Jack McDaniels Leaving Central Michigan to Become Georgetown's Offensive Coordinator

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching fellowship that Jack McDaniels completed in the summer of 2025 was a signal, not a detour. At 27, McDaniels is reportedly returning to Georgetown as its new offensive coordinator, a move that would make him one of the youngest playcallers in all of Division I football.

McDaniels spent the 2025 season as a senior analyst on Matt Drinkall's staff at Central Michigan, arriving from Tampa Bay with a resume few coaches his age can replicate. Drinkall's first year at Central Michigan produced a 7-5 regular season before a 34-7 loss to Northwestern in the GameAbove Sports Bowl dropped the Chippewas to 7-6, and Drinkall managed to keep his coordinators intact entering spring. The McDaniels departure, reported on March 23, represents a mid-spring hit to the support staff, and Central Michigan will likely look to promote internally or pursue a young analyst who can replicate his blend of on-field development and recruiting work.

The bigger story is what Georgetown gains. McDaniels played quarterback at West Alabama, where he was a rare three-time captain, and his coaching career has been built almost entirely around developing passers and the passing game. After coaching tight ends at Georgetown in 2022, he moved to quarterbacks in 2023 and earned a promotion to pass-game coordinator, recruiting coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2024. That three-year arc in Washington, combined with the subsequent NFL fellowship, traces the outline of a coordinator who thinks about football through a passing-game lens.

For the Patriot League, that lens matters. Georgetown went 6-6 in 2025 under Rob Sgarlata, who has been the program's head coach since February 2014. Sgarlata is one of only four people in program history to have played and graduated from Georgetown before being named head coach, and his decision to bring back a former Hoya staffer with FBS and NFL experience signals a clear intent to upgrade the offense. Patriot League defenses that absorb physical run games are reliably harder to scheme against with tempo-based, quick-game passing attacks, and McDaniels' entire coaching identity is built around creating those problems.

The recruiting angle in the DMV corridor is equally pointed. McDaniels served as Georgetown's recruiting coordinator in 2024 alongside his on-field duties, establishing relationships across the region before departing for Tampa Bay and then Mount Pleasant. A 27-year-old offensive coordinator who played quarterback, coached quarterbacks and completed an NFL fellowship represents an unusual pitch in a market that produces college-ready passers annually. For DMV quarterbacks evaluating FCS offers in 2026, McDaniels' age and playing background narrow the coaching generation gap that often costs smaller programs in head-to-head battles with FBS staffs.

Georgetown is betting that his velocity translates into wins. Sitting at .500 in 2025, the Hoyas are adding a coordinator who compressed a full coaching arc from graduate assistant to NFL fellowship to FBS analyst into five years. That is the kind of upward mobility that tends to accelerate the programs smart enough to get ahead of it.