Bob Ligashesky

Biography

Bob Ligashesky was named the Badgers’ special teams coordinator in March 2026. Ligashesky comes to Wisconsin with nearly 40 years of coaching experience, most recently serving as special teams coordinator at Minnesota. Ligasheksy spent 12 years of his career in the NFL, mostly coaching special teams. He has led special team units for the Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers (2008 Super Bowl champion) and the St. Louis Rams. He has also coached special teams with the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars and coached tight ends with the Denver Broncos. The veteran coach also has extensive experience at the college level. In addition to Minnesota, he has coached at Syracuse, Bowling Green, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Kent State, Arizona State (graduate assistant) and Wake Forest (graduate assistant). Ligashesky has mentored some of the best special team players in the game, as he has worked with NFL kickers Jeff Reed (Steelers), Connor Barth (Buccaneers) and Sebastian Janikowski (Raiders) and long snapper Jon Weeks (Texans) and punter Shane Lechler (Texans). In college, he coached standouts in Illinois punter Blake Hayes and Illini kicker Chase McLaughlin, as well as Bowling Green kicker Nate Needham. At Minnesota, his most recent stop, Ligashesky’s kickoff unit posted a 77.1% touchback clip, the second best in the Big Ten trailing only Wisconsin (81.6%). At Syracuse, Ligashesky’s units ranked second in kick return defense in the ACC in 2023 and third in the na