Randy Fichtner (born November 7, 1963) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

coach. He spent 14 seasons as part of the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

' coaching staff from 2007 to 2020. He most recently served as their offensive coordinator, a position he held for three seasons.

Early years

Fichtner, a native of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

, Ohio, was a standout football player at

Meadville Area Senior High School Meadville Area Senior High School (MASH) is a public school located within the city of Meadville, Pennsylvania, United States. Situated at 930 North Street Ext., the high school serves the city of Meadville, West Mead Township, Vernon Townshi ...

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 cen ...

. He chose to attend

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

, playing defensive back for the Boilermakers. His father is

Ross Fichtner Ross William Fichtner (October 26, 1938 – October 14, 2022) was an American football former cornerback in the National Football League, NFL for the Cleveland Browns (1960 - 1967) and New Orleans Saints (1968). He played college football at Pur ...

, who played quarterback for Purdue, and then played defensive back for the Cleveland Browns.

Coaching career

College

Fichtner began his coaching career as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research resp ...

, serving with

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, USC,

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the ...

, and Memphis from 1986–1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990–1993 respectively. He earned the position of wide receivers coach and recruiting director at Purdue in 1994, serving for two years before moving to Arkansas State to become the offensive coordinator from 1997–2001. Under Fichtner's tutelage, quarterback

Cleo Lemon Cleo Lemon Jr. (born August 16, 1979) is a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and former American football quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League. He most recently played for the Toronto Ar ...

flourished, setting numerous school records for passing and total offense. Fichtner returned to Memphis in 2001 to serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, instituting a new, highly effective

spread offense :''"Spread offense" may also refer to the four corners offense in basketball.'' The spread offense is an offensive scheme in gridiron football that typically places the quarterback in the shotgun formation, and "spreads" the defense horizonta ...

that set school records for total offense. The new system allowed the teams to amass prolific offensive statistics, totalling over 5,000 yards in both 2003 and 2004 to rank in the top ten for both yardage and scoring, as well as supporting the development of quarterback

Danny Wimprine Daniel Wimprine (born August 6, 1981) is a former American football quarterback. College career Wimprine was a four-year starter at quarterback for Memphis. He left the Tigers as the all-time leader in most major passing categories. Owns Tiger r ...

and running back DeAngelo Williams.

Pittsburgh Steelers

In 2007, Fichtner was hired by the

as their wide receivers coach under head coach Mike Tomlin, replacing the promoted

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 he ...

. He was instrumental in the development of the Steelers young wide receiver corps, mentoring Santonio Holmes to multiple 1000-yard seasons and a Super Bowl MVP award as well as supporting the growth of emerging wideouts Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown. In 2010, Fichtner was promoted to quarterbacks coach, replacing Ken Anderson after Anderson's retirement. On January 18, 2018, Fichtner was promoted to offensive coordinator while retaining his role as quarterbacks coach following the non-renewal of

Todd Haley Richard Todd Haley (born February 28, 1967) is an American football coach who is the current head coach and general manager for the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL). From 1997 to 2006, he had stints as the wide rec ...

's contract with the team, announced by Mike Tomlin the previous day. Following the Steelers' hiring of

Matt Canada Matt Canada (born January 19, 1972) is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for ...

as quarterbacks coach on January 15, 2020, Fichtner dropped his title of QBs coach while remaining in place as offensive coordinator. Fitchner's contract was not renewed after the end of the 2020 season following a playoff loss to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fichtner, Randy 1963 births Living people Arkansas State Red Wolves football coaches Memphis Tigers football coaches National Football League offensive coordinators People from Cleveland Pittsburgh Steelers coaches Purdue Boilermakers football coaches Purdue Boilermakers football players Purdue University alumni Michigan Wolverines football coaches Sportspeople from Ohio USC Trojans football coaches UNLV Rebels football coaches