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First Call: Steelers reportedly were quick to rebuff trade inquiries about Mike Tomlin; former Steelers coach may get promotion | TribLIVE.com
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First Call: Steelers reportedly were quick to rebuff trade inquiries about Mike Tomlin; former Steelers coach may get promotion

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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It doesn’t look like Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is going anywhere.

In Tuesday’s “First Call,” trade talks around Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin have been short and sweet. Also, a former Tomlin assistant coach may get a promotion.

It was a busy night for a number of ex-Penguins. Duquesne will be playing against a number of faces Tuesday night that are familiar to local college basketball fans.

Plus, Robert Morris will once again try to host a midweek hockey game against a conference rival.

Non-starter

Based on how ESPN’s Adam Schefter described it, the apparent inquiries from teams about Mike Tomlin’s availability in a trade may not have even reached Tomlin’s ears.

Schefter reported over the weekend that the Chicago Bears and at least one other team inquired about Tomlin’s status. But the Steelers quickly “rebuffed” any conversations.

He reiterated that point on Monday’s “Pat McAfee Show,” saying, “It was a pretty short conversation because they reached out to the Steelers, and the Steelers have no interest in moving on from Mike Tomlin. As he himself said last week to any teams that would approach the Steelers about a potential trade, he said, ‘Save your time.’”

I guess some teams bothered to ask, though. The way Schefter lays it out, however, Art Rooney II or whoever took the call in the Steelers’ front office didn’t bother to engage beyond the initial overture.

So, who knows if Rooney even bothered to go to Tomlin and ask if he was interested in leaving?

He should’ve. Who knows what those other teams may have offered. And maybe Tomlin would enjoy rebooting his career somewhere else after being stuck in the mud here in Pittsburgh after an eighth straight season without a playoff win.

Movin’ on up?

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is taking the head coaching job in Chicago. That’s according to his representation at Priority Sports. There are two pieces of Steelers-related news associated with that headline.

First of all, it means that Steelers coordinator Arthur Smith will likely be staying put. He was believed to be a candidate for that job. He also interviewed for the New York Jets head coaching gig, but many feel Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn will fill that opening.

As for who will replace Johnson as Dan Campbell’s OC in Detroit, a former Steeler is apparently a candidate. Schefter says Lions assistant head coach/running backs coach Scottie Montgomery might be in line for a promotion.

Montgomery was the wide receivers coach under Tomlin in Pittsburgh from 2010-12.

Ex-Pens parade

As the Penguins were winning in Los Angeles, a number of former Penguins had some highlight moments on Monday.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 of 27 shots for the Minnesota Wild during a 3-1 win at Colorado. In his past five games, Fleury is 4-1 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a save percentage of 93.2.

In Seattle’s 6-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres, Jamie Oleksiak scored on a setup started by another former Penguin, Jared McCann.

Oleksiak would also set up McCann for his 14th goal of the season, an empty netter with just over a minute left. Jason Zucker scored in that game as well for Buffalo; it was his 15th.

Jordan Staal also tied the Carolina Hurricanes game in Chicago 3-3 late in the third.

The Canes went on to win it 4-3 in overtime thanks to a Sebastian Aho goal.

Familiar faces

When Duquesne hosts Dayton on Tuesday night, the Dukes will be going up against a couple of foes with Pittsburgh ties.

The Flyers’ leading scorer, Nate Santos, is a transfer from Pitt. He checks in at 14.4 points per game. The native of Illinois was a Panther in 2021-22 and ’22-23.

The team’s second-leading scorer is Enoch Cheeks, at 13.2 points per game.

He started his college career at Robert Morris. In 2022-23, Cheeks put up 15.4 points per game for the Colonials. That was good enough to be third-team All-Horizon League.

The Dukes are 9-9 but have won four of their first five Atlantic-10 games. That’s good for second place behind 5-1 George Mason. Dayton is 2-3 in A-10 play, 12-6 overall.

Last year, the Dukes beat the Flyers in the A-10 quarterfinals in Brooklyn en route to a conference tournament championship. Prior to that 65-57 victory, Dayton had won 11 of 12 in the series rivalry.

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Let’s try this again

Last Tuesday, the Robert Morris men’s hockey team was scheduled to host Canisisus for a rare Tuesday night home game on Neville Island.

However, the Golden Griffins’ bus got stuck behind an accident on the way down from Buffalo the day of the game. Then they hit a bad snow band near Erie and had to turn around and go home.

As a result, the game was postponed for a week. Faceoff at the Island Sports Center is slated for 7 p.m.

Since then, the Colonials split a weekend series at home against RIT, winning Game 1 by a final score of 6-1 on Friday. Then they lost Game 2 on Saturday, 3-2.

As for Canisius, they dropped a pair of games at Penn State by scores of 4-0 and 3-2. The Golden Griffins come in with 23 points, which is good for seventh place in Atlantic Hockey. The Colonials are a point behind them in eighth.

RMU swept a weekend series at Canisius with victories of 5-2 and 3-1 earlier this year.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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