In the coaching world, few command the respect Mike Tomlin does. Though Pittsburgh has to get back to their postseason ways and Tomlin is not without critique, the consistency Tomlin’s displayed since being hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007 and the respect he’s garnered in the football world is almost unmatched. Perhaps only Bill Belichick is more revered.
With that in mind, NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah shared a fantastic story that captures that point. On Saturday, he visited Saint Vincent College and took in his first ever Steelers’ training camp practice, surprised by how physical the day was coming off the team’s night session, the return of Friday Night Lights for the first time since 2019. Afterwards, Jeremiah sent out this tweet mentioning how intense the day was, leading to a call from a college coach down south.
Jeremiah shared the story on the latest episode of his Move The Sticks podcast with co-host Bucky Brooks.
“I get a text from a head coach in the SEC,” Jeremiah says, though he declined to reveal who the coach was. “[He said] ‘hey, when you get a minute, call me.”
The coach wasn’t looking to sell a rising junior or talk about his thoughts on college football’s wild conference realignment. He wanted to know how a Steelers’ practice was run.
“Hey, what’s Tomlin doing?” the coach asked. “Why did you think it was competitive? What was he doing?… I spent twenty minutes on the phone going through basically the practice, telling him how Tomlin was doing it. He’s taking notes, Bucky. This is a SEC head coach, this is a good coach, taking notes on this stuff because that’s the respect that [Tomlin] has in the coaching world.”
Though Tomlin has had padded and non-padded practices after Friday Night Lights in past years, the Steelers kept the pads on for Saturday’s session. Despite their growth, the Steelers remain a young team that Tomlin and the coaching staff are finding more about and their youth allows them to handle the difficulty of camp better than a veteran group that just needs to get to Week One healthy.
Pittsburgh’s training camp practices are notoriously known for being among the most physical sessions. The Steelers are about the only team who still has live-tackling sessions going to the ground, going all-out during their first full team period after seven shots. For virtually every other team, they do thud-tackling, hitting players but wrapping up and not taking them to the ground. The Steelers thrive on competition and on the day Jeremiah was there, Pittsburgh had their second backs on ‘backers session of camp that pitted LB Kwon Alexander against Najee Harris, TE Darnell Washington on OLB Nick Herbig, and other interesting matchups.
Later in camp, the Steelers will conduct a live-tackling goal line session that has an in-game feel. For an old-school coach like Tomlin, his belief is players can’t suddenly become great tacklers once they step into a stadium. Like everything else, they have to rep it. While tackling is about “want-to,” there’s also technique. Taking good angles by playing inside out, being in the correct tackling posture, coming to balance before exploding through, and then ultimately making the play.
For a coach with Tomlin’s track record, everyone takes notice. Every coach in football, sports, really, would like to have his resume and pedigree, even notable names in the SEC. Every coach is looking for their version of Bill Walsh’s winning edge and that mystery SEC coach got some insight about what a Tomlin-lead practice looks and feels like.
Check out the full episode below.
