Tom Coughlin
Thomas Richard Coughlin is an American former football coach and executive of the National Football League. He was the head coach for the New York Giants from 2004 to 2015. He led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, both times against the New England Patriots. Coughlin was also the inaugural head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, serving from 1995 to 2002 and leading the team to two AFC Championship Game appearances. Prior to his head coaching career in the NFL, he was head coach of the Boston College Eagles football team from 1991 to 1993, and served in a variety of coaching positions in the NFL as well as coaching and administrative positions in college football.
Early life
Coughlin was born in Waterloo, New York, in 1946, and played football and basketball in high school. He once played a high school basketball game against former Syracuse University Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim, who played for Lyons High School at the time. He idolized Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis and wished to play at Syracuse.College
Coughlin attended Syracuse University when he was offered a scholarship by assistant coach Jim Shreve and became a three-year letter-winner on the football team under Hall of Fame coach Ben Schwartzwalder. He played halfback for the Syracuse Orange football team. Coughlin was teammates with future Hall of Famers Larry Csonka and Floyd Little. In 1967, he set the school's single-season pass receiving record. Jim Boeheim was Coughlin's residence advisor during Coughlin's senior year at Syracuse. He stayed at Syracuse after graduation and obtained his master's degree while working as a graduate assistant.Coaching style
Coughlin was mentored by Bill Parcells while Coughlin was on Parcells' Giants staff as wide receivers coach. Like his mentor, Coughlin is known as a stern disciplinarian and for his meticulous attention to detail, earning him the nickname "Colonel Coughlin". He was known for moving the clocks at team facilities anywhere from five to 15 minutes ahead in order to ensure players arrived ahead of time for team meetings. Early in his Giants tenure, he fined players for being two minutes early to team meetings, saying they should have arrived at least five minutes early per his new rules.Coaching career
Coughlin's first coaching job was as a graduate assistant for his alma mater Syracuse in 1969. He then moved on to his first head coaching job at Rochester Institute of Technology from 1970 to 1973. He then returned to his alma mater as the quarterbacks coach,where he was eventually promoted to offensive coordinator and stayed in that position from 1976 to 1980. After the 1980 season Coughlin moved to Boston College where he was the Quarterbacks coach from 1981 to 1983. While at Boston College he coached Doug Flutie. After the 1983 season he left the collegiate level to become the wide receivers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL and later worked as the wide receivers coach for the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.
In New York he was an assistant to Bill Parcells, and helped the Giants win Super Bowl XXV. Coughlin and Parcells both made the NFL playoffs five times as Giants head coach, and the two Super Bowl titles they each won with the Giants occurred in their fourth and eighth seasons with the franchise.
Boston College (1991−1993)
After the 1990 season, Coughlin returned to Boston College to take on his second job as a head coach. In three seasons at Boston College, he turned the program into a consistent winner. Coughlin's tenure was capped with a 41–39 victory over #1 ranked Notre Dame in 1993, the first time Boston College defeated Notre Dame.Jacksonville Jaguars (1995–2002)
Coughlin's success at Boston College led to his subsequent hiring as the first head coach of the NFL's expansion Jacksonville Jaguars. He also had near-complete authority over football matters, effectively making him the team's general manager as well.In eight seasons at Jacksonville, Coughlin helmed the most successful expansion team in league history. During Coughlin's tenure, the Jaguars made four consecutive playoff appearances and went to the AFC Championship Game twice. The first time, in only the second year of the team's existence, the Jaguars qualified for the playoffs on the last day of the season and upset the heavily favored Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos on the road. He was named NFL Coach of the Year by United Press International. Coughlin would again take the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game in 1999 after achieving a league-high 14–2 regular season record; the 14 wins stood as the most won by the current wave of expansion teams until the Panthers surpassed it in 2015. However, in both appearances in the AFC Championship Game, the Jaguars were defeated: in 1996 by the New England Patriots, and in 1999, by the Tennessee Titans. Both the losses in the Jaguars' 14–2 1999 regular season were also to the Titans.
Coughlin's Jaguars won 49 regular season games in his first five years as head coach, a remarkable average for an expansion team of nearly ten wins per year. But the Jaguars' record for the next three years was only 19–29, and after a 6–10 finish in 2002, Coughlin was fired by owner Wayne Weaver. He finished his eight-year career in Jacksonville with a 68–60 regular season record and a 4–4 playoff record.
In 2011, after selling the Jaguars to Shahid Khan, Weaver said when looking back on his tenure as owner, one of his biggest regrets was firing Coughlin.
New York Giants (2004–2015)
Early years (2004–2006)
After being out of football in 2003, Coughlin was hired to replace Jim Fassel as head coach of the New York Giants in January 2004. He inherited a team that finished 4–12 in 2003.As Coughlin took over, the Giants were trying to put together a trade for the first pick in the draft. That year, the San Diego Chargers held that pick, and the expected selection was Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning, who had made clear that he had no interest in playing for San Diego and would not negotiate with them. On draft day the Giants drafted NC State's Philip Rivers with the fourth pick and traded him to the Chargers for Manning. Coughlin's incumbent quarterback, Kerry Collins, was incensed by the move and demanded his release, leaving the team without a veteran who could hold the fort until Manning was ready. To fill that role the Giants signed Kurt Warner, the former league MVP who had been cut by the St. Louis Rams after he lost his starting job to Marc Bulger.
Behind Warner, Coughlin led the Giants to five wins in their first seven games. However, with the team losing their next two, Coughlin decided that Warner, who had been struggling, could no longer do the job and began starting the highly-touted Manning beginning in the tenth game. The coach received criticism from some who felt the move amounted to a surrender of the 2004 season; their 5–4 record meant the Giants were still in playoff contention. Manning did, in fact, struggle, and the Giants' losing streak reached eight games before Manning defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the final game of the season.
Another major effect Coughlin would have on the Giants was star running back Tiki Barber's fumbling problem. In the 2000–2004 seasons, Barber lost the ball 19 times. By simply teaching Barber to use a different grip on the ball, Coughlin reduced Barber's fumbles to only one in the 2005 season. Barber also saw his production increase significantly, setting career highs in rushing and total yards each year under Coughlin.
Coughlin's early move to Manning, though, would pay dividends in 2005. Manning and the Giants went 11–5 in Coughlin's second season and won the NFC East for the first time since 2000. It was also the Giants' first postseason appearance since making it as a wild card in 2002. However, a very poor performance by Manning, and a defense missing three starting linebackers, saw the Giants get shut out 23–0 at the hands of the Carolina Panthers at Giants Stadium. Following the game, Tiki Barber called out Coughlin and his offensive coordinator, partially because a Panthers player said that "We knew what they were going to do before they did it." Coughlin and Barber have yet to reconcile their differences, with Coughlin even refusing an interview by Barber, then a sideline reporter for NBC Sports, which would have been held prior to a Panthers–Giants game in 2008.
File:Jerry Reese, Steve Spagnuolo, Kevin Gilbride & Tom Coughlin.jpg|thumb|200px|left|New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride and Coughlin at Giants Stadium
Heading into the 2006 season, expectations for the Giants were high. In just over two years as the Giants head coach, Coughlin transformed the Giants from an underachieving, last place team into a possible Super Bowl contender.
The Giants struggled early during the 2006 campaign, going 1–2 in their first three games. After a particularly bad loss to the Seattle Seahawks, star tight end Jeremy Shockey stated that the Giants had been "outplayed and outcoached." The Giants rebounded by winning their next five games to go 6–2. However, the Giants suffered a stunning second half collapse, losing 6 of their next 7 games to fall to 7–8 heading into the last game of the season. After a late November loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Coughlin and his coaching staff were once again criticized by Tiki Barber. Barber also announced he was going to retire following the season, which provided another distraction for the sliding Giants. Things took another turn for the worse the next week when the Giants blew a 21-point fourth quarter lead and lost to the Tennessee Titans by a score of 24–21. After the game Coughlin had said to the media "I'm going to be sick about this one forever." Numerous injuries, excessive penalties, and a high number of turnovers were most responsible for the downward spiral of the 2006 Giants. The media hounded Coughlin with questions about Barber's announcement, and whether differences between Coughlin and Barber led to this point, and the team's fans and ownership were starting to get restless about the coach's performance; during a 30–7 loss to the New Orleans Saints late in the year a loud "Fire Coughlin" chant erupted at Giants Stadium. The Giants rebounded with a victory in the season's final game at the Washington Redskins, thereby securing a playoff berth and perhaps saving Coughlin's job in the process. However, Coughlin and the Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 23–20, in the first round of the playoffs. On January 10, 2007, it was announced that Coughlin would receive a one-year extension on his current contract through the 2008 season, but since the Giants' team policy is to never have a coach in the final year of his contract, this only guaranteed that Coughlin would remain as the Giants' head coach in 2007.
On February 7, 2007, Tiki Barber officially followed through on his threat to retire from the Giants. He cited numerous complaints about Eli Manning's leadership skills and Coughlin's practice style as decisions to retire at what seemed the peak of his career.