Big Lead Sports Bar

1/11/2010

STEELERS INTERVIEW BOBBY APRIL

Buried in a story about Omar Khan interviewing with the Seahawks are some interesting tidbits regarding the Steeler coaching staff.

First, recently unemployed Bills special teams guru and former Bill Cowher assistant Bobby April was interviewed by Mike Tomlin yesterday. April, a longtime NFL assistant, has usually been highly-regarded around the league. But for those of you unfamiliar with his work, a brief rundown from his bio:

April directed the Bills special teams to a number one ranking in the NFL in 2008 to mark the third time in the past five years as compiled by Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News and was named to the Coach of Year Award as voted on by his peers and initiated by Ray and Rob Pelfrey, the founders of Professional Kicking Services.
Also, news has broken that Rip Scherer Jr., a Pittsburgh native, cousin of Kevin Colbert, and quarterbacks coach of the Carolina Panthers could be a candidate for the same position with the Steelers that was vacated when Ken Anderson retired.

Scherer was the University of Memphis head coach from 1995-2000 and hired Tomlin for his second job as a graduate assistant coach in 1996. Scherer interviewed last week for the offensive coordinator position at the University of Virginia and would require permission from the Panthers to talk to the Steelers.

Scherer has more than 30 years of college coaching experience under his belt, including a stint at Penn State in 1974-75 as a grad assistant. He worked in Cleveland from 2005-2008 as the QB coach and later the assistant head coach under Romeo Crennel. During his time with the Browns, he tutored Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, and Brady Quinn. He assumed his position in Carolina in 2009 and worked with Jake Delhomme and Matt Moore while with the Panthers. In working with Ben Roethlisberger, this would essentially be like trading in a Schwinn bike for an Escalade based on his past experiences, so I'm confident that Scherer would have interest in the job.

Steelers executive Khan to interview with Seahawks [PG]

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7 comments:

BurressWithButterflywings said...

is it just me, or does he look like Dennis Quaid in the Express in the main picture there?

AJ said...

Rip Scherer's resume is quite a list of QB failure. Please keep him as far away from Ben as possible.

Steve said...

What is the the importance of a QB coach at this stage in Roethlisberger's career? If anything, Dixon could benefit but does a star veteran QB who's proven himself really need a coach? He should be allowed to do nothing more than get Ben a drink during timeouts.

Dom Errico said...

My god this Scherer guy has coached some of the worst QB production in the league. He cannot be a good fit here...

JeremyT said...

Not to say I know enough about this Scherer guy to really love/hate him, but I DO know enough not to blame the chef when he can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit. It sure appears like he hasn't had a damn thing to work with. Except there's the fact that he actually had a hand in coaching a FUCKING CLEVELAND BROWNS QB TO THE PRO BOWL. Who knows, maybe the guy is good. (Unless he's the one who shit in the chicken salad.)

I'm just glad that none of us are in charge of making Steeler personnel/staff decisions, or we'd have one schizo, sorry-ass, directionless franchise that would eventually move to Balti.....

Dallas Mike said...

I hope Bruce Arians watched the Ravens and Jets win last weekend. Funny, I didn't see any shotgun, 5-wide, 0-back formations on 3rd and 1. Flacco completed 4 passes and Sanchez completed 12 and their teams dominated the game. For all of the pundits that keep proclaiming this a passing league, last weekend's AFC games proved that value still exists in grinding down the opponent and playing physical defense.

Unknown said...

Keep in mind that, while Jake Delhomme was just flat out terrible this year, his backup Matt Moore, who probably had more coaching from the QB coach, had a pretty good year for a kid that is pretty much destined to be a lifetime backup. He lifted Moore to a spot higher than the kid should have been.