Philadelphia had turned all their attention on Coughlin, who resigned earlier this month after coaching the Giants for 12 seasons and leading them to two Super Bowl championships. Reese, the Giants’ GM since 2007, had alternately said last week that he assumed “full responsibility” for the Giants’ failures over the last four seasons, then pointed out that he’d worked with Coughlin on personnel decisions and even cited Coughlin’s in-game decision-making as reasons for a second straight 6-10 campaign.
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In deference to predecessor, Ben McAdoo is keeping the New York Giants on Tom Coughlin time.
“I’m honoured. It has been a privilege to work and learn under coach Coughlin”.
“This job is not for the faint of heart, and I’m the right man for the job”, McAdoo said at a news conference according to ESPN.
Although Manning’s pleas to keep Tom Coughlin at least one more season fell on deaf ears, McAdoo clearly is the next-best thing for the 35-year-old quarterback.
“We were all impressed with his energy, his enthusiasm, his vision and his desire”, Mara said.
Anyone who has been reading my blog for the last couple of weeks knows how I felt about the New York Giants coaching search.
While Manning’s support of McAdoo certainly was a factor, the Giants strongly considered former National Football League head coaches Mike Smith (Falcons) and Doug Marrone (Bills). Many thought Philbin was going to join the Giants as the offensive coordinator, but now it appears he could be in a different position, possibly Assistant Head Coach. “I think he’s got everything it takes to be a successful head coach”. The Giants brought in a half-dozen candidates to interview for the job but McAdoo was the perceived favorite the whole time.
“I am honored”, McAdoo said in a statement.
“I’m excited for the Giants organization and for the team”. McAdoo may very well be capable of parlaying his success as an assistant to the more demanding job of head coach, but without more help from Mara-approved Reese, there’s little that he, or any other head coach for that matter, can do on the field. Coughlin had a storied coaching career and should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he’s out of work now because mistakes he made as a coach.
Reportedly, the Giants took a lot of inspiration from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ coaching model, and the similarities between Mike Tomlin and McAdoo are easy to see.
The fate of the Giants’ roster rests exclusively in the hands of Jerry Reese. Maybe, five years from now, we will talk about them being the smartest guys in the room, about how they identified the right guy from a list of intriguing guys.
It is not clear whether defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who also interviewed for the head coaching job, will return.
“I’m my own biggest critic”, McAdoo said.
Of course, if Mara didn’t want Coughlin to coach elsewhere, he could have kept Coughlin on as the Giants’ head coach.
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That aggressive play calling, though, is part of McAdoo’s game. The Giants started their season with a winning record this year, at 5-4, but they only one of their next seven games in what one could best describe as a collapse.
