Pitt replenishes strength and conditioning staff

Pat Narduzzi was dealt a tough blow when longtime Pitt strength and conditioning coach Dave Andrews and two members of his staff left for Iowa State. However, he managed to lure former Mississippi State strength coach Michael Stacchiotti away from an NFL job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and now, Stacchiotti has assembled a staff with roots in the Pittsburgh area and experience coaching at the college level in the SEC.

Stacchiotti rounded out the Pitt strength staff by adding DeVaughn Gordon, Brandon Martuccio, Tyrone Smith and Austin Stephan, according to Alan Saunders of Pittsburgh Sports Now. Smith and Stephan are both natives of Pittsburgh. Smith is a graduate of Langley High School who went on to attend Penn State, and Stephan is a graduate of Upper St. Clair High School who was a teammate of Stacchiotti’s at Baldwin Wallace.

Smith and Stephan both coached at Cincinnati before moving on to SEC jobs. Smith became a coordinator of strength and conditioning at Florida, and Stephan was an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Mississippi State. In Starkville, Stephan worked alongside Gordon, a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, and a former running back and receiver at West Liberty. Gordon previously served on the strength and conditioning staffs at East Carolina and North Carolina Central.

Like Stephan, Martuccio also has ties to Stacchiotti, as the two are both from Girard, Ohio, and he served alongside him on the Mississippi State strength staff in 2018. Martuccio is also no stranger to western Pennsylvania, as he was an offensive lineman at Washington and Jefferson. Last season, he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Indiana State.