Mike Tomlin: So Far So Good
The Steelers have hired 16 head coaches in there franchise history. However Mike Tomlin is only the third head coach since 1969. Chuck Knoll 1969 - 1991 had a Hall of Fame coaching career including 4 SUPER BOWL rings. He was famous for coaching during the legendary Steel Curtain Dynasty years. Then Pittsburgh hired a somewhat unknown Bill Cowher who steered the ship from 1992 - 2006. Capping it of with 2 trips to the Super Bowl of which the Steelers won in 2005.
And then the Steelers defied what the media regards as conventional wisdom by hiring another "off the radar" man to take over. Mike Tomlin all of 36 years of age at the time. His resume' was short but successful.
1995 - (wide receivers coach) Virginia Military Institute
1996 - (graduate assistant) University of Memphis
1997 - (wide receivers coach) Arkansas State
1998 - (defensive backs coach) Arkansas State
1999-2000 - (defensive backs coach) University of Cincinnati
2001–2005 - (defensive back) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2006 - (defensive coordinator) Minnesota Vikings
2007 - present - (HEAD COACH) PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Among his highlights, Tomlin is credited for helping the Tampa Bay defense dominate during their Super Bowl season of 2002-2003. While in Tampa he learned the cover 2 defense. The Buc's never ranked lower than 6th in defense while he was there. Twice they were ranked #1. Also as Defensive Coordinator in Minnesota, he turned a weak Vikings defense into the 8th ranked defense in 2006. Although it was a strange combination of #1 against the rush but #32 (LAST) against the pass. Now some of that is misleading. Since the rankings are based on yardage you allow as a defense, it stands to reason that some of the passing yardage allowed was a bi - product of the fact that teams could not run against them. Therefore teams throwing more against them naturally is going to result in some success in that area.
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In 2007 he directed the Steelers to a 10-6 regular season and a Division title in his debut year. An even though he was a rookie head coach the Steelers came out of pre-season well prepared for the season. This also a credit to the fact he was wise enough to retain part of Cowher's staff. Most notably Dick LeBeau, who coached the Steelers to a overall #1 defensive ranking in 2007.
Mike did lose his first playoff game however. It is hard to qualify how much inexperience contributed to that.
Coming out of the 2008 pre-season the Steelers once again were prepared and ready to go. There wasn't any glaring early season mistakes. Also of note is the fact that he has kept the Pittsburgh philosophy in tact and is tweaking it as needed.
Overall the Pittsburgh faithful should be excited that this guy clearly has the potential to stay at the helm for many years to come. His biggest challenge of course is repeating the Championship level of his predecessors. But so far so good.
By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Pittsburgh Steelers Correspondent