The 46-year-old product of Sto-Rox and IUP was let go today by the Pittsburgh Steelers, officially the third member of the staff that will not be back in 2010, joining retired QB coach Ken Anderson and fired O-line coach Larry Zierlein.
The move is no surprise, as Ligashesky's special teams unit had a horrible season, surrendering four kickoff return TDs in a five-week span and finishing the year ranked 30th in kick coverage. Punt coverage was not much better, ranking 24th in the NFL.
Gerry Dulac's PG article floated the name of Bobby April as a replacement, and I would be down with that. April was recently let go along with the rest of the Buffalo Bills staff, and he waived the final two years of his deal so he could be free to negotiate with other teams. He was the Steelers' coordinator in 1994-95, and also oversaw the units of the Falcons ('91-'93), Saints ('96-'99), Rams ('01-'03), and Bills ('04-'09).
The move is no surprise, as Ligashesky's special teams unit had a horrible season, surrendering four kickoff return TDs in a five-week span and finishing the year ranked 30th in kick coverage. Punt coverage was not much better, ranking 24th in the NFL.
Gerry Dulac's PG article floated the name of Bobby April as a replacement, and I would be down with that. April was recently let go along with the rest of the Buffalo Bills staff, and he waived the final two years of his deal so he could be free to negotiate with other teams. He was the Steelers' coordinator in 1994-95, and also oversaw the units of the Falcons ('91-'93), Saints ('96-'99), Rams ('01-'03), and Bills ('04-'09).
Steelers fire special teams coordinator [PG]
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12 comments:
and bruce arians remains employed... stunning... yea this guy had to take the fall for the coverage teams but shouldnt arians take the fall for the 2894521 drives he stalled with shotgun on 3rd and short. if i have to see another year of 3rd and 1 empty backfield Ben back to pass SACKED im going to lose it (and its not the line's fault either, when the D sees an empty backfield on 3rd and short theyre going to overload blitz because there is NO ONE TO HELP THE QB!!)
Well P.O., you should get ready to break out the straight jackets for the 2010 season then.
woo hooo!!!!! bout time...he should have been fired mid-season!
Ligashesky was kicked out of the Steelers offices... but Josh Cribbs kept returning him.
Did Ken Laird confirm this yet? That's the only way I'll believe it....
Laird reports that Cowher will be hired to replace Ligashesky.
Ay ziggy zoomba Bob. Good guy (per this BGSU alum) but not a good coach...
Only surprising part of his firing is that it did not come sooner.
As flawed as the Steelers were this year, they would be in the playoffs if they could have covered kickoffs better.
As Bill Parcells says "You are what your record says you are". 30th and 24th is not getting it done.
Another year of Arians lining the offense up on 3rd down in what I like to call the "shotgun sack formation".
I saw, near the end of the year, times when he'd try to go max protect and leave two backs in there to block and Ben would STILL have to run for his life.
I want Vince McMahon to come out and yell "You're FIIIIIIIIRED!!" at every assistant that gets fired, just like he used to on wrestling back in the day. And it should happen on TV. That would be awesome.
Let's go Pens!!
would you trade two straight seasons of the steelers not making the playoffs for one season of the pirates losing in the wild card round for MLB?
Jeff_King,
That's an interesting question, I'll address it.
I don't think so.
Why, you ask? In the year of 2009, I saw the Steelers win the Super Bowl, the Penguins win a Stanley Cup, and Pitt have pretty good years in both of their sports.
And the Pirates still sucked, horribly.
The strange part was, I didn't even care. I still followed the team as I always do, but the fact that they were horrible just didn't bother me like it usually does.
I'm not sure if this answers your question, but if the tradeoff for having good, exciting teams in every other major sport in the city is one god awful baseball team, I think that I can live with that.
Now, I would trade one Pirates World Series win for no Steelers playoffs for 6 years. But a loss in the wild card round, no way.
And I know there's a diehard Pirates fan out there who is probably super pissed at me right now. Oh well....
Lou,
I agree, it would have to go deeper than a wild card round loss for such a trade.
Also, did anybody see this morning's poll on the PG website regrading which coach you would fire if you had the choice? VERY interesting results.
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