Report: Bears hire Michael Pitre as running backs coach

According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, the Chicago Bears are set to hire Michael Pitre as their new running backs coach.

Pitre has been coaching in the college ranks since 2012, with his most recent role coming with the Oregon State Beavers where he worked as their running backs coach/recruiting coordinator since 2018.

One of his star pupils with the Beavers was 2020 Bears UDFA Artavis Pierce.

Prior to his time with Oregon State he was the running backs coach at Montana State from 2014 to 2017, and before that he was at the University of Colorado as a graduate assistant coach working with the running backs and offensive line for two years.

He also coached at the high school level from 2008 to 2011 working with the defense and running backs.

Pitre has had three brushes with the NFL since graduating from UCLA as a History major. First he was in Chiefs camp as a fullback hopeful during 2008’s training camp, he was then a scouting intern with the Patriots in 2009, and then in 2017 he was a coaching intern with the Chiefs in the summer of 2017.

In 2017 he worked closely with K.C.’s then running backs coach, Eric Bieniemy, and the Chiefs offensive coordinator was none other than current Bears head coach Matt Nagy.