This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Even at the age of 72, even in his retirement, there was a coaching bug that kept gnawing at Ron McBride.

He worked in radio. He tried yoga. He schedule a two-week Hawaiian vacation for himself, and was set to go golfing and sailing.

But instead of those pursuits, the former University of Utah and Weber State coach decided to come back into football — this time accepting an offensive line coaching position with the Utah Blaze. The Arena Football League franchise announced McBride's hiring in a Monday morning press conference at EnergySolutions Arena.

"It's kind of like being reborn," said McBride, who retired from coaching at Weber State in November last year. "You're thrown out to pasture, but then they let you back in the pasture and you can play."

McBride brings 46 years of college coaching experience to the Blaze, with head coaching stints from 1990 to 2002 with the Utes and 2004 to 2011 with the Wildcats. He began his career as an offensive line coach, and pledged to make the Blaze offensive linemen "be tough and play nasty."

The collaboration between the Blaze and McBride was purely incidental. McBride appeared on a radio show Blaze head coach and president Ron James on Feb. 3 before the Super Bowl and struck up a conversation.

Gradually, the discussion shifted to Utah's open coaching position at offensive line.

"He said originally that he knew a coach who might be interested," James said. "As I talked more about it and what it entailed, he said, 'You know, I'd be interested.' In this instance, my response as a coach is let's do this."

James and McBride met the next week to hammer out details, and the venerable coach has already gotten to work. He cancelled his Hawaiian vacation so he could meet the staff, watch film and hit the ground running as the Blaze begin training camp on Saturday.

McBride anknowledged that his family wasn't as excited as he was that he was coming back to coaching — his youngest daughter went as far as telling him he should stay retired. But McBride said if he wasn't coaching, he wouldn't know what else to do.

"Since I retired, I've been extremely bored," he said. "I love the game, I have a real passion for the game. I would wake up and ask myself, 'What am I going to do today?' Because for the last 50 years — 60 years, really — all I've done is football."

In their first season back at EnergySolutions Arena since the league-wide blackout, the Blaze went 9-9 in 2011. In the offseason, the offensive line has gone through some turnover as Utah tries to find ways to protect franchise quarterback Tommy Grady.

James said he was impressed by McBride's film study in the last week, and thought he would adjust to the AFL's rules and differences by the end of training camp.

The Blaze begin the season on the road March 10 at San Antonio. Utah's first home game will be against the San Jose Sabercats on March 24.