Getting Familiar: New OL Coach Adrian Klemm

The Pittsburgh Steelers have made several changes on the coaching staff so far this offseason. The team promoted QBs Coach Matt Canada to Offensive Coordinator after completing interviews with several candidates. The team hired TEs coach Alfredo Roberts after former long-time TEs coach James Daniel retired in mid-January. Along with a few other changes, the Steelers also promoted Assistant OL Coach Adrian Klemm to be the new OL coach.

Klemm was a three-time Super Bowl champion as an offensive tackle in his professional playing days and began his coaching career at Southern Methodist University. He spent a total of 9 seasons in college football serving as a graduate assistant, and from 2012-2016, he served as the Associated Head Coach/Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach at UCLA. At UCLA, Klemm helped produce some NFL talent on the offensive line. 7 offensive linemen that were coached by Klemm at UCLA and SMU went on to be NFL Draft picks and four more offensive linemen went undrafted, but made NFL rosters. In the words of long-time Steelers guard, Ramon Foster, Klemm "gets it" and "knows how to challenge everyone in the room with an ego removed."

Several Steelers, both current and former, have spoken and it seems Klemm has a high approval rating among players he's been around and coached. That is the type of guy you want on your coaching staff! Yesterday afternoon, Klemm spent some time as a special guest on Jeff Reinebold's podcast, Coffee With Coach. Reinebold is currently the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats' Special Teams Coordinator.

Klemm was introduced as "one of the most outstanding football coaches that he has been around" by Reinebold. Klemm talked a little bit about his time as a player for the New England Patriots' dynasty, which is where he contributed to three Super Bowl championships. "Everything mattered, everything was important."

Klemm mentioned around the 41-minute mark of the video that C Maurkice Pouncey is still mulling retirement, "Pouncey's deciding right now if he's going to retire or not." Klemm continued, "David [DeCastro] is in the final year of his deal and Al [Villanueva] is a free agent, there's a lot of turnover and there's change." He talked about the young talent in the Steelers' offensive lineman room mentioning Zach Banner and Kevin Dotson, stating "It's  guys stepping into new roles, where they're overnight becoming leaders of that room for the next generation." Reinebold asked Klemm about the Steelers' continuity of the way things are done in Pittsburgh. Klemm responded, "Coach T [Mike Tomlin] is one of those guys that walks it like he talks it, what he says and what you see on tv, that's what it is every single day. He has a quote, the 'Standard is the Standard'. There's a standard here and it's been here for a long time."

Klemm discussed the Steelers' fandom and the presence of fans during road games and how he's never seen anything like it before, even during his time as a player with the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. "It's incredible, we went to go play the LA Chargers and they had to go silent count... Even this year in the [Dallas] Cowboys' stadium, we had the majority of the fans."

On the history of the Steelers organization and the Lombardi trophies, "It's pretty impressive, you walk past them and they just line the hallway. There's so much history here, they literally have every team picture for like the last hundred years on the wall going down the hallway. It's the most phenomenal thing."

"It's really like a family environment the way the Rooney's run it... I think that's why they can retain and keep coaches for so long."

On the topic of the offseason, Klemm stated, "It's going to be a really important time for us and our room." Reinebold asked Klemm about the ability to consistently run the ball, "It's creating an environment and culture, which Coach already has the foundation for, and just really reinforcing that in that room... We want to be a physical group, we want to reinstill those values that we once had."

Reinebold asked Klemm if there were some young guys in the room that he was excited about and Klemm responded, "I got some dogs in the room, Coach." Reinebold answered back, "You're like the dog catcher, cause if they ain't around, you're going to go get them."

Reinebold around the 5o-minute mark, "I do know this, you're going to get them coached up. They're going to be tough, they're going to be physical, and they're going to be fundamentally sound. As long as I've known you, that's what you have put on the field and that's how you judge a coach, to me, about what he puts on the field."

After a few former and current Steelers players cosigned the hire the past week, Reinebold offered some high praise for Steelers' new OL coach Adrian Klemm throughout the podcast as well. You can tell Klemm is proud to be apart of this organization and is excited to get the offensive line back to being a physical hard-nosed group.

What are your thoughts on the Steelers new OL Coach Adrian Klemm? Can he help get the offensive line back to being a physical dominating unit as it once was? Sound off in the comment section below, or on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

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