Courtesy of Brian Beard

Marcus Adams, this summer’s addition to the Bowdoin football coaching group, is building his vision for the team based on a lifetime of love for the sport. Adams grew up watching his older brother, Tank, play football.

“The minute I saw [my brother] put a helmet and shoulder pads on I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, if possible,” Adams said.

Notably, Adams and Head Coach B.J. Hammer competed against each other in high school. Following high school, Adams became a two-time All-American at Eastern Kentucky University. Later, he played nine seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, appearing in three Grey Cups and bringing home the 2007 Grey Cup trophy.

“I think being a pro athlete can be very stressful at times because it’s such a business, where you can get cut at any moment, traded, this and that, you can buy a house, then get traded the next day, who knows,” Adams said.

Despite the career’s volatile nature, Adams advocates for following one’s dreams.

“Don’t be that ‘what if’ person,” Adams said. “You know, ‘If I’d done this, what if I’d done that….’ If you live to be 90 years old, that’s a long time of ‘what-ifs’ to beat yourself up over. So, whatever you choose, go 110 percent, and if it doesn’t work out, find something else, and go another 110 percent.”

Adams describes his Grey Cup victory as one of his life’s most euphoric moments. He adds that his personal experience learning from grit-filled coaches on a winning professional football team guides his approach to coaching today.

“I see my coaches, and I’ve seen what it takes to win,” Adams said. “I’m trying to bring that to the players. Our coaches in the CFL were very honest, and they were really good people, so I think they really cared about us on and off the field. I think that’s very important, so I bring that to the players here. I always ask them, ‘Hey, how’re you doing, how is school going, how is home life going?’”

After his time in the CFL, Adams began coaching in 2012 at the University of Ottawa, which he set aside for a two-year stint as a scout for the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes. Since then, he’s coached defensive lines at high schools and colleges across America, most recently for Wabash College and Black Hills State University. Bowdoin’s football team caught his eye as a program with exciting potential for development.

“This school has got a lot of great things going on, and … the football program is not where it should be,” Adams said. “But I’ve always loved a challenge.”

Adams hopes that by joining the Polar Bears’ coaching staff, he can help steer the program in a new direction, emphasizing the need for a change of mindset. He aims to reframe expectations of success by grounding the team in a mentality expectant of both victory and continual improvement. This, Adams believes, will allow the team to set higher expectations for themselves, like routinely winning conference titles.

“If we can get that mindset, as coaches and as players, I think this program will be just fine,” Adams said. “And … I don’t want to leave here until we turn it around.”

This season’s progress already excites Adams. He noted that one player, Chase Hinton ’27, shared a word of praise that has particularly stuck with Adams.

“[Hinton] always tells me, ‘Coach, your attitude is what makes me go hard, because I know you love us.’ That right there is huge for me—when he told me that, I was like, ‘Okay, it’s getting there. It’s working,’” Adams said.

Beyond the routine drills and conditioning, Adams makes sure to remind his players of the values they should embody off the field.

“We are mean, evil, tough people on the field, but off the field we are great people, always want to help out others, always represent yourself as your mom, dad or granddad would want you to represent them,” Adams said. “Talk how you’re going to talk in front of your mom and your dad, don’t change up who you are just because they’re not around. Be yourself, because everybody else is taken.”