Ben McAdoo pays tribute to Tom Coughlin

Mara did talk to Manning, who endorsed McAdoo.

In a flawless world, Tom Coughlin would have rode off into the sunset after Super Bowl 50 and today’s press conference to introduce Ben McAdoo would be happening a month from now.

Your guess is as good as mine, and as good as the general manager’s, and as good as the owner’s.

“Our theme moving forward this year is going to be ‘evolution not revolution.’ We’re going to have an opportunity to carry some things over”. Ben knows where we need to improve. “Some things, we won’t”, McAdoo said. Nobody knows whether he will turn around the Giants the way Buck Showalter, one of the forgotten Yankee heroes, started bringing the Yankees back when he was younger than McAdoo is now. He had been their coach for quite some time and in his tenure, he made quite the mark on Giants team history. Jacksons’ decision along with the Philadelphia Eagles’ growing interest in McAdoo might have played a role in New York’s decision to roll with their offensive coordinator. That is faulty thinking. The Giants were going to interview Hue Jackson yesterday, the same day the Eagles hoped to sit down again with McAdoo.

“Being five minutes ahead of schedule is very valuable”, he said, echoing the familiar Coughlin refrain. McAdoo has respect for Coughlin’s intense preparation methods, which is hardly a surprise since the no-nonsense McAdoo has apparently lived by that ethos his entire life.

McAdoo learned under Coughlin and has shown some of his mentor’s attitudes. – Bill Pennington, New York Times The first man to arrive at work on Thursday morning was the one who had just been handed the biggest job in the organization. HE was coaching, I don’t recall the school, somewhere up in NY or CT, and we talked on the phone that evening and then the next day at lunch, when I was coming back from the workouts at the combine, Ben was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for me. Leadership was the problem with this Giants team and it kept them from taking a 14-2 record into the playoffs.

McAdoo has been a career coach. “But I’m happy that he had that opportunity to speak with him”. McAdoo, 38, is being given the job a little more than a week after Tom Coughlin stepped down after 12 seasons, the person spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the team has not officially announced the hiring.

“‘Obsessed’ is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated”, McAdoo said.

McAdoo, who was a little-known Green Bay Packers assistant just two years ago, credited many people for his swift ascent: his family from his hometown of Homer City, Pa., population 1,700; the coaches who mentored him with the Saints, 49ers, Packers and Giants; and his wife, Toni, and his children, 7-year-old Larkin and 3-year-old BJ.

Despite serving eight seasons as an assistant coach with Green Bay under Mike McCarthy, McAdoo has never been a head coach at any level.

McAdoo’s promotion means the Giants will keep the same offensive schemes for quarterback Eli Manning as this past season, when they went 6-10 – allowing the third-most points of any team in the National Football League campaign. Every inch of the Giants’ facility, which opened in 2010, and every yard on their practice fields have Coughlin’s footprints all over them.

Giants co-owner John Mara said he’s eager to get back to winning because “the last Super Bowl is a distant memory”.