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.

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 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 would all later serve as NFL assistant coaches with or under Arians.

At the end of the college football season in 1988, Arians was hired in the NFL as a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was during this time with the Chiefs that he worked with the coach who brought him to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Cowher.

After coaching at Temple, Arians held positions with Mississippi State (offensive coordinator, 1993–95) and Alabama (offensive coordinator, 1997) in between NFL assistant coaching jobs.

He also spent one season as the tight ends coach of the New Orleans Saints in 1996.

Following this stint was when he made a name for himself when he got the job as the quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 1998.

He was the first quarterback coach of Peyton Manning when he arrived in the NFL.

Afterward, he was hired as offensive coordinator (2001–2003) 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.

After the 2003 season, Arians was hired as the Steelers wide receivers coach, helping the Steelers in winning Super Bowl XL.

He led the team to their first playoff appearance since 2007 and first playoff win since 2002 during the 2020 season, culminating with a Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl LV.

At age 68, he was the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Arians retired from coaching a second time after the 2021 season and became a consultant with Tampa Bay.

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.

Arians played college football at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

In 2007 he was promoted to offensive coordinator, and would go on to win Super Bowl XLIII.

Despite his success in Pittsburgh, he had his fair share of critics.

He was also the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts during the 2012 season.

Arians is known for his slogan "No risk-it, no biscuit," which encourages aggressive playcalling.

An offensive assistant for most of his career, Arians held his first NFL head coaching position with the Colts when head coach Chuck Pagano was treated for leukemia.

As Indianapolis' interim head coach for 12 weeks, he guided a team that went 2–14 the previous season to a 9–3 record, earning them a playoff berth.

Arians was named AP NFL Coach of the Year for the season and was the first interim head coach to receive the honor.

Arians was previously the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 to 2017 and the Buccaneers from 2019 to 2021.

He also received a second Coach of the Year award after the 2014 season.

His success in Indianapolis led to him becoming the Cardinals' head coach for five seasons, where he led them to two postseason runs, one division title, and an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2015.

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.

After initially retiring in 2017, Arians returned in 2019 to coach the Buccaneers.