Amid the chaos of a week where he was named offensive coordinator at Wisconsin, Bobby Engram managed to find time to talk about one of his proteges making it to the Super Bowl stage.

As Pitt’s wide receivers coach, Engram recruited Tyler Boyd out of Clairton High School and was his position coach when Boyd broke Larry Fitzgerald’s freshman school records with with 85 catches for 1,174 yards and seven touchdowns in 2013.

Back then, they discussed everything from the intricacies of playing the position to the thrill of playing in the Super Bowl, a conversation that foreshadowed Boyd and the Cincinnati Bengals playing the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

“What I remember is telling him that there’s going to be a lot of hype and hoopla around it,” said Engram, who starred for the Seattle Seahawks when they faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL. “That’s all great. You’ve earned that. It’s a great thing for the league and for both teams because it’s special to get there and play in the Super Bowl.

“But you have to stay focused on the job at hand. Have your routine during the week. Don’t allow anything to affect how you prepare on the field. Going into the game, once the ball kicks off, yeah it’s the Super Bowl but it’s just another game that way. You’ve got to have great releases. You’ve got to run great routes. You’ve got to make the catch. Just play the ball.”

Boyd echoed those sentiments last week in a video conference call with Cincinnati media, focusing on preparing for the Super Bowl the same way he would any other game: “I think the partying is (done) after the game. We’re there for a reason.”

Boyd and Engram have had a strong bond dating to when Engram recruited the All-American running back at Clairton, where Engram said school administrators, teachers and coaches raved about his character and leadership ability in addition to his athleticism.

Boyd told the Tribune-Review on Saturday that he credits Engram and former Panthers coach Paul Chryst — now the head coach at Wisconsin — as “the main reason” he chose Pitt over Tennessee and West Virginia. Boyd’s mother, Tonya Payne Scott, was emphatic about Engram.

“He was who won us over for Tyler to go to Pitt,” Payne Scott said. “The thing that sold us with Bobby was you have conversations with some of these coaches when your kid is getting recruited and they sound like a car salesman. Bobby was genuine, up front and there was nothing shady in his presentation.”

Boyd said Engram taught him the ins and outs of how to make it to the NFL, sharing his experiences of how he became a Penn State All-American, the inaugural winner of the Biletnikoff Award in 1994 and an NFL second-round pick by preparing like a professional. Engram had 650 catches for 7,751 yards and 35 touchdowns in 14 NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears, Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs.

“He was a teacher, and I was the student,” Boyd told the Trib. “I did everything he asked me to do, and it worked.”

What Engram noticed immediately was Boyd’s skills in tracking and catching the ball, which he called “second to none.” After coaching Boyd, Engram was as impressed with his mental fortitude, recalling that Boyd only missed a practice or two all season because of his desire to be on the field. And Boyd proved to be an “extremely quick learner,” one who could translate what he learned in the classroom onto the field.

“He’s athletic and smooth and all of the things you see now,” Engram said, “but those are a couple of the intangibles that I thought set him apart from most freshmen players.”

Engram spent the past eight years coaching first the wide receivers and then the tight ends with the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens. He proudly followed Boyd’s rise to becoming the Bengals’ most reliable receiver. Boyd had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2018-19 and, according to Pro Football Focus, has had 194 consecutive targets without a drop, dating to Week 2 of the 2020 season.

“As a coach, you just try not to mess that one up. You just guide him, coach him, teach him,” said Engram, who noted that Boyd separated himself with his hunger for knowledge in the classroom by asking about play calls and coverages. “He was just into it every step of the way. It was so refreshing. Just playing in the pros for so long, I’m used to being around pros. He was this young kid out of high school that kind of carried himself that way — not the maturity of it, just the approach, the seriousness with how he approached the game but keeping it youthful but still having an approach to the game that you know it was serious to him. I’m not going to sit here and take credit for his talent. I was fortunate enough to help coach him.”

Both Engram and Boyd recorded 67 receptions in their Super Bowl seasons, although Boyd has an edge in both receiving yards (828-778) and touchdowns (five to three) over his old position coach. Engram caught a game-high six passes for 70 yards as the Seahawks lost to the Steelers, 21-10, on Feb. 5, 2006 at Ford Field in Detroit.

“I remember a lot — mostly I remember we didn’t win,” said Engram, who noted that Super Bowl XL was played on the fifth birthday of his son, Dean, a redshirt junior wide receiver at Wisconsin. “It was an unbelievable experience. It’s something that most people only dream of. It was something that I will personally always cherish. You want to win. I mean that: You really want to win the game.”

Engram will be rooting for Boyd, but he has loyalties to another former Pitt star. Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald shares a connection to Engram’s wife Deanna (Haynes) in that both are Penn Hills alums.

“I’m cheering for AD, and I’m cheering for Tyler,” Engram said. “I’m extremely proud of both of those guys because they went about it the right way, in terms of the work ethic, how they play the game, the intensity, the physicality, the love for the game. It exudes from both of those guys.

“I couldn’t be happier. It’s almost like you can’t lose because they’re guys you saw grow up in college and go on to do amazing things in the pros. I couldn’t be prouder of those guys and how their careers have turned out.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)