Buccaneers hire Paul Ferraro as Special Teams coach, per reports

According to the Football Scoop, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will hire Paul Ferraro as their new special teams coach. The Bucs surprisingly fired Bob Ligashesky yesterday after a poor first season in charge of Tampa Bay's special teams unit, with generally poor results. The Bucs did excel in one area: they led the league by blocking four punts.

More: Bucs hire Tony Oden as DBs coach | Bucs begin contract talks with Mike Williams

Paul Ferraro comes over after serving as the University of Maine's defensive coordinator the past season. Ferraro was the Rams' linebackers coach from 2009 to 2011, and served as the Minnesota Vikings' special teams coordinator from 2006 to 2008. He was assistant special teams coach for the Panthers in 2005, and knows Rutgers from being his defensive coordinator from 2001 to 2004.

The three seasons he spent as Vikings special teams coordinator produced varying results: his units were ranked 27th, 9th and 32nd in those three seasons by Football Outsiders. The Vikings gave up a whopping six special teams touchdowns that season. There doesn't appear to have been a particular trend in those numbers, though: he had an awful punt coverage unit in 2008, but that group was decent in 2007 and 2008. Kick coverage was great in 2007, but awful in 2006 and pretty bad in 2007. The results are all over the map, but hopefully he'll do

At least now we know why the Bucs waited this long to get rid of their previous special teams coach: they found the guy they wanted just a little late. It's just not all that obvious why a guy with mediocre results in his previous gigs was the great coach they needed on special teams. Except for one thing: he knows Schiano.

You can follow us on Twitter (@Bucs_Nation) and like us on Facebook.