Pittsburgh interviewing for new OC - No mention of Russ Grimm being promoted

[inmate running the asylum]

Hmm. Ken Whisenhutt is the favorite now to become the Steelers new OC? What gives? No mention of Russ Grimm getting this position.

Well we know Grimm is under contract for 2004. So maybe he comes to the Redskins when his contract expires in 2005?

=================================

Cowher gets busy on rebuilding staff

Saturday, January 17, 2004

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Having nailed down his defensive coordinator, coach Bill Cowher cranked up the volume yesterday on the largest makeover in his staff since he took command of the Steelers 12 years ago.

Dick LeBeau accepted Cowher's offer to run the defense for the second time in his career and hopes to bring back some of the Blitzburgh days.

"Coach Bill and I have always been on the same page, and that is attack," said LeBeau, a defensive coach with the Steelers from 1992-96. "We will be a pressure defense and I know the head coach feels that way, too."

The Steelers had only 35 sacks last season, down from 50 in 2002 and the lowest in Cowher's tenure.

While LeBeau spoke to reporters in a call from his home in Cincinnati, Cowher interviewed three more potential assistants at Steelers headquarters and received permission from the Bengals to talk to another about the opening for offensive coordinator.

Jim Anderson, the running backs coach in Cincinnati the past 20 seasons, will be the first outside candidate Cowher interviews for offensive coordinator to replace Mike Mularkey, the new head coach in Buffalo. Anderson was among five finalists for the Bengals head coaching job last year before Marvin Lewis was hired. He also interviewed for the Stanford University head coaching job in 2001.

Anderson has been an assistant with the Bengals since 1984 and was on staff with LeBeau and under him when LeBeau was Cincinnati's head coach. Cowher will interview Anderson in Mobile, Ala., where Senior Bowl practices begin Monday.

Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers' tight ends coach, remains the favorite to become offensive coordinator, but Cowher wants to talk to a few outside candidates as well.

He interviewed three others yesterday for different positions, including two who coached for the Bears last season -- receivers coach Todd Haley and secondary coach Vance Bedford. Also, former Steelers wide receiver Dwight Stone interviewed with Cowher for a position that could be split between tight ends and assisting Kevin Spencer with the special teams.

LeBeau said it's probable the defense will have two secondary coaches again. Darren Perry will remain one of them, but another will be hired to replace Willy Robinson, who left Wednesday to become defensive coordinator with the 49ers. Bedford coached the secondary alone last year in Chicago, and new Bears coach Lovie Smith might want to keep him after interviewing him Thursday.

Haley is the son of Dick Haley, the Steelers' player personnel director for 20 years before he left in 1992 for a similar job with the Jets. Todd Haley began his career in New York as a scout for his father before he moved into coaching with the Jets. He coached their receivers for two seasons and then joined Dick Jauron's staff in Chicago, where he coached the Bears' receivers the past three seasons.

Stone played wide receiver for the Steelers from 1987-94 and later for the Carolina Panthers. He is a policeman in Charlotte, N.C., but said he would like to coach. He served a coaching internship with the Steelers in training camp last summer.

It's also possible Mike Miller, an offensive quality control assistant with the Steelers the past five years, could get a full-fledged assistant coaching job on Cowher's staff or with Mularkey's new staff in Buffalo.

In all, Cowher will hire four more coaches before he completes the big turnover. Dick Hoak, who began coaching the Steelers' running backs in 1972, had been the only holdover from Cowher's original staff until LeBeau's rehiring.

LeBeau turned down a possible chance to join Mularkey as his defensive coordinator in Buffalo, where LeBeau served as assistant head coach last season under fired head coach Gregg Williams. It became obvious he felt more comfortable returning to the Steelers, who made the playoffs in each of his five seasons here, including Super Bowl XXX.

"Pittsburgh is like going home," said LeBeau, who maintains a home in Cincinnati. "I must say I went to the University of Pittsburgh basketball game [Monday] night before I talked with coach Bill and about 25 people said, 'Good luck tomorrow coach, come on back.' I was thinking that this is pretty neat.

"I haven't been [working] in this city for seven years and there are not very many towns in the country that would recognize me and be so supportive. That did make the whole thing feel like going back to a place where I had been before. I have always admired the way they play defense. I think the current group of athletes play hard. I think it is a good situation for any coach. I am happy to be a part of it."

LeBeau cited the Steelers' top-10 ranking in yards allowed in each of the past three seasons on defense to note they have not slipped much. But he and Cowher want to improve their aggressiveness, which fell off drastically last season.

LeBeau devised the zone blitz defense in the 1980s in Cincinnati and brought it to the Steelers, where they used it expertly as part of their 3-4 alignment. The zone blitz has been copied throughout football, from the pros to the high school level.

"The defense is very popular because it is productive and it is sound and it is a safer way to pressure," LeBeau said. "The offenses are more familiar with it and they have some answers. Of course, our objective is to make those answers the wrong answers.

"We will employ all 11 people to blitz. That is basic to the concept of zone pressure. You try to hold them by the nose and come around the back door. We are going to rush everybody."

The Steelers will make a few personnel changes on that defense, but LeBeau believes they have enough good players to make it work.

"We think we have work to do. We are not going to kid ourselves about that. But we think it is a very doable enterprise and we think the athletes there play hard and many times play very well."

Cowher will still have a big hand in what goes on with that defense, LeBeau said.

"I will say this about him -- any coach who would not want coach Cowher's input with the background and success that he has had on defense I think would be cutting his own nose off to spite his face. He is an excellent defensive coach. We have been together before and we have always worked together. I welcome his input."

[EvoSkins]

No mention of Grimm. There still may be a possibility that the Skins could steal him away.

[bubba9497]

they know Grimm is gone in a year