Former TCU football player & NFL head coach Dave McGinnis has died
Long before Dave McGinnis became a known quantity throughout the NFL, he was a defensive back at TCU who aspired to be a college coach with a hopeful eye of one day returning to his alma mater.
McGinnis, who played at TCU from 1970 to ‘72 and coached there on two separate occasions, was a longtime NFL defensive assistant, and the Arizona Cardinals head coach for three-plus years, died on Monday at his home in Nashville.
The Tennessee Titans announced that McGinnis, who had served as an analyst with its radio broadcast team for the past nine years, passed with his family at his side. He was 74.
“My heart aches with the loss of Coach Mac, who was so much more than a coach and broadcaster — he was family,” Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement.
“He cared deeply about the people around him, and that kindness and authenticity left a lasting impact on everyone who knew him. He held a very special place in our family, and his presence in our lives and within this franchise will never be forgotten. We will miss him dearly, and we will always be grateful for the legacy he leaves behind.”
One small detail to McGinnis’ long career was that he was in the conversation to replace then-TCU head coach Dennis Franchione after he left for Alabama in late November of 2000.
At the time, McGinnis was the interim head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. He had been elevated to the job in the middle of the 2000 season, but had not been given the full-time position. TCU hired Gary Patterson.
The Cardinals named McGinnis the full-time head coach after the 2000 season ended. He ran into the same problem every other coach of that franchise has for the last several decades. They’re awful. The team was 17-40 in his tenure.
During his time with the Cardinals, he coached former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith in his last NFL seasons with Arizona, and future star receiver Anquan Boldin.
McGinnis was also a key figure in the development of former Arizona State safety, the late Pat Tillman. McGinnis coached Tillman for four seasons, before he famously retired from the NFL in 2001 to enlist in the armed services.
McGinnis came to TCU during the worst drought in the history of the program. In his first season with the team, in 1970, he played defensive back under coach Fred Taylor. In 1971, McGinnis played for new head coach Jim Pittman, who died of heart attack during a game at Baylor that season.
TCU finished 6-4-1 that year, its first winning season since 1965. It was the program’s only winning season until 1984.
McGinnis played the following season under coach Billy Tohill, who hired McGinnis as a graduate assistant in 1973. McGinnis worked under new head coach Jim Shofner in 1974.
That led to McGinnis enjoying a coaching career that would last through 2016, when he retired as an assistant with the St. Louis Rams.
After leaving TCU in 1974, he coached at Missouri, Indiana State, and came back to TCU in 1982 to work on head coach F.A. Dry’s staff for one year before accepting an assistant position under Jim Dickey at Kansas State.
After that move, McGinnis went to the NFL where he would remain for the rest of his career. As an assistant with the Cardinals in the late ‘90s, he famously interviewed with the Chicago Bears for their head coaching job.
On January 22, 1999, the Bears scheduled a news conference to introduce McGinnis as the head coach to replace Dave Wannstedt. One small problem. McGinnis had not signed the contract; he was so upset with the process that he withdrew his name from consideration.
After McGinnis was fired by the Cardinals, he coached linebackers for the Titans from 2004 to ‘11, before he finished his career with the Rams. He returned to Nashville where he became an analyst for the Titans’ broadcasts.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 8:15 AM.
