Big Blue View
Mike Kafka got a ringing endorsement from New York Giants’ coordinators this week for the team’s full-time head-coaching position. That, though, is not going to move the needle as Kafka’s interim head coach audition for the real job continues over the next six games.
Victories, demonstrating the ability to guide the growth of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, marked improvement from the team’s woeful defense, and signs that players being held accountable and buying what Kafka is selling will.
While Kafka tries to deliver those things as the team’s interim head coach, there is plenty of rumor mill gossip and speculation regarding who the next coach will be.
On Sunday, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports said the Giants were not entertaining the idea of hiring a current college coach as their head coach.
Despite that, Art Stapleton of NorthJersey.com put Freeman, the 39-year-old North Dame head coach, on his list of early candidates. He wrote:
CEO leader to rebuild what has been broken here with Giants if Freeman would make the leap. He seems to have great command of the program and a dynamic personality. Ability to build a staff in the NFL would have to be vetted as an integral part of his candidacy.
Valentine’s View: Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss, Dart’s college coach for three seasons, is not coming to the Giants. Indications are that if Kiffin leaves Ole Miss he will head to Florida as their next head coach.
That leaves Freeman as the only college head coach who would be on my list. He has never coached in the NFL. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in Round 5 of the 2009 NFL Draft, but never played a regular-season game. A medical condition forced him to retire after a single season.
Freeman is a CEO head coach, and this is a plus in my view. Can he transition from leading college players to leading grown men in the NFL?
Jordan Ranaan of ESPN wrote that Pierce, Steve Spagnuolo, and Lou Anarumo, all with ties to the Giants’ organization, are “destined for interviews.”
Valentine’s View: I would not be surprised by any of that. The Giants are a famously loyal organization, perhaps to a fault, and they love to turn in-house to familiar faces when they can.
I don’t know if Spagnuolo, a great defensive coordinator, can succeed as head coach. I do know I have often wondered if the Giants would have saved themselves a lot of aggravation by just giving him the job in 2018 after he had served four games as interim head coach. What if Spags could bring ex-Giant QB Davis Webb as offensive coordinator? Or, convince Kafka to stay in that role to guide Dart?
As for Pierce, I understand the appeal. He was a tremendously smart player and defensive leader who helped the Giants win a Super Bowl. He would be a CEO style coach. His tenure with the...
