From Coughlin To McAdoo…So Far

The New York Giants moved on from their two-time Super Bowl champion head coach Tom Coughlin to hire one of the youngest coaches in the NFL Ben McAdoo. McAdoo has embraced some of Coughlin’s ideals while implementing many of his own.

The New York Giants are going to have a much different look in 2016, both on the field, and on the sidelines. With, potential future hall of fame Head Coach, Tom Coughlin ending his 12 year run with the team. While every year the criticism was constant, Coughlin will forever be loved in New York, bringing two Super Bowl championships to double the franchise total. But the reigns of Big Blue are now in the hands of one of the youngest coaches in the NFL, Ben McAdoo. McAdoo worked under Coughlin for the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator and it seems as if the Giants specifically brought him in, to become the next head coach.

Before talking about the new, lets mention the old, Tom Coughlin. Coughlin has to go down in Giants history as one of the best coaches in the franchise. Between the two unpredictable super bowl runs or the strict rules that he set since day one. His players went from hating him, to looking at him as a father figure, in particular, Michael Strahan, who said “He went from a tyrant to teaching us greatness”.

Alot of players never came around like Strahan did, his old school coaching style didn’t sit well with players such as Tiki Barber. It was obvious that Coach Coughlin realized that he had to make a change from his habits in order to bring the team closer and once he did that in 2007, the team gelled better, players became closer to their coach, and the Giants were back to the dominant force they used to be with guys like L.T. and Harry Carson. But when it’s all said and done, Coughlin will surely be missed by many, but it was certainly time for a change.

As for the new, Ben McAdoo is actually taking a lot of what he has learned from Tom Coughlin over the past few years. For weeks after Coughlin’s termination, he was still coming around the Giants facilities and McAdoo embraced that opportunity by saying, “Tom is a phenomenal resource and a mentor of mine. Anytime that I can use him, I’m going to.”

In fact McAdoo is taking many of Coughlin’s ideas and the team will be run in a very similar way. McAdoo has already adopted the “5 minute rule”, where if practice is scheduled for 10 a.m., every player and coach is expected to be there at 9:55 am. One of the biggest concerns that McAdoo had coming into the season, was the absurd amount of injuries the Giants have occurred over the last couple years.

So he, along with new strength and conditioning coach, Aaron Wellman, were very excited to announce that the Giants renovated the weight room to help prevent more injuries. Something that McAdoo used in Green Bay, which Coughlin did not use and probably should have, was a “Game management team”. The Game management team would meet on every Friday or Saturday and go over every single possibility that could happen in crunch time on Sunday. This is used to make sure that everybody is on the exact same page with what to do in the given circumstance.

Like I’ve said, something Coughlin could have used in a handful of games. The players are becoming fond of their new head coach, starting with the slight change of music being played during practices. Quarterback, Eli Manning, went on to say that, “Coach McAdoo is a great coach, a great teacher and will be a great leader for this team”. Well, Eli is right, that’s exactly what the Giants need from the 39 year old head coach.