North Carolina coaching search: Steelers' Arthur Smith reveals contact level with Tar Heels

The North Carolina Tar Heels are searching for their next head coach after announcing the end of Mack Brown’s tenure in Chapel Hill. With that, one coach who seems to be garnering attention from the Tar Heels is Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

Now, Smith has reportedly shared that he had a preliminary call with North Carolina about the head coach opening. He also made sure to emphasize that he’s happy with where he is in Pittsburgh and that these are the beginning stages of a job search when many candidates are being looked into.

Arthur Smith is in his first season as the offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers, working with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to try and revitalize the team’s offense. To this point, that’s been fairly successful, with the Steelers sitting at 8-3 atop the AFC North.

Prior to his time with the Steelers, Smith was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He had a record of 21-30 in three seasons there. He went 7-10 in each of those seasons. From 2011-2020, he was an assistant with the Tennessee Titans.

Smith does already have ties to North Carolina. He was a guard at North Carolina from 2001 through 2005. He would later become a graduate assistant there. Other than that, his only college experience came in 2010 as an intern at Ole Miss.

Of course, North Carolina is looking at several other coaches at this stage of their coaching search. Insider Pete Thamel recently broke down a few of those options.

“It would be really interesting to see if there is a power coach who emerges from a P4 league as a head coach to go to Carolina to change things up. You know, some of those names might be Dave Clawson, PJ Fleck – a guy, you know, who’s had very good success and those things,” Thamel said.

“I think Jon Sumrall is on that list from Tulane. He’s done an excellent job – two straight Sun Belts and has a shot to win the American, I think Bob Chesney going in and hanging 70 in their stadium gets him on the list, right, from James Madison. Won big at Holy Cross, which is kind of like a little similar, it’s private but a little bit of a similar vibe to Carolina in that, sort of, east coast-quarter way. (UNLV’s) Barry Odom, friend of the pod from earlier in the year. I think Jeff Monken from Army? What he’s done there will get them a look.”

For the time being, the North Carolina coaching search is in its early stages. However, Arthur Smith is certainly a name in the mix.