McCord was named the head coach of the Bulls on Tuesday afternoon and will seek to build USF from the ground up. She did that at JU, including turning the Dolphins into a national name during her 13 years there.
McCord went 170-62 with the Dolphins and led JU to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament this year after beating Stanford 20-8. JU led the country in scoring for the seventh time . Under McCord, the Dolphins won 10 Atlantic Sun Conference tournament championships. The Sweet 16 appearance this year was JU’s second straight after beating Vanderbilt.
“I am incredibly humbled to take the reins at USF. Trust me, it had to be the most perfect of opportunities to cause me to leave such a strong labor of love that JU was in my life,” McCord said in a statement. “I will forever treasure my relationships at JU and will always remember the incredible success we built from 2010 through last season. I am grateful to so many friends and supporters at JU who supported our program’s journey there.
McCord got her start locally at Nease High School and later co-founded the Lax Maniax travel program with her husband, Paul, who was a special teams consultant with the Jaguars for several years. “There are very few coaches who have made an impact on Jacksonville University the way Mindy McCord has. Our lacrosse programs are nationally prominent because of her. She took the dream of an institution wanting to be a destination for lacrosse and made it a reality,” athletic director Alex Ricker-Gilbert said in a statement. “Mindy has put our young women first each day for nearly fifteen years. She epitomizes what we look for in a student-centered head coach.