By now, everyone knows that it’s Homecoming Week at the U. It’s also a homecoming of sorts for someone at Weber State. Ron McBride is back at the U for the first time since being nudged out of the U football head coach’s door back in 2002.
The highlights of McBride’s 13-year tenure: three bowl wins in six appearances from a team that hadn’t seen a football postseason since 1964. He left the U with a career record of 88-63 and helped build the foundation of what the Ute football program is today.
“Obviously I have a lot of great memories of being on the sidelines there and was involved in many memorable games,” McBride said. “It will definitely feel different being on the other sideline this Saturday.”
McBride has experience in many of college football’s Division 1 conferences. Over his 30-plus-year career as a coach, he’s made stints in the Pac-10 (Arizona), SEC (Kentucky) and the Big Ten (Wisconsin).
Despite all those stops, he’s always felt like Utah was his home. He began his career with the U in 1977 as an offensive coordinator. He was an assistant until Utah Athletic Director Chris Hill gave him a shot as the head coach.
McBride felt that the U could make a major impact in the WAC and ultimately the MWC; he was right. Three seasons into his U career, he got the Utes into their first bowl game in 28 years. Although they lost the Copper Bowl to Washington State in 1992, they were on the right track to becoming a prominent football program in Division 1 football.
Two seasons after his first bowl appearance at the U, McBride turned in what would be his best season with the program. In 1994, the Utes went 10-2 and were invited to play in the Freedom Bowl against No. 8 Arizona. In a tight game against the Wildcats, McBride coached the U to their first bowl win since 1964 with a 16-13 victory.
Four more bowl appearances followed before he was let go, but not without making arguably the biggest impact on Utah football history.
McBride helped recruit the team that would eventually bust the BCS in 2004, and, although he was not there to see his work fall into place, he was a major contributor to the Fiesta Bowl victory.
“He is responsible for the resurgence of the Utah football program and the majority of the players on the 2004 team were his recruits,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said.
As a former defensive coordinator of McBride’s, Whittingham has taken over the Utes and has continued their streak of winning bowl games. McBride gave Whittingham his first Division 1 coaching job and helped teach him how to recruit hard-nosed players.
“I am indebted to him for the opportunity,” Whittingham said. “He is a close friend and a genuine guy. I learned a lot from him.”
McBride was away from the state of Utah for a few seasons before returning in 2005 to coach Weber State. He is now in his fourth season with them and, just like he did with the U, is trying to make a team that hasn’t done much in their conference into a program that can win games. This game will without a doubt be his biggest test since taking the job at Weber State, and he knows it.
“They are solid in every phase of the game and that’s why they are having a great deal of success,” McBride said. “Kyle has done an outstanding job of putting the right pieces in place to have continued success.”
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