Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward is being considered for the Arizona State wide receivers coach job, according to Chris Karpman of Sun Devil Source. Ward visited the campus in Tempe, Arizona, on Tuesday, one day after Troy Brown visited campus for the job.
Ward was previously considered a potential candidate for the open Steelers wide receivers coach job, which ultimately went to Zach Azzanni. In addition, he was in the running for the Texas Southern head coaching job but did not end up getting that job, meaning Ward is a free agent on the market.
Ward had been the head coach of the San Antonio Bahamas of the XFL was pushed out after the league merged with the USFL and contracted, forming the eight-team UFL for the 2024 season. Wade Phillips, who had been the head coach of the Houston Roughnecks team that was contracted by the league, is taking over for Ward in San Antonio.
That made Ward a free agent, and had some speculating that he might return to the Pittsburgh Steelers as a wide receivers coach. Ward was a coaching intern with the Steelers in 2017 and spent two years with the New York Jets as an offensive assistant before moving to FAU and then the XFL.
Ward is a Forest Park, Georgia native and played his college ball with the Georgia Bulldogs before being selected in the third round by the Steelers in the 1998 NFL Draft. He finished his 14-year career with 12,083 yards, 85 touchdowns and has been an eight-time Hall of Fame semifinalist.
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