints all over the program – two new hand-picked coordinators and a freshman recruiting class not burdened by NCAA sanctions, but it's far from 'year one' for Luke and the Rebels. It's a young team, with a brand-new system and a handful of new faces on the coaching staff, but the mission hasn't changed since the coaching overhaul – to get this Ole Miss program back on track.
"Obviously there's a lot of change coming off probation and having 65 freshman and sophomores on the team, but, you're just trying to keep building and get better," Luke said. "There are no quick fixes, there is no easy way. It's just rolling up your sleeves and getting to work. These young guys will get there."
Rodriguez was named the offensive coordinator this past summer following his first year off from football in quite some time. The Rebels came calling at just the right time, according to Rodriguez, who was eager to rejoin the ranks of college football.
"It was frustrating at times to sit out. I was able to watch my son play a little bit, and that was kind of neat, but I was still hungry to be in the game, and to still coach," Rodriguez said. "I was hoping the right opportunity would come up, and it did here at Ole Miss."
Rodriguez, or Rich Rod, as he's known around the building, brings with him an unmatched passion for the game and a knack for developing the hurry-up, spread offense, something he's keen to enjoy with a Rebel offense spearheaded by the likes of Matt Corral and Scottie Phillips.
"Rich Rod coaches with passion, coaches with an edge," Luke said. "He holds everybody accountable from start to finish."
Rodriguez knows he has his hands full with a relatively inexperienced Ole Miss offense that saw the departure of their top three wide-outs from 2018, but he's been pleased with the receptiveness he's seen from the entire team this offseason – both young and old.
"We got young guys, so they're all starting from scratch, so to speak," Rodriguez said. "Everybody is kind of a freshman in the system. They're eager to learn, and I've been really pleased with their attitude. We got a lot of work to do, but I'm really excited about the future, because they have a great attitude and they want to win for Ole Miss."
MacIntyre, meanwhile, is no stranger to Oxford and Ole Miss. He and Luke both worked on the staff of David Cutcliffe in the early 2000s, and then again on Cutcliffe's staff at Duke.
"We just have a lot of mutual respect for each other," Luke said. "We have very similar beliefs. We were both brought up under the same guy and our coaching roots are very similar. I know when we were at different places I would always call for advice. We've always had a great relationship."
When Luke was announced as the interim head coach of the Rebels in 2017, one of his first calls went to a fellow head coach in MacIntyre, who was then coming off a record season at the University of Colorado. It's a relationship that goes back decades, the two say.
"I thought it was a really smart hire," MacIntyre said. "I talked to Matt the day he got the interim job, he called me, and we talked about things to do. We talked throughout the season, and we even talked the next year some. I was just really excited for Matt, and I was really excited for Ole Miss. He really cares about this school."
MacIntyre immediately instituted a 3-4 defensive system upon his arrival, and it's already paying dividends for the Rebel defense. Ole Miss finished 14th in the SEC in 2018 in total team defense, but in MacIntyre's first game as defensive coordinator, he was able to hold the high-powered Memphis offense to just 15 points.
One area where the Rebels have shown significant improvement over the offseason is on the line – something MacIntyre attributes to the depth of this roster.
"Freddie Roach has done a phenomenal job with those D-linemen," MacIntyre said. "We have quite a few that we can rotate in. You need to be able to rotate D-linemen in. Everybody says, 'Well, why is that?' Well, if you've ever wrestled and then sprint twenty yards over and over, it wears you out."
More than anything, however, MacIntyre just wants his defense that finished last year at the bottom of the SEC to buy into the new system and rebuild the Landshark D.
"I told them I believe in them, and they believe in us," MacIntyre said. "We have to believe in each other, we have to care about each other, and we have to push each other. There's a trust factor built, and if there's a trust factor built, we can push each other and challenge each other to be the best we can be."
Both MacIntyre and Rodriguez, a pair of former head coaches with quite the notoriety and the accolades to back it up, are stepping into new roles – working under a coach that they have a combined 21 years of experience on. The duo, however, is ready for the challenges that lie ahead, and they're excited to be doing it all under the tutelage of Matt Luke.
"Working with Matt has been awesome," MacIntyre said. "He's an excellent head coach. He's been able to just keep rallying the troops, which is a huge testament to his leadership."
Players Mentioned
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PRESSER | Pete Golding (04-14-26)
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