Pitt has hired former Maryland co-offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Chris Beatty as the Panthers’ next wide receivers coach, Pittsburgh Sports Now has learned.
Beatty, 45, spent the last three seasons at Maryland under D.J. Durkin and remained on the staff with added responsibilities when Matt Canada took over as interim head coach in 2018. Panther-Lair.com first reported Pitt’s interest in Beatty and that Pitt expected to hire Beatty.
An East Tennessee State alum, Beatty played professionally in the Canadian Football League before turning to coaching. He was the head coach at three different high schools in Virginia from 1998 to 2005 before joining the college ranks.
Since then, he’s coached at Hampton, Northern Illinois, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia and Maryland.
He started out as the wide receiver coach at Maryland, then added co-offensive coordinator and assistant head coach duties in 2017 and took on even more responsibly with Canada elevated to interim head coach in 2018.
Throughout his multiple stops, Beatty has heavily recruited the Virginia area, which is where he grew up. He’s also recruited successfully in Georgia and Florida — where he beat Pitt for 2018 wide receiver Jeshaun Jones — and even in the Pittsburgh area, where he was the primary recruiter for 2019 Maryland signee Dino Tomlin.
A 247 Sports article from December called Beatty one of Maryland’s “ace recruiters.”
After the 2017 season, Maryland sent wide receiver D.J. Moore to the NFL as the first-round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers. But things didn’t go as well for the Terps receivers on the field in 2018. Maryland finished 122nd in the country in passing yards — one of the three Power Five teams with fewer yards than Pitt.
Beatty will replaced former receivers coach Kevin Sherman, who was not retained by Pitt. Sherman had been with the Panthers since 2015.
With the hiring of Beatty and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, Pitt’s ten full-time assistant slots are full for the 2019 season. The Panthers also need to replace offensive quality control coach James Patton, who took a full-time job at Eastern Michigan.
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