New Head Coach Star on the Horizon

Every year there is chatter about who the next great Head Coach will be. The assistants make rounds and guys like Marvin Lewis, John Fox and Greg Williams draw praise for their creative work as coordinator and a mentality that will make them the next Bill Walsh or Bill Belicheck. A lot of those times, the praise falls short (as evidenced by Williams) but one guy drawing praise is sure to be a hit. And no, I am not talking about Jason Garrett.

Giants Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is a genius. I don't care what his IQ is or how well he would do on Are Your Smarter than a 5th Grader, dude is a pure football genius. He looks a little bit like Jim Rome's older brother (Johnny Chase style) but he's got a far brighter future. Last year in his first year as coordinator, the Giants were 7th in overall defense, a remarkable improvement from the 25th ranking they had the year before he showed up. They were in the top 10 in eight statistical categories, including leading the league in sacks with 53. Fifty-three sacks in sixteen games, that's almost 3 1/2 sacks a game. It's crazy.

Spagnuolo is known for schemes that put constant pressure on the QB, making it so they are never comfortable in the pocket. Monty Kiffin was famous for this same thing with the Bucs, but he ran a basic cover 2 and had arguably a much better lineup to work with. Coach Spags changes his blitzes and his coverages so much that no QB can figure him out. He frequently drops DEs into coverage on passing downs just to mess with an offense. And it works. The Giants allowed only 65 points in four postseason games last year. Holding the Patriots to 127 yards below their season average in dismantling perhaps the greatest team ever.

When this season started people thought Coach Spags would have a much tougher task ahead of him. The Giants are pick to finish no better than 3rd in their own division, mostly because of the losses of Michael Strahan (retirement), Kavika Mitchell (Free Aagency) and Osi Umenyiora (Knee Surgery).

However, as is evidenced by their dominance over the Redskins in week 1, its doesn't matter who Coach Spags has out on the field for him. OK, the Redskins aren't the greatest team this year, but the Giants held them to 209 yards of total offense, forced them into a 3-13 3rd down conversion rate and were in the backfield all game long. All this while starting last years backups, Tuck and Kiwanuka and a LB core that behind Antonio Pierce has two no-names, Danny Clark and Gerris Wilkinson. But it doesn't matter who is on the field, Coach Spags is going to put them in a place to make the most basic tackles possible.

The man is a genius. Wait another year and we'll see how he does when he has control of an offense too.

Sponsored by EnterTo.com the first REAL spam free email

Click Below to discover and share content from anywhere on the web