Pat Shurmur's former players raved about the Giants' new coach during Super Bowl week:
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Mike Holmgren gave Pat Shurmur his first head coaching job and believes he will succeed with the Giants in his second go-round in the big chair.
"Absolutely," Holmgren said today. "And he was good, I thought, the first time around. We didn't have a quarterback. Now he's got a quarterback."
Holmgren spoke very briefly to a small group of reporters in the Super Bowl LII media center in the Mall of America. He had just a few moments before hurrying off to do several interviews along Radio Row.
But he was happy to discuss Shurmur, who was hired last week as the Giants' new coach.
In January 2011, Holmgren was the Cleveland Browns team president when he fired coach Eric Mangini and hired Shurmur to succeed him. Shurmur was the Browns' coach for two seasons.
"He's an excellent detail guy," Holmgren said. "He's smart. I made a comment and it came out that in Cleveland he was really a hard guy. Which was good; they needed it."
Holmgren believes Shurmur can succeed being that guy, but would urge him to make one modification.
"If I were to talk to him, I'd say enjoy it more," Holmgren said. "Enjoy it the second time around more. He'll be really good this time around."
