He was a Lower Richland standout. Now Harold Goodwin is carving NFL path as a coach
Harold Goodwin had to be convinced to go out for the high school football team at Lower Richland High School.
But former Diamond Hornets coach Bill Kimrey was persistent in his approach, and it paid off. Goodwin eventually came out for the LR football team and played in 1990 and 1991. That decision continues to pay dividends as Goodwin remains in the sport and will be coaching in his fourth Super Bowl on Sunday, this time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Goodwin is the Bucs’ run game coordinator and one of head coach Bruce Arians’ right-hand men in Tampa.
“Football was never on his radar,” said Goodwin’s brother Jonathan, who played 13 seasons in the NFL and is now an assistant coach at Providence Day High School in Charlotte. “He thought he was the next Charles Barkley. Fortunately, coach Kimrey was able to get him to come out, and he had a great two years at Lower Richland.”
An infamous one-on-one basketball game
Kimrey doesn’t remember all the details of convincing Goodwin to play football, but there was talk of the two playing a one-on-one basketball game during physical education class. Kimrey won the game and Goodwin was out on the practice field that spring.
“He came out and had no idea about the game, what positions were,” Kimrey recalled. “He would come into my office and ask me if there any books or tapes that I could study. Well, he turned into a great football player. Hard worker, well-mannered. His mother did an outstanding job. with those boys. We stay in touch and go have dinner and stuff when he is town. Just really, really happy for him.”
Goodwin was a two-year starter on the Diamond Hornets’ offensive line, and Kimrey said he was a coach on the field during his senior season. LR ran a Wing-T offense that involved a lot of traps and pulling from their linemen. Lower Richland made the playoffs Goodwin’s junior season and to the state championship in 1991.
Laurens beat Lower Richland in the title game after the Diamond Hornets blew a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter.
“Going back and thinking about it, that was probably the most fun I ever had — playing high school football,” Harold Goodwin said in a 2012 interview on Colts.com. “The bus rides (were good). You rode on the big, yellow bus. The cheerleaders and the band were in tow behind you. You can’t beat those days in high school. I am glad Coach Kimrey kept after me.”
Playing career shut down
Goodwin chose to play at Michigan out of high school despite a late push from Tennessee. He said the Wolverines’ strong offensive line — the entire unit was named the MVP in the 1991 Gator Bowl — was one of the reasons he signed with Michigan, along with his love of the Fab Five starters on Michigan’s basketball team that played in two Final Fours.
Harold came back to South Carolina in the summers while at Michigan and put his brother through weight workouts to get him ready in his own football career.
“Not a lot of people are fortunate to have their brother at a school like Michigan and help their younger brother,” Jonathan said. “He is the big brother I wanted to look up to. He was almost like an in-house superhero that you wanted to be like.”
Goodwin’s playing career was cut short in 1995 after a knee injury. He remained at Michigan as a graduate assistant before landing jobs at Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Harold and Jonathan lived together in the same apartment complex when Harold was at Eastern Michigan and Jonathan was playing at Michigan.
In 2004, he got his first NFL job when he became assistant offensive line coach with the Chicago Bears. He stayed there until 2007 before landing with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a quality control coach. That role involved helping coach the offensive line and assist the offensive coaching staff with game preparation, video analysis and scouting of opponents.
Goodwin, Arians bond
It was with the Steelers that he met and struck up a friendship with current Tampa coach Bruce Arians, who was Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator at the time. The two coached together in Indianapolis, and Arians asked him to be on his staff when he became the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach in 2013.
Arians stepped down at Arizona in 2017, leaving Goodwin out of a job. He spent 2018 as an analyst for University of Arizona. Then Goodwin was one of the first people Arians called when he thought about making a run at the Tampa job in 2018.
Arians spoke this week on the importance of Goodwin on his staff, saying he might have not taken the Tampa job if Harold wasn’t coming with him.
“He means everything. He does our running game and our protections. He is the rock on our offensive staff,” Arians said on Monday. “He does a great job with our offensive line. He is another guy that should be in the head coaching interview room because he is a great leader of men.
“People get caught up in play callers and miss the fact that he is a good leader of men. We have been together in Pittsburgh, Indy, Arizona and now Tampa. I wouldn’t do it without him.”
Arians isn’t the only one who thinks Goodwin will be a head coach in the NFL one day. Jonathan and Kimrey also see it happening.
Harold Goodwin has interviewed in the past for the head job in Tampa as well as the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills. His name came up during the Miami Dolphins’ recent search for an offensive coordinator.
“I told him when he gets that head job, just give me a job sweeping around his desk and then we would be even,” Kimrey said. “He is a great guy. I am excited about the game and all the success he had. I hope they win.”
SC Super Bowl Connections
Kansas City Chiefs
Alex Brown, SC State
Bashaud Breeland, Clemson
Antonio Hamilton, SC State
Rashad Fenton, South Carolina
Chris Lammons, South Carolina
Dorian O’Daniel, Clemson
Sammy Watkins, Clemson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Running game coordinator Harold Goodwin, Lower Richland HS
Bradley Pinion, Clemson
Kobe Smith, South Carolina
Ryan Succop, South Carolina
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
