Bears hire Oregon St. coach to oversee running backs

The Bears are bringing in Michael Pitre to coach running backs, the team announced Thursday.

This will be Pitre's first full-time NFL coaching job. He spent the previous three seasons as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Oregon State.

Pitre replaces Charles London, who left after three seasons to become the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons. London joins former Bears passing game coordinator Dave Ragone, who the Falcons hired as offensive coordinator.

Pitre coached current Bears running back Artavis Pierce at Oregon State. He will also be tasked with coaching running backs David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen, among others. At Oregon State, Pitre's teams rushed for 165.8 yards per game and 4.5 yards per carry.

Pitre was a three-year starting fullback at UCLA in the mid-2000s, including a year as a team captain in 2006.

His previous NFL experience includes serving as a scouting intern for the New England Patriots in 2009 and as a Bill Walsh minority coaching fellow with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017.

Pitre had previous college coaching stops at Colorado (2012 to 2013) and Montana State (2014 to 2017) before joining Oregon State in 2018.