Meet New East Carolina Head Coach Scottie Montgomery

For those that are not fans of Duke Blue Devils or ACC football, the name Scottie Montgomery does not immediately bring the same brand recognition of a Brady Hoke or Gene Chizik. While he is not well known nationally, the Duke offensive coordinator is one of the better young assistant coaches in the nation.

Montgomery is a native of Shelby, North Carolina, a city that is just under 300 miles from Greenville. The 37-year old played his high school career at Burns High School in Lawndale, North Carolina. He parlayed his football talent to a scholarship at Duke University under head coach Fred Goldsmith.

While at Duke, Montgomery caught 171 passes for 2,379 yards, and 13 touchdowns. He finished top ten in the ACC in receptions in each of his last three seasons. During his senior season, Montgomery was named to the second team All-ACC squad. While one of the best in the conference during his time at Duke, the Blue Devils went 9-35 with no bowl berths during his tenure.

After a successful college career, he joined the NFL as a rookie free agent signing by the Carolina Panthers. From then, Montgomery would play for the Denver Broncos  and Oakland Raiders in his four-year NFL career. The 6-1 wide receiver played in 27 games during his NFL career, all with Denver, making 16 career receptions for 160 yards and a touchdown. He also returned 15 kickoffs for a 24.7 yards per return average in 2002.

Montgomery also played the 2005 season in the Arena Football League for the Georgia Force.

Following his final season of professional football, Montgomery was hired by his alma mater, Duke University, to coach wide receivers. He was with the Blue Devils from 2006-2009 as an assistant under coaches Ted Roof and David Cutcliffe until the NFL came calling once again in a coaching role.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had an opening at wide receivers coach and hired Montgomery for that position. During his three years with the team, the Steelers produced Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown as Pro-Bowl level wide receivers. During his first season with the Steelers, the team made the Super Bowl, eventually falling 31-25 to the Green Bay Packers.

After leaving the Steelers, Montgomery returned to Durham once again in 2013 to take a co-offensive coordinator position, along with coaching wide receivers once again. After one season, he was promoted in 2014 to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, both positions that he has held for the last two years.

During his time as offensive coordinator, the Blue Devils have scored over 30 points per game, averaged over 390 yards of total offense and made two bowl games. In 2014, Duke played in the Sun Bowl, a 36-31 loss to Arizona State. The Blue Devils will play in the Pinstripe Bowl versus Indiana this postseason.

The contract for Montgomery is a five-year, $5 million deal with the 37-year old earning $400,000 in base salary and $600,000 in other money per season. That is approximately $417,000 less per season than the previous coach's deal.

After a search that never saw his name even mentioned until the very end, Montgomery accepted the offer and is now the new head coach for the East Carolina Pirates.