Coughlin picks Sheridan to be defensive coordinator
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- January
- 19
Tom Coughlin isn’t going to fix something that’s not broken. He promoted linebackers coach Bill Sheridan to defensive coordinator to replace Steve Spagnuolo. The changes to a system that’s played a role in so many wins over the last two seasons will remain in place.
And the players have to be relieved.
“Bill is a very good football coach,” Coughlin said in a statement. “He does an excellent job of teaching, of reinforcing what we aspire to be with our defensive team. He’s coached our linebackers, he’s given a big assist to Steve in all that he has done. As a linebackers coach, you’re a central figure in the spoke, because you’re involved in the coordination of the front and the linebackers and then the back seven. He has done a good job of encompassing the entire defense and grasping the aggressive style.”
Sheridan has been on the staff for the last four seasons.
“I’m sure, as much as anything, that’s Tom’s motivation for promoting from within, whether it was me or Peter Giunta – to keep the defense in place,” he said. “It’s obviously a proven, excellent system that Steve brought from Philadelphia. You’re obviously going to have a slightly different tint to it, because you have a different coordinator and will get different input from whoever Tom brings in from outside to complete the staff. But the system is in place and there’s a tremendous comfort level with the players.”
Any changes that are made will likely be due to personnel.
“It’s good to know that there will not be many changes,” Antonio Pierce said. “Bill is a hard worker and is very familiar with the defense. Obviously, we did great things on defense over the last two seasons, and I am looking forward to what Bill will bring as defensive coordinator.”
The first big decision will be what to do with Mathias Kiwanuka, who moved up from linebacker when defensive end Osi Umenyiora suffered a knee injury during the preseason.
Coughlin interviewed Sheridan and Giants secondary coach Peter Giunta yesterday, then informed them of his decision this morning.
“Both were very good,” Coughlin said. “Peter has been a coordinator before. I just felt in my gut that Bill would be the right choice. My questions to the two candidates were: ‘How do we get better? Where do we go from here?’ Both had very good answers, very solid, aggressive, going forward-type answers. And that’s the message that I want. The message that goes out there is we do have the New York Giant defense, we will play the New York Giant defense, we will recognize our players and our coaches that have attained a couple years of good, solid play here. And our intentions going forward are that we improve and be better. We’re excited about the opportunity to get this group together again and add some other players to the group and to improve.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm by Mike Dougherty. 
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Ernie Palladino
Mike
Good job with the post…