Mike Sewak

Mike Sewak, who owns 33 years of coaching experience at the college level, including four season as head coach at Georgia Southern, enters his 11th year at Georgia Tech as offensive line coach.

In his 10 seasons with the Yellow Jackets, Sewak’s offensive lines have paved the way for Georgia Tech to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference and rank among the top 10 teams nationally in rushing offense every year. The Jackets led the nation in rushing in 2010 and 2014 and ranked second in 2009 and 2011. In all, Georgia Tech has rushed for 38,352 yards in Sewak’s 10 seasons with the program, the second-highest rushing total in the nation during that span.

Tech has also finished among the nation’s top 30 in fewest sacks allowed nine times in Sewak’s 10 seasons with the Yellow Jackets, including top-five rankings in 2014 (second) and 2009 (fourth).

Sewak has coached 10 all-ACC honorees that have collected all-conference recognition a total of 19 times during his 10 seasons with the Yellow Jackets. Three of his offensive linemen at Tech have been named all-America — Cord Howard (second-team in 2009), Omoregie Uzzi (second-team in 2011, third-team in 2013) and Shaquille Mason (first-team, 2014).

Sewak’s Georgia Tech pupils that have gone on to play in the NFL include, Mason, a fourth-round draft pick by the New England Patriots in 2015 and member of the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI championship squad, and Andrew Gardner, who was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round of the 2009 draft and went on to enjoy an eight-year pro NFL career.

In 2017, Sewak’s offensive line once again helped pave the way for Georgia Tech lead the ACC and fifth nationally in rushing offense (307.4 ypg). Behind the offensive front, the Yellow Jackets featured two 1,000-yard rushers for only the second time in school history (TaQuon Marshall – 1,146 and KirVonte Benson – 1,053) and set a school record with four 400-yard rushing games on the season. Sophomore guard Parker Braun was the Jackets’ lone first-team all-ACC honoree.

Other highlights from Sewak’s first 10 seasons on The Flats include:

• three linemen earning all-ACC recognition in 2012, 2014 and 2015;
• having multiple linemen receive all-conference accolades in seven of his 10
campaigns;
• helping set school records for rushing yards (4,789) and rushing yards per game (342.1) while also allowing just 0.79 sacks per contest in 2014;
• helping pave the way for the Yellow Jackets to lead the ACC in total offense four times (2008, 2009, 2011 and 2014);
• Sean Bedford, who came to Georgia Tech as a walk-on defensive lineman,
blossoming into a two-time first-team all-ACC honoree and winner of the 2010 Burlsworth Trophy (nation’s top former walk-on).

Prior to his arrival at Georgia Tech in 2008, Sewak spent nine seasons at Georgia Southern, first as head coach Paul Johnson’s offensive coordinator from 1997-2001, then, following Johnson’s departure to Navy, as head coach from 2002-05.

Sewak produced a record of 35-14 in four seasons as Georgia Southern’s head coach and led the Eagles to three NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances and two Southern Conference championships.

He won at least seven games in each of his four seasons at the helm in Statesboro and led Division I-AA in rushing every year. His most successful campaigns came in 2002, when the Eagles finished 11-3, won the SoCon championship and advanced to the national semifinals, and 2004, when they averaged a whopping 47 points per game en route to another conference title and Sewak being named SoCon Coach of the Year.

As Georgia Southern’s offensive coordinator under Johnson from 1997-2001, Sewak’s offensive unit consistently ranked as one of the nation’s best at the Division I-AA level and played a key role in the Eagles going 62-10, winning five SoCon titles, advancing to the I-AA playoffs five times, advancing to the national title game three times and winning two national titles.

The Eagles rolled up 25,941 rushing yards (360.3 ypg), 7,816 passing yards (108.6 ypg) and 33,757 total yards (468.8 ypg) in Sewak’s five years at the helm of their offense and led the nation in rushing offense (419 ypg), total offense (551.7 ypg) and scoring offense (50.0 ppg) in 1999. Three GSU offensive linemen were named all-America under Sewak’s direct guidance from 1997-2001, highlighted by two-time SoCon Jacobs Blocking Trophy recipient Mark Williams.

Sewak’s coaching resume also includes:

• serving as offensive coordinator at Ohio in 1995 and ‘96, helping lead head coach Jim Grobe’s squad to eight wins in two seasons after the Bobcats went winless the year before Sewak’s arrival. OU led the Mid-American Conference in rushing in 1996.
• eight seasons as an assistant coach at Hawai’i (1987-94), where he coached wide receivers for one year and the offensive line for seven under offensive coordinator Paul Johnson. During Sewak’s eight seasons in Honolulu, Hawai`i won the 1992 Western Athletic Conference championship, broke more than 150 offensive records and finished among the nation’s offensive leaders each year, averaging 31.7 points and 418 yards per game.
• his first stint at Georgia Southern (1985-86), where he coached running backs in Paul Johnson’s offense and helped lead the Eagles to their first two NCAA Division I-AA national championships. Sewak also coached defensive backs
during his initial stint at GS;
• a season at Georgia Tech coaching tight ends as a graduate assistant under head coach Billy Curry,
• his first job as a collegiate coach, serving as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Hobart (N.Y.) College from 1982-83.

In all, Sewak has served on the same staff as Johnson for all but eight years of his 33-year coaching career.

Sewak earned three letters as an offensive lineman at Virginia (1978-80) and earned a degree in psychology from UVa in 1981. He added a master’s degree from Georgia Southern in 2008.

Before embarking on his coaching career, Sewak was invited to professional football tryouts with the Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers.

He and his wife, the former Robin Farmery of Marietta, Ga., are the parents of three children – Michael-Robert, Olivia and Nicholas. Michael-Robert is a 2013 Georgia Tech graduate in business administration; Olivia graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology and currently works in New York City. Nicholas graduated from Georgia Southern, where he was a long snapper for the Eagles’ football team.