Rob McCarthy was named the head football coach at Lawrence University in January 2015.
McCarthy, who served as the defensive line coach at Carleton College and was the long-time defensive coordinator at St. Olaf College, is the 28th head coach in Lawrence's football history. A native of Deer River, Minn., McCarthy, who also serves as an assistant director of athletics at Lawrence, brought 25 years of coaching experience to Lawrence.
The fall of 2014 was McCarthy's first at Carleton after spending the previous 12 seasons at St. Olaf. While at St. Olaf, McCarthy was part of a coaching staff that put together the best 12-year record in school history with a 73-47 mark. McCarthy was responsible for bringing a number of stellar players to St. Olaf, including one (Horace Gant Jr.) that went on to play in the NFL, a number of All-Americans and many All-West Region and first-team All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference picks.
McCarthy served in a variety of roles, most notably as defensive coordinator, for the Oles. He also worked as the special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator for St. Olaf, which won eight games in four different seasons during that 12-year span.
McCarthy began his coaching career at Concordia (Minn.) College, where he earned a bachelor's degree with a double major in English and speech, communications and theater arts in 1989. A standout defensive lineman for the Cobbers, McCarthy earned All-MIAC honors and helped his team to conference championships in 1986 and 1988.
After serving as an assistant coach at Concordia for the 1989 season, McCarthy moved to the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) in 1990. He served with the Tommies for five seasons and helped them win the MIAC championship in 1990. McCarthy then coached at Northwestern (Minn.) College and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire over the next five seasons. He helped Northwestern win the 1995 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference title and was part of the UW-Eau Claire team that took the 1998 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.
McCarthy earned his Master of Science of Education in learning disabilities from UW-Eau Claire in 2000. He then returned to coach for one season at St. Thomas and one season at Pensacola (Fla.) High School before moving to St. Olaf.
McCarthy and his wife, Angie, have three children, and live in Appleton.
