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Related links - Read more about this week's game! January 6, 2004 East Rutherford, N.J. - Tom Coughlin, a highly-successful NFL and college head coach and a member of the Giants staff when the team won Super Bowl XXV, was today named the 16th head coach in Giants history.
"I am excited and honored to be named the 16th head coach in Giants history," Coughlin said. "It is a tremendous challenge, and I am looking forward to working with these players and re-establishing the New York Giants' tradition of physically controlling the line of scrimmage. We want to win the battle at the line of scimmage, eliminate the disease of turnovers and control field position of special teams." Coughlin previously coached the Jacksonville Jaguars for eight seasons, compiling a record of 72-64 and twice took the team to the AFC Championship Game. He was out of football in 2003 but has been in the coaching profession for more than 30 years. Coughlin, 57, succeeds Jim Fassel, who was fired following a 4-12 season in which the Giants lost their final eight games. Coughlin was offered the Giants job in 1993, but chose to remain at Boston College. The Giants then hired Dan Reeves. "Tom Coughlin is the man we wanted 11 years ago and he is the man we wanted now," general manager Ernie Accorsi said. "Aside from his family, Tom has one interest: winning." "Tom Coughlin is the right person for this job," said John Mara, the Giants' executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We interviewed four people, and we were extremely impressed with all four candidates. Our objective at that point was to make sure we hired the right man for this job, and that is what Tom is. He has experience as a successful head coach at the college and NFL levels, and he is going to bring an intensity and focus and a commitment to winning that we need and want. We stayed true to a process that we felt would produce the kind of head coach we need, and it did." Coughlin became the first head coach of the expansion Jaguars on Feb. 21, 1994, more than 18 months before the franchise played its first regular season game. In 1995, Jacksonville won four games, more than any previous expansion team in NFL history. The following year, Coughlin was named NFL Coach of the Year by United Press International as the Jaguars made the playoffs in just their second season and advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game, where they lost to the New England Patriots. That began a streak of four consecutive playoff seasons for the Jaguars. In both 1997 and '98 Jacksonville won 11 games, winning their first division title in 1998. The following season, the Jaguars had an NFL-best record of 14-2 and again advanced to the conference title game. Coughlin's regular season record was 68-60, a .531 winning percentage, in his eight seasons in Jacksonville. Coughlin earned a reputation as one of the NFL's finest offensive coaches. During his tenure, the Jaguars led the NFL in both passing yards (4,367 in 1996) and rushing yards (2,091 in 1999). In addition to having the most rushing yards in the NFL in 1999, Jacksonville boasted the league's leading receiver in Jimmy Smith (116 receptions). The only other team in history to accomplish that double was the 1954 San Francisco 49ers. Coughlin arrived in Jacksonville following three seasons as the head coach at Boston College, where he turned a struggling program into a Top 20 team. He was 21-13-1 in three seasons (1991-93) with the Eagles, including 9-3 in 1993, when Boston College won eight consecutive games, defeated top-ranked Notre Dame, 41-39, and beat Virginia in the Carquest Bowl. Coughlin's last Boston College team was ranked 12th in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll and 13th by the Associated Press, despite starting the season 0-2. The Eagles were 8-2-1 in 1992 and 4-7 in his first season in 1991. Coughlin was the Giants wide receivers coach under Bill Parcells from 1988-90. Under his tutelage, receivers such as Mark Ingram, Lionel Manuel, Odessa Turner and Stephen Baker all improved and helped the Giants win their second Super Bowl. Coughlin began his coaching career in 1969 as a graduate assistant at Syracuse, his alma mater. He was the head coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1970-73, compiling a record of 16-15-2. Coughlin returned to Syracuse in 1974, first serving as quarterbacks and offensive backfield coach for three seasons before being promoted to offensive coordinator for four years. He directed an offense that led the Orangemen to victory in the 1979 Independence Bowl, their first postseason triumph in 13 years. In 1981, Coughlin went to Boston College for the first time, as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Jack Bicknell. He helped the Eagles win their first bowl game and coached Doug Flutie, who would win the Heisman Trophy in 1984, one season after Coughlin's departure. In 1983, Boston College won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy as Eastern Champion, its first in 42 years. Coughlin entered the NFL as the Philadelphia Eagles' wide receivers coach in 1984 and '85. He held the same position with the Green Bay Packers in 1986 and '87 before moving to the Giants for a three-year stint. Coughlin was a standout scholastic star at Waterloo (N.Y.) Central High School, 45 miles from Syracuse. He was a three-year letterman for legendary coach Ben Schwartzwalder from 1965-67. A wingback, Coughlin played in a backfield with All-America backs Larry Csonka and Floyd Little. As a senior in 1967, Coughlin broke Syracuse's single-season pass receiving record. That year, he won Syracuse's Orange Key Award as the university's outstanding scholar-athlete. He graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in education and received a master's degree in education the following year. Thomas Richard Coughlin was born on Aug. 31, 1946 in Waterloo.
He is the oldest of seven children. He and his wife, Judy, have two daughters,
Keli and Katie, and two sons, Brian and Tim, and a daughter-in-law, Andrea (Tim's
wife), and two grandchildren, Emma Rose and Dylan. Related links - Discuss this article in the message boards Copyright New York Giants 2004
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