We'll hire within organization

And the man who'll take over at OC will be none other than QB coach, Randy Fichtner. Now, Kirby Wilson was supposed to take over, as i'm sure you all know. But Kirby's a battle of his own right now, and he'll likely be taking the year off from football this year, and concentrating on his own recovery.

Now Randy Fichtner isn't a bad coach, by any means, and here's why:

Fichtner began his coaching career as a graduate assistant, serving with Michigan, USC, UNLV, and Memphis from 1986–1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990–1993 respectively. He earned the position of wide receivers coach and recruiting director at Purdue in 1994, serving for two years before moving to Arkansas State to become the offensive coordinator from 1997–2001.

Under Fichtner's tutelage, current CFL quarterback Cleo Lemon flourished, setting numerous school records for passing and total offense. Fichtner returned to Memphis in 2001 to serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, instituting a new, highly effective spread offense that set school records for total offense.

The new system allowed the teams to amass prolific offensive statistics, totalling over 5000 yards in both 2003 and 2004 to rank in the top ten for both yardage and scoring, as well as supporting the development of quarterback Danny Wimprine and running back DeAngelo Williams.

Fichtner's NFL coaching debut began in 2007, serving as wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers as part of new head coach Mike Tomlin's regime, replacing the promoted Bruce Arians. He was instrumental in the development of the Steelers young wide receiver corps, mentoring Santonio Holmes to multiple 1000-yard seasons and a Super Bowl MVP award as well as supporting the growth of emerging wideouts Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown.

In 2010, Fichtner became the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks coach, replacing Ken Anderson after Anderson's retirement.

That's where he's at now. He seems like a good man for the job to me, and he almost took the Memphis Tigers head coach job just a couple years back. I doubt we'll hire outside of the organization, so it'll likely be Randy that will replace Arians if he leaves.

Which means the scheme will remain unchanged.

the good thing about hiring an OC from within is the terminology used in calling the plays stays the some.

supytalpeht wrote:

Which means the scheme will remain unchanged.

If you say so

You'd think a new guy running the offense would change things up

I've said it before, and i'll say it again. I don't dislike Arians, but I dislike how our offense quit improving. Now i'll say this:

The Steelers will make Randy the offensive coordinator if the circumstances of Arians retirement was his decision. In other words, Randy will take over if it was Arians decision to leave, and not by encouragement of Rooney or Tomlin. If Arians was pushed out, there's a chance they'll hire from outside of the franchise to avoid what you suggested: A similar scheme.

It'll be interesting to see what happens, or if they even fire Arains. Hell, for all we know they could be negotiated an extension! It wasn't made very clear what the intentions are regarding Arians, and it doesn't seem like we'll find out today

supytalpeht wrote:

Which means the scheme will remain unchanged.

But the situational play-calling could make a dramatic turnaround.

i still wouldnt mind them giving mike martz a call

vasteeler wrote:

i still wouldnt mind them giving mike martz a call

I think I read he retired, but I wouldn't want him anyway. He strikes me as another Arians-type with an I-know-it-all arrogance.