Tom Coughlin said today that he and the Giants have agreed to a one-year contract extension.
The head coach was set to enter the final season of his contract in 2014. He previously signed an extension in the wake of winning Super Bowl XLVI, the second title he brought the franchise during his tenure.
Now he is locked up through 2015, securing his job beyond the season at hand.
"Well the Giants have always done that," Coughlin said at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. "That was always indicated to me. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it, to be honest with you. We've had a lot of work going on in our business and our building, as you know. So I had great confidence that it would happen, and it did."
Coughlin was asked if a longer extension was ever discussed.
"It was never brought up," he said. "It was never proposed by me or anybody else."
The extension comes in an offseason of reconstruction for the Giants' coaching staff.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride retired last month and was replaced by former Green Bay quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo. Meanwhile, tight ends coach Michael Pope and running backs coach Jerald Ingram were relieved of their duties, and Sean Ryan and Kevin M. Gilbride were re-assigned to coach the wide receivers and tight ends, respectively. Danny Langsdorf (quarterbacks) and Craig Johnson (running backs) were hired to complete the staff.
"It's very difficult," Coughlin said about the coaching changes. "You have coaches that have, in many cases, been with you a long, long time with Kevin retiring and with Mike and Jerald -- they had been with me a long time. I have great respect for them. It's never easy. It's a very difficult thing for a head coach to do, whether it be a player, whether it be a coach, guys I have respect for. They were very, very good football coaches. I just felt like in those situations that I needed to make some other changes after Kevin retired in the best interest of our team. And in doing that, we're back on track now trying to get ourselves ready for the spring."
Coughlin, who is entering his 11th season with the Giants and 19th overall in the NFL, is the second-winningest coach in Giants history with a 90-70-0 (.563) record in the regular season, trailing only Steve Owen (151-100-17, .598). Coughlin is 8-3 in the postseason with two Super Bowl titles.
More from Coach Tom Coughlin as he met with the media:
RE: getting over coaching changes:
Coughlin: It never is. It never is. It's very difficult. You have coaches that have, in many cases, been with you a long, long time with Kevin [Gilbride] retiring and with Mike [Pope] and Jerald [Ingram] -- they had been with me a long time. I have great respect for them. It's never easy. It's very difficult thing for a head coach to do, whether it be a player, whether it be a coach, guys I have respect for. They were very, very good football coaches. I just felt like in those situations that I needed to make some other changes after Kevin retired in the best interest of our team. And in doing that, we're back on track now trying to get ourselves ready for the spring.
Q: Is that performance-based on those positions or maybe some it's to help Ben [McAdoo] along too?
Coughlin: That didn't have anything to do with it.
**
Q: Do you think the offense will look drastically different this season? And if so, how?**
Coughlin: I would say that you will notice some differences for sure. Anytime you have different people, personalities, play callers, you'll see some differences. I think definitely we would maintain a commitment to the run, and that will be a factor no matter what. And that's been agreed upon by all. But as far as changes, they may be subtle; there may be some drastic ones. But the number one thing will be the players, the team, the opportunity to again get ourselves back on track the way we need to be, the ball security issues being first and foremost. The obvious questions being made about the offensive line, we'll see where that goes. Who knows what that would have been like last year had a couple of our guys been able to stay on the field.
Q:Do you think you'll be able to keep [Justin] Tuck or will he go into free agency?
Coughlin: I'd love to keep them all.
Q: Do you think he'll go into free agency?
Coughlin: Free agency begins and we'll see. I can't answer that question for you.
Q: Did you agree with John Mara's assessment that the offense was broken or was that a tough thing for you to hear…
Coughlin: I thought you had one more question to ask me, which was about emotions…Did I agree that the offense was broken? I certainly agree that some things have to be fixed, let's put it that way. But I wouldn't have used that word.
**GIANTS HEAD COACH RECORDS REGULAR SEASON** | |||||
**Coach** | **Yrs** | **W** | **L** | **T** | **Pct** |
Steve Owen | 1931-53 | 151 | 100 | 17 | 0.598 |
Tom Coughlin | 2004-13 | 90 | 70 | 0 | 0.559 |
Bill Parcells | 1983-90 | 77 | 49 | 1 | 0.610 |
Jim Fassel | 1997-03 | 58 | 53 | 1 | 0.522 |
Allie Sherman | 1961-68 | 57 | 51 | 4 | 0.527 |
Jim Lee Howell | 1954-60 | 53 | 27 | 4 | 0.655 |
Dan Reeves | 1993-96 | 31 | 33 | 0 | 0.484 |
Alex Webster | 1969-73 | 29 | 40 | 1 | 0.421 |
LeRoy Andrews* | 1929-30 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 0.817 |
Ray Perkins | 1979-82 | 23 | 34 | 0 | 0.404 |
Earl Potteiger | 1927-28 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 0.635 |
Ray Handley | 1991-92 | 14 | 18 | 0 | 0.438 |
John McVay | 1976-78 | 14 | 23 | 0 | 0.378 |
Robert Folwell | 1925 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0.667 |
Joseph Alexander | 1926 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0.667 |
Bill Arnsparger# | 1974-76 | 7 | 28 | 0 | 0.200 |
Benny Friedman | 1930 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
*Andrews was replaced by Friedman and Owen after 15 games in 1930. #Arnsparger was replaced by McVay after first seven games in 1976 |