Marcus McLin joined the Jackrabbit defensive staff in January 2025 and will coach the team's cornerbacks.
McLin spent the past two seasons at his alma mater, Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he directed a unit that led the conference in scoring and total defense in both 2023 (16.4 points per game, 284 yards per game) and 2024 (14.0 ppg, 289 ypg). Besides being the defensive coordinator, he served as the program's associate head coach and defensive backs coach.
Â
"Marcus has been a really successful coordinator and sees the game in a big-picture way so he's going to be a huge help to Coach (Brian) Bergstrom in game-planning and mentoring our players," South Dakota State head coach Dan Jackson said. "He has great personality and the ability to connect with the players."
Â
As a player, McLin served as team captain on the Warhawks' 2014 NCAA Division III national championship team. After coaching for four seasons at the high school level, he moved to the collegiate ranks in 2018 as an intern coach in charge of cornerbacks and return specialists at Minnesota Duluth. He later was promoted to a full-time coaching position at UMD as defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator before returning to Wisconsin Whitewater as wide receivers coach in 2021.
Â
McLin became a defensive coordinator for the first time in 2022, when he moved to Bemidji State. In his lone season with the Beavers, BSU won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship and led the league in scoring defense (15.2 ppg), sacks (45) and turnovers gained (23).