In his fourth season as the Patriots' head coach, McCormick returned several talented skill players, but his lines needed almost a complete reboot.
Nobody was back on the offensive line and only one player returned on the defensive line. That showed in an 0-2 start that put Old Mill on the brink of elimination from the playoffs with four-fifths of the season yet to play.
It didn't take McCormick long to turn things around. After falling to Broadneck, 25-22, and Arundel, 14-7, the Patriots got the big win they needed — 37-0 over Meade in Week 3 — to spark their run to the state Class 4A final. Even though they fell to Northwest, 34-31, in the title game, the No. 3 Patriots (11-3) improved perhaps more than any other area team.
The rebuilt offensive line paved the way for tailback Donovan Franklin to rush for 1,830 yards. The defensive line — which lost its only veteran to a season-ending injury in Week 4 — played a huge role on a unit that shut out seven opponents and allowed only 21 points through the final eight regular-season games.
"I'm so proud of our football team and our coaching staff hanging together through an emotional roller coaster of a season," McCormick said. "When you go through those first two games with high hopes to do well and those two games really caught us, then we had our backs against the wall the entire season. We got on a roll and things were great, and then came the realization that winning eight games in a row might not even be enough."
But it was enough to get the fourth and final berth in the Class 4A East region playoffs. The Patriots then extended their winning streak to 11 games by avenging both early losses — 26-0 over then-No. 1 and undefeated Broadneck and 26-21 over then-No. 5 Arundel — and going on to beat another undefeated team in the state semifinal, No. 5 Howard, 10-3.
"To get the opportunity to play the two teams that beat you was a great blessing," McCormick said, "and the kids were really excited to be able to redeem themselves from early in the year. Then we played a great Howard football team. To me, that's always where I want to take our program to go play somebody out of our county, play at the state level. Then our effort in the state championship game — I couldn't be more proud of our kids. Obviously, every one of us wishes we would have found a way to win that football game, but at the end of the day, I was extremely proud of how we competed."
McCormick has been coaching at Old Mill for 11 years; he was a varsity assistant for five years before taking over in 2011, when he led the program to its second state title.
McCormick, whose career record is 44-7, credited assistant coaches Ron Smalley, Mike Pfisterer Sr., Mike Pfisterer Jr., Joe Viola, Craig Eckenrod, Ben Thompson and Todd Sommerville as well as his junior varsity staff, Jim Grimm and Stan Springer.