PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – One thing you can almost certainly count on as part of Mike McCarthy’s staff is some experience at the coordinator positions and at least one Pittsburgher or Pittsburgh connections to the coaching staff.
Since his first season at Green Bay when he hired Bishop Canevin High School’s Tom Clements as Associate Head Coach in charge of the quarterbacks and Kurt Schottenheimer as the secondary coach, McCarthy was going to do what was done for him.
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When he was at Fort Hays State as a graduate assistant, Paul Hackett looked out for the Greenfield native bringing him home to Pitt. Fort Cherry High School’s Marty Schottenheimer gave him his first NFL job at Kansas City. Avalon’s Jim Haslett then hired him in New Orleans for his first offensive coordinator job.
Expect Yinzers on the staff.
There have been so many with connections to Pittsburgh including one on last year’s Steelers coaching staff
· Dom Capers-hired as defensive coordinator in Green Bay in 2009 and stayed with McCarthy until 2017. Capers is a former Steelers offensive coordinator and one of the most respected defensive coaches in the game.
· Scott McCurley-hired first in 2009 as a defensive assistant, McCurley, a Pitt star and Mohawk HS grad, just finished his first year as the Steelers inside linebackers coach. He was on McCarthy’s staff for most of the rest of his GB career and was hired on his first staff with Dallas
· Kevin Greene-the late Steelers outside linebacker, was on McCarthy’s staff from 2009-13
· Darren Perry-former Steelers safety coached the secondary for McCarthy from 2009-17
· Alex Van Pelt-was a quarterback at Pitt when McCarthy was an assistant coach. Van Pelt coached quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs from 2012-17 in Green Bay
· Luke Getsy-former Pitt quarterback & Steel Valley HS star, he worked with McCarthy in several offensive position rooms from 2014-17
· Shawn Slocum-was a graduate assistant with McCarthy at Pitt and coached special teams from 2009-14
· Ron Zook-former Steelers assistant was the Green Bay Special Teams Coordinator from 2015-18
· Mike Trgovac-McCarthy’s defensive line coach from 2009-17 is from Austintown, Ohio
· Jim Hostler-Bethel Park native, IUP coach, passing game coordinator in 2018
· Mike Solari-former Pitt offensive coordinator and offensive line coach was the Packers assistant offensive line coach in 2015
· Jeff Blasko-Robert Morris grad was McCarthy’s assistant offensive line coach in 2017-18 and followed him to Dallas eventually coaching running backs
· Frank Cignetti, Junior-former Pitt head coach and brother of Curt worked as the quarterbacks coach in 2018
· Ejiro Evero-current Panthers defensive coordinator started as a defensive quality control coach under McCarthy in 2016. He interviewed to be Steelers head coach last week
· Jim Tomsula-when he hired his first staff at Dallas he included the Munhall native & former Woodland Hills HS coach as the defensive line coach
· Chase Haslett-son of Jim, he repaid the favor Haslett paid him decades ago as Chase was offensive quality control in Dallas
· Justin Rudd-former quality control coach at Pitt hired by McCarthy to do football analytics with the Cowboys
As McCarthy has likely already formulated a plan for his first coaching staff with the Steelers, history shows it will have a strong Pittsburgh connection.