Steelers coach named possible candidate for college head-coaching gig

Val Dewar

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Steelers coach named possible candidate for college head-coaching gig image

After the North Carolina Tar Heels fired their football coach, Mack Brown, on Tuesday, Andy Staples of the college football website On3.com listed Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith as one of the potential replacements.

Smith went to school at North Carolina and played football there from 2001-05. He also helped out as a graduate assistant after completing his eligibility. He has history with the program, obviously.

One of the reasons Staples thinks Smith could be a good fit for North Carolina's job simply has to do with corporate money. 

Arthur's father is Fred Smith, the founder and chairman of FedEx. With the college game being more and more influenced by NIL deals for players, money is more important than ever to the NCAA.

"Smith played at North Carolina from 2001-05 before becoming a graduate assistant under John Bunting," Staples wrote. "He then embarked on an NFL coaching career that led to a head-coaching stint with the Atlanta Falcons, where he went 21-30 from 2021-23. Smith landed this season with the Steelers, where he has juggled Russell Wilson and Justin Fields at quarterback. Smith is the son of FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith. In the great search for corporate NIL money in the revenue share era, that could be quite the connection."

Arthur Smith grew to prominence in the league as the the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans during their best period of the last 10 years, designing a good scheme around Derrick Henry to pound the rock. That is what he was brought to Pittsburgh to continue, and Najee Harris is having the best season of his career.

Despite his tenure as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons ending in disappointment, Smith is still a solid offensive coordinator in this league.

He's improved Pittsburgh's offense greatly from last year while having to build game plans around two different quarterbacks at times. Though, granted, that was not the hardest feat after the misery of Matt Canada.

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Val Dewar

Val Dewar Photo

Val was initiated into Steelers Nation from the moment he was born — his first memory is a game vs. New England from when "Slash" was QB — and doing sports writing has always been a dream career for him. In 2022 he broke into the industry by writing about combat sports for Cageside Press, and now has the opportunity to continue that work with TSN as an MMA writer, as well as get his feet wet on the Steelers beat.