{"id":283566,"date":"2026-09-11T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283566\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:44:10","slug":"a-brief-history-of-pittsburgh-steelers-head-coaching-debuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283566\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History Of Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coaching Debuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mike McCarthy is set to make his Pittsburgh Steelers head-coaching debut. He joins a remarkably short list of names over the franchise\u2019s more than 90-year history. And though it\u2019s just that, here\u2019s how the men before him have performed.<\/p>\n<p>Counting only full-time head coaches (not interim hires) and excluding second stints, only 14 men have coached before McCarthy. Any Steelers fan knows the previous three \u2013 Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin \u2013 but there were 11 before them.<\/p>\n<p>Combined, the group has gone 8-4-2 in their head-coaching debuts. Here\u2019s the breakdown of winners and losers.<\/p>\n<p>Coaches Who Won Their Debut<\/p>\n<p>Luby DiMeolo \u2013 1934<br \/>Joe Bach \u2013 1935<br \/>Johnny \u201cBlood\u201d McNally \u2013 1937<br \/>Jock Sutherland \u2013 1946<br \/>Buddy Parker \u2013 1957<br \/>Chuck Noll \u2013 1969<br \/>Bill Cowher \u2013 1992<br \/>Mike Tomlin \u2013 2007<\/p>\n<p>Coaches Who Lost Their Debut<\/p>\n<p>Forrest \u201cJap\u201d Douds \u2013 1933<br \/>Jim Leonard \u2013 1940<br \/>John Michelosen \u2013 1948<br \/>Mike Nixon \u2013 1965<\/p>\n<p>Coaches Who Tied Their Debut<\/p>\n<p>Walt Kiesling \u2013 1940<br \/>Bill Austin \u2013 1966<\/p>\n<p>As a point of clarification, Kiesling <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2018\/05\/perspective-of-an-average-steelers-fan-johnny-blood-vagabond-halfback\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">took over for McNally four games into the 1939 season.<\/a> That was on an interim basis, with his first year as full-time head coach coming in 1940 and playing to a 7-7 tie against the Chicago Cardinals.<\/p>\n<p>The last Steeler to lose his debut came long ago with Mike Nixon in 1965. Bill Austin tied his debut with Noll, Cowher, and Tomlin all victorious in their first time out. Noll famously won his debut before Pittsburgh lost its final 13 games. Better days awaited.<\/p>\n<p>Two other debut notables.<\/p>\n<p>Biggest Margin Of Victory<\/p>\n<p>Mike Tomlin: 34-7 Over Browns 2007<\/p>\n<p>Worst Margin Of Defeat<\/p>\n<p>Mike Nixon: 41-9 To Packers 1965<\/p>\n<p>Tomlin has the largest win in a debut. The NFL\u2019s youngest coach dispatched the Cleveland Browns to open up 2007. Pittsburgh raced out to a 17-0 first-quarter lead, forced five turnovers, and held the Browns to just 221 yards of total offense.<\/p>\n<p>Nixon sat on the other side. Vince Lombardi greeted him to the head coaching world with a 32-point defeat. Pittsburgh couldn\u2019t sustain a close first half and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/boxscores\/196509190pit.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">allowed 34 points over the final 30 minutes.<\/a> Pittsburgh turned the ball over four times, and Bart Starr threw two touchdowns in the win. Nixon would quickly prove to be in over his head and was fired after the season.<\/p>\n<p>By any margin, all Mike McCarthy cares about is winning. If so, he\u2019ll become the fourth consecutive Steelers coach to have a cheerful debut. If he can\u2019t beat the Atlanta Falcons, he\u2019ll join a forgotten list of names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy is set to make his Pittsburgh Steelers head-coaching debut. He joins a remarkably short list of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8203,118260,7405,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-283566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-mike-nixon","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}