It seems that we can put to bed the speculation that Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians could have interest in leaving to coach at Ole Miss, as he pretty much dismissed that speculation today when he talked to the media.
The Birmingham News speculated back on the 21st of November that Arians could be candidate for the vacant head coaching job at Ole Miss following the termination of Houston Nutt early in November. Pittsburgh AP writer Will Graves reported via Twitter this afternoon that Arians said he was flattered today by the speculation but added, “I can\’t even stand rookies”.
Arians, in the article by Doug Segrest, was suggested as a prospect for Ole Miss based on the notion that he still has some strong ties to the area after coaching at Alabama and Mississippi State early in his career. Another connection that was made by Segrest in the article was that Arians was the first quarterback coach in the NFL of Peyton Manning. Manning\’s father is of course Archie Manning, and he reportedly is on the Ole Miss coaching search committee.
A few other Steelers coaches have been speculated this past week as being college head coach candidates for open jobs as quarterback coach Randy Fichtner is being linked to the open job at Memphis and running backs coach Kirby Wilson is said to have interest in the opening at Illinois. No word has surfaced yet on either confirming or denying those reports.
My condolences go out to all of the Arians haters.
