ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) – Former NFL head coach Sam Wyche is being considered by the Buffalo Bills to be their quarterbacks coach.

Wyche interviewed for the job with new Bills coach Mike Mularkey last week, a team spokesman said on Monday.

Mularkey is also seeking a defensive backs coach to round out his staff.

Wyche was unavailable for comment Monday, said Wendy Wallace-Wright of Keppler Associates, a Virginia-based motivational speaking firm that includes Wyche as one of its clients.

Wyche has been out of the NFL since the 1995 season, when he was dismissed after four losing seasons coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He spent 1984-91 as head coach of the Bengals, a stretch in which he twice led Cincinnati to the playoffs, including 1988, when the team won the AFC championship and he was named the league’s coach of the year.

Wyche turned to TV broadcasting but was forced to retire because of a paralyzed vocal chord in 2000.

Two years ago, he returned to football, coaching quarterbacks at a high school in his native Columbia, S.C.

A former quarterback, Wyche spent seven seasons playing in the NFL, breaking into the league in 1968. He also had a brief stint with the Bills in 1976.

He is known as a fiery motivator, whose first NFL coaching job was San Francisco’s quarterbacks coach from 1979-82, a period in which he was credited with helping develop Joe Montana.

AP-ES-02-02-04 1551EST