Steelers Now
Mike McCarthy returned to his hometown this offseason, taking over for its beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s not the first time he’s coached for a team in the Steel City.
After a graduate stint at Fort Hays State in the late 1980s, McCarthy was a graduate assistant (1989-91) and receivers coach (1992) for Pitt. The 1991 staff also included fellow eventual Super Bowl-winning head coach Jon Gruden, who moved on to coach the Green Bay Packers’ receivers in 1992.
“Mike McCarthy, he was my GA,” Gruden said Wednesday on Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast. “I was a receiver coach, and I have video of our receivers, in drills, blocking. And they were using McCarthy as the guy to hold the dummy. Well, McCarthy would put his helmet on — he had the Pitt helmet on — he’s holding the dummy at about 250 (pounds), and the guys are stocking him, he’s getting after them. It’s the greatest video ever.”
Then-Panthers head coach Paul Hackett was “a night guy,” Gruden said. “He’d stay in there all night. And Bill Meyers, our offensive coordinator, was a morning guy, so we probably worked 20 hours a day at Pitt. … We had a lot of fun together.”
McCarthy has since earned a reputation for helping develop quarterbacks, working with Alex Smith, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott during his NFL coaching career. The Steelers are hoping he can help pinpoint their next signal-caller, being that this upcoming season will be Rodgers’ last.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Jon Gruden Shares Story About Working with Mike McCarthy at Pitt
