Pitt football’s next-door neighbors, the Pittsburgh Steelers, went through a significant change in recent weeks with longtime head coach Mike Tomlin stepping down from the organization.
That led to a coaching search and the eventual hiring of Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy to lead the Steelers.
Since then, McCarthy and the Steelers have began to build the rest of its coaching staff and it features several connections across the South Side facility with the Pitt football program.
It starts at the top with McCarthy. Coming out of college, McCarthy’s second job in coaching came as a graduate assistant with the Panthers from 1989-91 first under Mike Gottfried and then under Paul Hackett. Then, in 1992, he served as Pitt’s wide receivers coach.
One of the Steelers assistants that McCarthy retained was inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley. A New Castle, Pa. native, McCurley played linebacker at Pitt. He joined the program as a walk-on, but then became a scholarship athlete and lettered four years at linebacker from 1999-2002. He would also serve as a defensive graduate assistant at Pitt before turning to the NFL in 2006 with the Green Bay Packers.
On Monday, the Steelers reportedly hired two assistant coaches with Pitt connections.
The Steelers are expected to hire Danny Crossman as their special team coordinator. Crossman was a second-team All-American and all-Big East cornerback at Pitt in the late 1980s. He lettered two seasons (1987 and 1989) as a defensive back and one (1988) as the Panthers’ starting fullback. As a senior, he served as team captain and was named the squad’s MVP as he led the Panthers to the 1989 Sun Bowl.
Crossman returns to Pittsburgh after serving as the special teams coordinator for the Miami Dolphins for the past seven years.
Former Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. will also return to the South Side after Gerry Dulac of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that he is joining the Steelers offensive staff. A specific position has yet to be indicated for Cignetti.
Cignetti was last in Pittsburgh serving as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2022-23. Pat Narduzzi fired Cignetti after a 3-9 season in 2023. During the last 2025 season, Cignetti was the offensive coordinator at IUP. He previously worked under McCarthy in Green Bay as the quarterbacks coach in 2018.