Patriots announce hirings of O’Shea, Licht

As expected, the Patriots have just announced they have hired Chad O’Shea as the new wide receivers coach. In addition, they have named Jason Licht director of pro personnel.

O’Shea spent the last three seasons as offensive assistant/wide receivers coach for the Minnesota Vikings (2006-08), assisting Minnesota’s offensive coordinator and the Vikings’ wide receivers coach. He was named Minnesota’s assistant special teams coach earlier this month. Prior to that, he served as a volunteer special teams assistant in 2003 and as assistant special teams coach for two seasons from 2004-05 with the Kansas City Chiefs. In all, he’s spent 13 years as a coach, including the last six in the NFL.

Prior to entering the NFL, O’Shea spent seven years coaching in the college ranks at the University of Houston (1996-99) and Southern Mississippi (2000-02). He played quarterback at Marshall University for two seasons (1991-92) before finishing his playing career at the University of Houston (1994-95).

For what it’s worth, O’Shea has some connections with the Patriots: He played college ball with Troy Brown at Marshall, and was a special teams coach/recruiting coordinator for Southern Mississippi the same year Adalius Thomas was drafted.

As for Jason Licht (pronounced LIGHT), the move marks a bit of a homecoming. He worked for the Patriots from 1999 until 2002 in the front office, and returns to New England’s personnel department after stints with Arizona as a personnel executive last year and five seasons with the Philadelphia as vice president of player personnel (2006-07) and assistant director of player personnel (2003-05).

Licht first joined the Patriots personnel department in 1999 as a college scout. In 2001, he became the team’s national scout. Between the 2001 and 2002 season, Licht was promoted to assistant director of player personnel, a position he held through the 2002 season.

Licht began his NFL career with Miami, working in various capacities in the Dolphins’ front office from 1995-96. In 1997, he worked for National Football Scouting, a college football scouting service, and in 1998 served as an area scout for Carolina before joining New England.

Licht was an all-conference defensive tackle at Nebraska-Wesleyan from 1993-94. He was originally a walk-on at the University of Nebraska and played linebacker on the freshman team in 1989, then switched to guard and earned a letter in 1991 before transferring.