Steelers promote 7-year veteran asst Shaun Sarrett to new OL coach

[hawaiiansteel]

Steelers promote 7-year veteran assistant Shaun Sarrett

A former lineman at Kent State, Sarrett coached at Marshall and then Duke before the Steelers.


https://twitter.com/jimwexell?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7 Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[Shawn]

Probably a good thing to keep in house. Sarrett has been learning from the best.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer

In promoting Shaun Sarrett to Steelers offensive line coach, Mike Tomlin said, ‘we have full confidence in his coaching abilities, and we look forward to him using his experience as he has been preparing for this opportunity to take on the challenges that will be presented to him." Sarrett was Mike Munchak's trusted offensive line assistant before Munchak took a job with the Broncos on Monday.

17h

[Oviedo]

Steelers promote 7-year veteran assistant Shaun Sarrett

A former lineman at Kent State, Sarrett coached at Marshall and then Duke before the Steelers.


https://twitter.com/jimwexell?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7 Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Hoping he was an attentive apprentice and can now become a master craftsman.

I do like the continuity that we have kept in place

[RuthlessBurgher]

In other NFL coaching news involving a former Steeler player and the son of a former Steeler coach:


Bucs hire Antwaan Randle El, Cody Grimm

Posted by Charean Williams on January 15, 2019, 2:58 PM EST

The Bucs are hiring Antwaan Randle El as an offensive assistant and Cody Grimm as defense/special teams assistant, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Randle El, 39, spent nine seasons in the league, playing for the Steelers and Washington. He finished with 370 catches for 4,467 yards and 15 touchdowns.

His last season was 2010.

Grimm, the son of Russ Grimm, spent three seasons as a safety with the Bucs, making two interceptions and three pass breakups. His last season was 2012.


https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/15/bucs-hire-antwaan-randle-el-cody-grimm/

[hawaiiansteel]

'Sweet Feet' replaces a legend, maintains respect of veteran OL

By JIM WEXELL

In the ironic world of offensive linemen, "Sweet Feet" is the perfect nickname - check that, NAME - for new OL coach Shaun Sarrett.

Get up close and meet him and he'll schmooze you with his native Beckley W. Va. mix of Appalachian and Southern accents. Over at the pit those accents can form some not-so-nice words, too.

In a world in which "Hogs" is a compliment, one has to wonder if he really flashed "Sweet Feet" as a young lineman at Kent State, or whether it's ironic.

"I don't know," said tackle Jerald Hawkins. "All I know is that when I first got here my rookie year, I called him Coach Sarrett one day and he was like, 'Who the hell told you that? It's Sweet.' So it's been Sweet ever since."

And Sweet it shall be.

But fans aren't feeling real sweet about this coaching move, only because Sarrett's replacing a legend. Mike Munchak was about as close to deity status as Dick LeBeau, and his replacement had only ever been in charge of the line at Streetsboro High in Ohio.

Since then, Sarrett's been a graduate assistant, a quality control coach, a DL assistant and an OL assistant, all in college, before joining the Steelers in 2012 as an offensive assistant.

But that's where he earned his stripes and rose to head up his first position group since Streetsboro.

"I owe some people for that," said Sarrett.

But the story behind that rise says anything but other people written across it. "Sweet Feet" worked for it as a first-guy-in/last-guy-out kind of assistant - young enough to understand the technology and energetic and hungry enough to use it all day, every day.

It's what anyone around the team will tell you: Sarrett worked hard for what he has.

"I do," he said. "And I have."

His players love him, because "He's one of us," said Ramon Foster. "He's a guy we enjoy."

That, though, might be part of the fans' concern: He's one of them, when he's supposed to be above them, correcting them, driving them.

"He does," Foster said. "He's set in his way of coaching us now, and you can tell that he has his way. But there's always the nucleus there."

That nucleus of offensive linemen will certainly help. In fact, with such a veteran group it's a vision of all hands on deck, or all linemen helping with the game plan, with the preparation.

All for one is the perception, not one over all.

"A little bit," said David DeCastro. "It's definitely a little different dynamic. At the same time, we've all come along a similar path. He's been here the same amount of years I have been. I was joking with him about it. This is Year Eight for us, so obviously we both learned a lot through our times here. He's still the coach, but it's one of those things that's a little different."

But, does Sarrett have the command Munchak had over the linemen?

"I think command in this league is a weird word," DeCastro said. "It's kind of college-esque. I think at the end of the day you're very professional and it's on you. Munch, we had a good time with him, but we respected him at the end of the day. That's all you need is to respect your coach. That's all that matters. We respect his mind. We respect his input. And he respects us. It's a two-way street. We work together. We're all in this together. We'll have fun and respect him and that's the key."

Former Steelers lineman and current sideline reporter Craig Wolfley said in the spring that Sarrett's test will come during the heat of a game when Sarrett must coach through some chaos. Star Trekkies might call it Amok Time.

"We've all been through a lot of chaos," DeCastro said. "Munch didn't raise his voice too often. He was very good at keeping calm. I think we'll work together. He'll stay calm and we'll work through things. Obviously you never know what's going to happen, but we've been through quite a bit, this group has, so I think it's one of those things where there won't be many surprises with our experience."

"I agree with that," Sarrett said. "I sat back and watched Munchak over the years from the box. I think being down on the field will be a nice transition for me with (assistant) Adrian (Klemm) up top there. But just watching (Munchak), how some guys would come off the field sometimes and be a little messed up, fired up in a way, and just seeing him and listening to him on the headsets, how he handled them, how he calmed them down. Even out here at practice you see the same thing. Guys will come off after they make a mistake and they're fired up. It's my job to bring them back into focus."

It's also his job to chew out the linemen during a hot practice period, and Sarrett isn't so sweet sometimes.

"I've already been battle-tested with them going into games, going into practice," Sarrett said. "I've sweat up with them. They see the hours that me and Munchak have put in in the past and I think the relationship's been built through that."

Still, fans are nervous.

"That's all right," Sarrett said. "He prepared me. I'm prepared."

NOTES -- Chris Boswell nailed a 52-yard field goal to highlight a 7-for-7 performance that keeps him perfect through 15 camp kicks. Boswell's mechanics were perfect as he worked through some poor snaps by backup long-snapper Vance McDonald, who filled in for injured long-snapper Kameron Canaday (groin). ... Also missing practice were Bud Dupree, Sean Davis, Derwin Gray, Fred Johnson, J.T. Jones and Herb Waters. ... T.J. Watt (hamstring) remains on the PUP list but is increasing his running on the side. ... Let's give rookie RB Benny Snell star of the day for his all-around performance as an outside runner, pass-catcher and blocker. ... S Jordan Dangerfield also had a strong showing. During one hot stretch he berated the media along the sideline for a perceived lack of respect.


https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/Article/Pittsburgh-Steelers-new-OL-Coach-Shaun-Sarrett-garnered-respect-through-hard-work-134116406/