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Bucs fire special teams coach, hire defensive backs coach

 
Published Jan. 31, 2013

TAMPA — The Bucs fired special teams coordinator Bob Liga­shesky after one season and hired Jaguars defensive backs coach Tony Oden for the same position Wednesday.

Tampa Bay was 30th in the NFL in kickoff returns last season with a 20.3-yard average and tied for 19th in punt returns with a 9-yard average.

Oden, 39, replaces Ron Cooper, who took a similar job at USF. He inherits a pass defense that ranked last in the NFL. The Jaguars were 22nd in pass defense last season.

In 2006, Oden was hired as an assistant secondary coach with the Saints, where he remained for five seasons. He was promoted to defensive backs coach in 2011.

Faulk: Pats cheated

Eleven years later, ex-Rams running back Marshall Faulk said he believes the Patriots spied on a walkthrough before winning Super Bowl XXXVI 20-17.

"I'll never be over being cheated out of the Super Bowl," he said.

The NFL fined the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick and stripped the team of a first-round pick for taping opposing coaches' signals. But it said there's no evidence they spied on the Rams' walk-through the day before the game.

"We had some plays in the red zone that we hadn't run and a couple of plays on third down," Faulk said. "And they created a check for it. It's either the best coaching in the world when you come up with situations that you had never seen before or you'd seen it and knew what to do."

Ex-Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest denied the allegation.

"If … we had any extra information, then that game wouldn't have been as dramatic as it was; coming down to a field goal," McGinest said. "It would have been a blowout."

Seahawks: Linebacker Leroy Hill was arrested after police say he assaulted his girlfriend and kept her in his home against her will. The woman was treated at a hospital and released. The Seahawks said only they are aware of the situation.

Information from Times wires was used in this report.