Randy Fichtner (born November 7, 1963) is an American football coach. He spent 14 seasons as a part of the Pittsburgh Steelers' coaching staff from 2007 to 2020. He most recently served as their offensive coordinator, a position he held for three seasons.
Early life
Fichtner, a native of
Cleveland, Ohio, was a standout football player at Meadville Area Senior High School in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
He chose to attend Purdue University, playing defensive back for the Boilermakers. His father is
Ross Fichtner, 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, serving with Michigan, USC, UNLV, and Memphis from 1986–1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990–1993 respectively. He earned the positions 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 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 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 and running back DeAngelo Williams.
Pittsburgh Steelers
In 2007, Fichtner was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as their wide receivers coach under head coach
Mike Tomlin, replacing the promoted
Bruce Arians.
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's contract with the team, announced by
Mike Tomlin the previous day.
Following the Steelers' hiring of
Matt Canada 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.
