Bruce Arians

Bruce Charles Arians (born October 3, 1952) is an American football executive and former coach in the National Football League (NFL). Since 2022, he has been a senior football consultant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Arians was previously the head coach of the Temple Owls from 1983 to 1987, the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 to 2017 and the Buccaneers from 2019 to 2021. He was also the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts during the 2012 season. Arians is known as a "quarterback whisperer" with a "no risk-it, no biscuit" slogan, which encourages aggressive playcalling. Under Arians's coaching, several high-profile quarterbacks were named to the All-Pro team or Pro Bowl, including Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer, and Tom Brady.

An offensive assistant for most of his career, Arians helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XL as their wide receivers coach and then Super Bowl XLIII as their offensive coordinator. While previously serving as head coach at Temple, Arians had his first NFL head coaching experience at age 59 when Colts head coach Chuck Pagano was treated for leukemia. Originally hired as their offensive coordinator, Arians became the Colts' interim head coach for 12 weeks, guiding a team that went 2–14 the previous season to a 9–3 record and earning them a playoff berth. He was named AP NFL Coach of the Year for the season and was the first interim head coach to receive the honor.

His success in Indianapolis led to Arians getting hired as an NFL head coach for the first time at age 60, serving the position for five seasons with the Cardinals. During his tenure in Arizona, Arians led the team to two postseason runs, a division title, and an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2015. He received a second Coach of the Year award after the 2014 season, and retired after 2017 as the Cardinals' winningest head coach. Arians then came out of retirement in 2019 to coach the Buccaneers. He led the team to their first postseason appearance since 2007 during the 2020 season, culminating with a victory in Super Bowl LV. At age 68, he was the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl. After guiding the Buccaneers to a division title and another postseason appearance in the 2021 season, Arians retired from coaching again and became a consultant with Tampa Bay.

Early life

A native of Paterson, New Jersey, Arians graduated from William Penn Senior High School in York, Pennsylvania. He previously attended York Catholic High School, where he was a standout scholastic quarterback.

Playing career

Arians played college football at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. As a senior in 1974, he was the starting quarterback in a wishbone offense for the independent Hokies, and completed 53 of 118 passes (44.9%) for 952 yards with three passing touchdowns and seven interceptions. Arians rushed for 243 yards and eleven touchdowns, which set a school record for most quarterback rushing touchdowns in a season; it stood for 42 years, until broken by Jerod Evans in 2016. He was also the first white player to share a dorm room with a black player in school history; his roommate was James Barber, father of Ronde and Tiki Barber. The two were given the nickname "Salt and Pepper".

Coaching career

Early years

Arians began his coaching career in 1975 as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. Arians then held an assistant coaching position at Mississippi State University (running backs and wide receivers) from 1978 to 1980 before heading to the University of Alabama to coach the running backs from 1981 to 1982 under Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Arians was also the head coach at Temple University from 1983 to 1988. While head coach for the Owls, he compiled a 27–39 overall record over six seasons. He had two winning records on the field, in 1984 and 1986; the Owls finished 6–5 both seasons. However, all of the 1986 wins were later forfeited after it emerged that running back Paul Palmer, who was the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1986, had signed with a sports agent before the season. Besides Palmer, other standout players Arians coached at Temple included cornerback Kevin Ross, safety Todd Bowles, and running back Todd McNair. Ross, Bowles, and McNair all later served as NFL assistant coaches with or under Arians.

At the end of the Temple football season in 1988, Arians was hired in the NFL as a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs under Marty Schottenheimer. It was during this time with the Chiefs that he worked with the coach who eventually brought him to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Cowher. He held positions with Mississippi State (offensive coordinator, 1993–95), New Orleans Saints (tight ends, 1996), and Alabama (offensive coordinator, 1997) following this.

Indianapolis Colts (1998–2000)

Following this stint was when he made a name for himself when he got the job as the quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts under Jim E. Mora in 1998. He was the first quarterback coach of Peyton Manning when the latter arrived in the NFL. Arians spent three years with the team, guiding Manning and helping him gain confidence through his early seasons.

Cleveland Browns (2001–2003)

Afterward, he was hired as offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns under Butch Davis. In 2002, he helped the Browns finish 9–7 (2nd in the newly aligned AFC North) and to a Wild Card Round berth where they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers (36–33). It was during his tenure with the Browns that he first worked with Chuck Pagano who served as the Browns secondary coach and eventually brought Arians back to the Indianapolis Colts.

Pittsburgh Steelers (2004–2011)

After the 2003 season, Arians was hired by Steelers head coach Cowher as wide receivers coach, helping the team in winning Super Bowl XL. In 2007 he was promoted to offensive coordinator, and later won Super Bowl XLIII. In addition to coaching quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Arians also became acquainted with former first round draft pick Byron Leftwich, who backed up Roethlisberger and was later hired as one of Arians's prominent assistant coaches.

Despite his success in Pittsburgh, he had his fair share of critics. He was a gambling man who liked to take big risks that didn't sit well with fans. For instance, on a 3rd & 1, instead of running the ball or making a short quick pass, he wanted to air it out downfield. According to Arians, "I got booed in the Super Bowl parade. I look over and I hear 'get a fullback', and I say 'never'." In Arians's offense the quarterback is often exposed: Roethlisberger took a high number of sacks every year and it left the Steelers front office unhappy. This led the front office to not renew Arians's contract as offensive coordinator when it expired after the 2011 season. Arians initially announced his retirement from coaching after not being offered a contract.

Indianapolis Colts (second stint) (2012)

On January 28, 2012, shortly after his supposed retirement, Arians was hired by new Indianapolis Colts head coach Pagano to become his offensive coordinator, replacing Clyde Christensen. It was his second stint with the franchise, having previously served as the quarterbacks' coach for the Colts from 1998 to 2000. He was briefly reunited with Manning until the latter's release 2 months later. The 2012 season marked the arrival of new rookie quarterback Andrew Luck to the Colts, who Arians was tasked with developing.

On October 1, 2012, Arians was named the interim head coach of the Colts following Pagano's leukemia diagnosis. Arians led the Colts to a 9–3 record, part of one of the biggest one-season turnarounds in NFL history. The nine wins are the most by an interim head coach in NFL history. After winning only two games in 2011, the Colts returned to the playoffs. Pagano returned to the Colts as head coach on December 24, 2012, with Arians returning to his role as offensive coordinator. Arians missed the Colts' Wild Card Round loss against the Baltimore Ravens due to being hospitalized with an illness, which was described by doctors as an inner ear infection or a virus; Arians had missed practice on January 3 due to the flu. Arians was named the 2012 AP Coach of the Year, making him the first interim head coach to win the award.

Arizona Cardinals (2013–2017)

On January 17, 2013, the Arizona Cardinals and Arians agreed on a 4-year deal that made Arians their 40th head coach, succeeding Ken Whisenhunt. A few months later, the Cardinals traded for quarterback Carson Palmer from the Oakland Raiders to pair him with the team's star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Arians began his rookie head coaching year 3–4, but led the Cardinals to win seven of their last nine games to end the 2013 season with a 10–6 record. This doubled the amount of wins from the 5–11 record the team had posted the year before. Arians was the first Cardinals head coach since Norm Barry in 1925 to record at least nine wins in his first season.