Teryl Austin
Pittsburgh Steelers
Position:Defensive coordinator
Personal information
Born: (1965-03-03) March 3, 1965 (age 58)
Sharon, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Career information
High school:Sharon (PA)
College:Pittsburgh
Career history
As a player:
As a coach:
Career highlights and awards
Coaching stats at PFR

Teryl Austin (born March 3, 1965) is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions from 2014 to 2017 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 2018.

Early years

Austin was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania. He played college football at the University of Pittsburgh from 1984 to 1987, where he was a four-year letterman and three-year starter. He played in the 1987 Bluebonnet Bowl. Austin played one season with the Montreal Machine of the World League of American Football in 1991.

Coaching career

Austin then began a career in coaching, landing a position as a graduate assistant at Penn State in 1991. In 1993, he accompanied fellow Penn State assistant Jim Caldwell to Wake Forest where he served as secondary coach.[1] Austin went on to serve on the coaching staffs at Syracuse and Michigan before joining the Seattle Seahawks' staff in 2003, helping Seattle advance to Super Bowl XL in 2006.

He joined the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff as coach of defensive backs in 2007. In 2009, he helped the team reach Super Bowl XLIII, where the Cardinals would lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

On February 12, 2010, it was announced that Austin had been hired as the defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators.[2] His tenure as defensive coordinator ended following the Gators' 37–24 victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the 2011 Outback Bowl, and head coach Urban Meyer's resignation in December 2010.

On January 26, 2011, it was announced that Austin had been hired as the secondary coach for the Baltimore Ravens, and helped lead them to a Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers.[3]

On January 16, 2014, it was announced that Austin had been hired as the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.[4] With Austin calling the defensive signals, the Lions finished second in the NFL in points against and total yards against, leading the franchise to an 11-5 record and wild card playoff berth. Following the end of the Lions season, Austin interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers for vacant head coaching jobs.[5] Austin was scheduled to interview with the Denver Broncos but withdrew from consideration.[6] In the 2015 NFL season, the Lions record fell to 7-9 and the defense dropped to 18th in total yards against and 23 in total points against.[7] Despite this, Austin was still considered a top head coaching candidate and interviewed with the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans.[8] Austin later said that he felt of the jobs he interviewed for following the 2015 season, that he felt that only two were "...like a legitimate job interview. Like I had a legitimate shot at the job." When asked if he felt the other interviews were just to satisfy the NFL's "Rooney Rule," he did not disagree with the statement.[9] Following the 2016 NFL season, Austin interviewed with the Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers.[10]

After missing the 2017 NFL playoffs[11] the Lions fired head coach Jim Caldwell.[12] Following Caldwell's dismissal, Austin interviewed with the Lions for the vacant head coaching position.[13]

On January 11, 2018, it was announced that Austin had been hired as the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. [14] On November 12, 2018, Teryl Austin was relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator after the Bengals defense became the first in NFL history to give up 500+ yards in 3 straight games, against the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New Orleans Saints, respectively.

On January 8, 2019 it was announced that Austin had been hired as the Senior Defensive Assistant/Secondary for the Pittsburgh Steelers.[15] On February 9, 2022 he was promoted as the defensive coordinator for the Steelers.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Nittany Lions Well-Represented on Super Bowl XLIII Teams Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine," Penn State Department of Sports Information (January 21, 2009). Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  2. ^ Robbie Andreu, "UF makes Austin hire official Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine," Gainesville Sun (February 12, 2010). Retrieved February 12, 2010.
  3. ^ "Super Bowl XLVII - San Francisco 49ers vs. Baltimore Ravens - February 3rd, 2013". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  4. ^ Twentyman, Tim (January 17, 2014). "Lions hire Teryl Austin to run their defense". detroitlions.com. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  5. ^ Adams, Luke (December 30, 2014). "2015 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker". Pro Football Rumors. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Adams, Luke (January 16, 2015). "Kubiak In, Austin Out For Broncos' HC Search". Pro Football Rumors. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  7. ^ "2015 NFL Opposition & Defensive Statistics". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  8. ^ Adams, Luke (January 4, 2016). "2016 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker". November 2, 2020.
  9. ^ Rothstein, Michael (June 2, 2016). "Teryl Austin: Two of four head coach interviews were 'legitimate'". ESPN. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  10. ^ Links, Zach (January 2, 2017). "2017 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker". Pro Football Rumors. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  11. ^ Birkett, Dave (December 24, 2017). "Bengals 26, Lions 17: Playoff hopes shot, time for Jim Caldwell to go". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  12. ^ Birkett, Dave (January 1, 2018). "Jim Caldwell fired after 4 seasons as Detroit Lions coach". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  13. ^ Birkett, Dave (January 2, 2018). "Detroit Lions interview DC Teryl Austin for head coach". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  14. ^ Bergman, Jeremy (January 8, 2018). "Bengals hire Teryl Austin as defensive coordinator". NFL.com. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  15. ^ Dulac, Gerry (January 11, 2019). "Steelers hire Teryl Austin, but could their next linebackers coach be a familiar name?". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  16. ^ Varley, Teresa (February 9, 2022). "Austin named defensive coordinator". Steelers.com. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
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