The 2023 OUA Football season will mark the 5th season in which Dennis McPhee has led the Gryphon defensive unit since being named the Defensive Coordinator on Friday, February 15, 2019. McPhee, a Hamilton native, boasts 38 years of coaching experience, including 16 years in the professional ranks as a Defensive Line Coach with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. McPhee also has 22 years of coaching experience at the Canadian university level, having held head coaching roles on two separate occasions, leading the University of Waterloo's football program for five seasons (2007-2011) after having served as head coach of the St. Francis Xavier X-Men for two seasons (2002-2003).
For McPhee, this marks his second stint as a defensive coach at the University of Guelph. From 1990-1993, McPhee served as the Gryphons linebackers coach, helping mold one of the greatest defensive units in program history, led by star linebackers Steve McKee and Mike O'Shea. In 1992, McPhee was part of the Gryphon coaching staff that led the Gryphons to what was then the second Yates Cup title in school history.
In his first season in charge of the Gryphon defence in 2019, Guelph finished the regular season as the OUA's top-ranked scoring defence, limiting opponents to just 17.8 points per game. In his second season as defensive coordinator (2021), McPhee once again led one of the top defensive units in all of U SPORTS, led by linebacker A.J. Allen who was named the recipient of the OUA's Presidents Trophy as the top, stand-up defensive player in the conference.
In his 16 years as a defensive coach in the professional ranks, McPhee put together a lengthy list of accomplishments, highlighted by a Grey Cup championship with Hamilton in 1999. Canadian Football Hall of Famer and legendary Ticats defensive end Joe Montford was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player on three separate occasions (1998, 2000 and 2001) with coach McPhee overseeing the Hamilton defensive front throughout each of those years.
As a student-athlete, McPhee was a two-sport star at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, competing at the varsity level for the Huskies in both football and hockey. Following his football career at SMU, where he was a five-year starter, McPhee attended training camp with the Toronto Argonauts in 1982 and later spent time on the Edmonton Eskimos practice roster. Dennis and his wife Joanne Evans, a former Female Athlete of the Year at Saint Mary's, have three children (Macklin, Caelan and Catherine).
Dennis McPhee Coaching Bio:
| 2019-present |
Guelph Gryphons (Defensive Coordinator) |
| 2013-2018: |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Defensive Line Coach) |
| 2012: |
Western Mustangs (Defensive Coordinator) |
| 2007-2011: |
Waterloo Warriors (Head Coach) |
| 2004-2006: |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Defensive Line Coach) |
| 2002-2003: |
St. FX X-Men (Head Coach) |
| 1995-2001: |
Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Defensive Line & Linebackers Coach) |
| 1994: |
McMaster Marauders (Defensive Coordinator) |
| 1990-1993: |
Guelph Gryphons (Linebackers Coach) |
| 1989: |
St. FX X-Men (Defensive Backs Coach) |
| 1984-1988: |
McMaster Marauders (Defensive Line Coach) |
