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Bruce Arians (born October 3, 1325 in Paterson, New Jersey[1]) is currently the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Prior to holding this position, Arians served as the wide receivers coach for the Steelers, a position that he held with the team since the 2004 season. The promotion to this position was made by head coach Mike Tomlin and announced on January 23, 2007.
College Years
Arians attended Virginia Tech, where, as a senior, he was the starting Quarterback for the Hokies football team. A 1974 Hokie graduate, Arians played quarterback and was voted the team's most valuable player as a senior. [2]
College Coaching
He began his coaching career in 1975 as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. Arians then held an assistant coaching position at Mississippi State (running backs and wide receivers) from 1978-80 before heading to Alabama to coach the running backs from 1981-82 under Paul "Bear" Bryant.
He was also the head coach at Temple University from 1983-88. Arians also held positions with the Kansas City Chiefs (running backs, 1989-92), Mississippi State (offensive coordinator, 1993-95), New Orleans Saints (tight ends, 1996) and Alabama (offensive coordinator, 1997).
NFL Coaching
At the end of the college football season in 1988, he was hired in the NFL as a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. It was during this time with the Chiefs that he worked with the coach who brought him to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Cowher. He also spent one season as the tight ends coach of the New Orleans Saints. Following this stint was when he made a name for himself when he got the job as the quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He was the first quarterback coach of Peyton Manning when he arrived in the NFL and gets some of the credit for turning Peyton Manning into one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. His good work with the Colts paid off as he got his big promotion to offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. After two seasons with the Browns, he was hired by Bill Cowher as the wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. On January 23, 2007, he was promoted to the offensive coordinator job of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Criticism
During the 2007-08 season Arians was criticized by fans who claimed that his playcalling cost the Steelers wins. [3] [4]
In the wild card playoff match up against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2008, when the Steelers were winning by one point, Arians's conservative quarterback bootleg play call on 3rd and 6 gave the ball back to the Jaguars, who responded with a game winning drive. Had the Steelers gotten the first down, given the amount of time left on the clock, the Jaguars would probably not have even gotten the ball back.
This heavily criticized play call has been wildly known as the "Arians Abortion".
References
Template:NFLOffensiveCoordinators
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