The Pittsburgh Steelers are headed north to play the Buffalo Bills in a Wild Card game on Monday. The Steelers are not new to this position of fighting for their lives, it feels like they have been doing it all season. While both teams are coming into the game hot off a winning streak, something about this Steelers team just feels different. Those feelings of being different, fueled by the adversity the team has faced, are exactly what makes second-year wide receiver Calvin Austin III confident that Pittsburgh has a real shot at winning.
The 2023 season has been a rocky one for Pittsburgh and the battle has been primarily uphill. After a hot start in the preseason, they crashed back to earth quickly when they got destroyed 30-7 by the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener. They came back to win their second game against the Cleveland Browns, but that was mostly thanks to the defense who managed to score two touchdowns.
That has really been the story of the season, the offense has struggled to produce. This led to much beleaguered Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada finally being fired after Week 11 when the Steelers lost to the Browns. Then quarterback Kenny Pickett was injured during the Week 13 game against the Arizona Cardinals and backup Mitch Trubisky was brought in.
Trubisky was not unknown to fans as he was originally named the starter in 2022, but benched in favor of Pickett after a few weeks. Unfortunately, the change in coordinator did not seem to help Trubisky much and he was once again benched, this time for third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph. But Rudolph has been able to right the ship. The Steelers won those final three games and snuck their way into the postseason. Austin said that all of these struggles just made the team stronger.
Steelers’ Calvin Austin III Said He Is Ready For The Postseason
Recently, Austin appeared on former Steelers linebacker, Arthur Moats’ podcast. During the show, called The Arthur Moats Experience, Austin was telling Moats about how nervous he was when he first played in a professional game. Moats was curious if he feels a different kind of nervous about going to Buffalo for his first postseason game.
Surprisingly enough, he said he really isn’t nervous about the game. Austin said that at practice, he was chatting with some of his fellow special teams teammates about how Head Coach Mike Tomlin has them so pumped up to go into Buffalo and get a win. Moats said that brings back memories for him and just hearing about Tomlin’s pep talks gets him all fired up.
So instead of being nervous, he feels like he has been preparing his whole life for this. He has had to fight for his spot since childhood, he’s been counted out, and considered an underdog, and he still feels like he has something to prove. Instead of anxiety or nerves, Austin is channeling all of those feelings into excitement for the game.
“I was a football junkie, I watched so much football growing up. I mean when I was like six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years old I would go on rosters and write people’s names, I would make my own team, that type of stuff. Now I’m literally going on a road game, in a hostile environment in Buffalo, on a playoff game, I’m like what else would you want? There’s no other way you could write it. And to get in, how we got in, we had to fight, and overcome adversity. Like I said, we’re primed. I got that feeling like I said, I’m just ready, the moment and everything, I feel like it is just all coming into one, just like the perfect timing. Let’s kick it off now,” exclaims Austin.
Austin played college football at the University of Memphis where he was a preferred walk-on. He said that he was not highly recruited for football during high school despite his speed, it was track coaches who wanted him. His love has always been football and he hoped he would get a scholarship to play, but did not. Instead, the track coach from Memphis came to him and offered him a scholarship for track. Austin knew that the “Bear Bryant Rule” would prohibit him from taking a track scholarship and playing football.
He said he went to both coaches and told them he would stay in his hometown of Memphis, where his father played football if they allowed him to do both sports. The coaches agreed, and neither was sorry.
While they play different positions, Austin said he had dreams of being like former Steelers running back, and Memphis alum, DeAngelo Williams. Williams played for Memphis and helped put a struggling program on the map. Austin did just that too. He excelled at Memphis so much so that during his third season, they finally gave him the scholarship he wanted. That same year, he was also getting calls from the University of Florida and the University of Georgia offering him football scholarships. He was pleased to be able to turn them down this time and he knew that his heart was in Memphis.
Now Austin has brought his lightning-fast speed to Pittsburgh and we have been able to see him use it a few times. The Steelers clearly have a big decision to make at quarterback for the 2024 season and hopefully whoever is under center will get the ball in Austin’s hands a bit more.
Are you surprised to hear that Austin isn’t all that nervous? What do you think about the Steelers’ use of Austin? Should he be involved in the offense more often?
