You’re never quite ready for the day, are you?

For their entire lives, your son and or daughter has called that 16×20 space in the back corner of the hallway at home. Sure, they show up to dinner every night and go to their little brother’s soccer games, but after 18 years you can tell their hearts are set on something bigger. And far be it for you to stand in their way. You start to realize it’s about time for them to pack up, move out and see what the great big world has to offer.

You might not be particularly happy about it, but you know you’d be doing a disservice to deny them that opportunity.

This, folks, is how I feel about Georgia running backs coach and run game coordinator Dell McGee.

Let’s rewind for a moment to catch anyone up who may not eat, sleep, and breath Bulldogs football like the rest of the audience. (Anyone?)

McGee is a former Georgia high school football legend, both as a player and coach, leading Carver-Columbus to 88 wins and a state championship during his 8-year run at the program. The Auburn University graduate and fifth-round draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 1996 has run the gauntlet as a college coach. He went from an analyst at Auburn in 2013 to a running backs coach at Georgia Southern for two years, earning his first and only head coaching win as an interim in 2015 before joining Kirby Smart’s inaugural staff the following year in Athens, Ga.

Now, at age 49, McGee is starting to see his name tossed around as a candidate for the new opening for a head coach at Georgia Tech after the firing of Geoff Collins. Or one that may come available at his alma mater, Auburn, if Bryan Harsin is let go.

I’m here to tell you that it’s his time. Here’s why.

No one recruits the area better than McGee

Here’s the part where I give away a slight bias: I had the opportunity to cover McGee and Carver-Columbus as a preps reporter  in 2012. It was his last year at the high school level before heading to Auburn to serve as an analyst in Gus Malzahn’s first year. So, my perception of McGee was always incredibly positive.

He had the respect of his young players, who never uttered a word against him. Walking the sidelines of a practice in August or September, it can be easy to hear the grumblings of 17- and 18-year-old kids. But McGee had their full attention and respect.

There used to be a joke at the time about how well McGee recruited – the punchline being that public high schools aren’t exactly supposed to recruit their players, but somehow Carver always ended up with the best around.

No, this isn’t an exposé. I know of zero examples of impropriety. I just know McGee consistently fielded teams with highly talented rosters. Why? Because players loved playing for him, and he knew where and how to use his players.

Kinda like how he operates now as a running backs coach.

McGee is consistently considered among the nation’s top recruiting assistants. He brings in top talent at his position (Zamir White, a 5-star recruit) and at others (Mykell Williams, Justin Fields, Jamaree Salyer and Broderick Jones).

At Georgia players have raved about playing for him. He makes special relationships with the players in his group, such as the one with former Bulldog James Cook, whose jersey McGee wore when Cook missed the 2021 Peach Bowl following the unexpected death of his father.

McGee knows the recruiting hotbeds of Georgia and Alabama as well as anyone in the country because of his history at the prep level, and if a coach is to succeed at Georgia Tech that kind of connection to local talent will be vital.

Look at his Georgia track record

Sure, the current state of Georgia’s running game can be questioned, but there are few coaches with a track record as impressive as McGee’s in the past 6 or 7 years.

McGee has coached the likes of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who formed one of the most dynamic UGA tandems in recent memory, as well as Cook, D’Andre Swift, Elijah Holyfield, Zamir White, Kenny McIntosh and Kendall Milton. It’s been said there’s been a decline in quality, and yet Georgia’s average of 5.44 yards a carry and 13 rushing touchdowns in 2022 compare nicely to some of the team’s best years for McGee.

Plus, he almost certainly plays a role in developing weekly game plans with offensive coordinator Todd Monken. The Bulldogs have scored in a variety of ways on the ground this season, from McGee’s running backs to the quarterback to the incredibly athletic tight end.

While he never has had the chance to call plays at the college level – which would be a knock on any candidacy – McGee has the chops to do so.

It’s something he wants

McGee has made no mention of his intentions, nor is he likely to anytime soon.

What is known is that he has aspirations to be a college head coach. You don’t leave an elite high school program to just be an analyst. The pay bump in Athens has been a sweet perk – he now makes $800,000 as one of the highest-paid position coaches in the country – but the goal to lead a college program is what lured him from the high school ranks.

He had a shot at Georgia Southern. He was a well-respected coach there and was the interim coach when Willie Fritz resigned in 2015. McGee led the Eagles to victory in the GoDaddy Bowl against Bowling Green, his only collegiate win.

McGee was considered for the full-time job that offseason, but it went to Tyson Summers instead (and he didn’t last two years). He nearly landed at Tulane before getting a call from Smart.

Since then his desires have remained clear. He’s been an assistant head coach and now a run game coordinator. He recruits at a high level and gets the best out of his players.

Georgia fans probably rue the day such a coach walks out the door. As a football fan who respects McGee, though, and loves the journey he has taken to this point in his career, I have to say I’m rooting for him.

Whether it’s at Georgia Tech or whether Auburn’s position opens or whether there is a yet-to-be announced vacancy down the road, I’m ready for McGee to see what that coaching world has to offer outside the hedges.