Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery had a late offseason departure for Duke University, his alma mater, and several in the media have speculated that he might have been forced out of Pittsburgh.
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network on Twitter, Duke gave Montgomery a $500,000 raise to lure him back to be a college assistant at the school he once played for.
According to the Duke Chronicle, Blue Devil head coach David Cutcliffe said that Montgomery’s return would be the perfect way to fill the void left by the departures of wide receivers coach Matt Lubick and tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Ron Middleton.
“We wanted to hire the best football coach that we could hire and who we thought was the best football coach in America,” Cutcliffe said. “That came to Scottie Montgomery—it started there, nowhere else.”
That\’s quite a raise and Montgomery is still young enough to return back to the NFL later on down the road. Knowing this information sure makes it seem like Montgomery left on his on accord.
The Steelers have since hired long time NFL assistant coach Richard Mann to be their new wide receivers coach. Mann worked with head coach Mike Tomlin when the two were on the staff of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers several years ago.
