Category Archives: Bill Sheridan
With former linebackers coach Bill Sheridan taking over the D-coordinator job, the Giants brought in former New York Jets linebackers coach Jim Herrmann to take his place.
Herrmann coached the Jets from 2006-2008 and before that was the defensive coordinator for the University of Michigan for nine seasons.
In 1997, Herrmann won the Broyles award for assistant coach of the year. The Wolverines were AP national champs that year as well.
Certainly don’t mean to sound too pessimistic, but where was Vernon Gholston last year for the Jets?
All the onus certainly does not fall on Mr. Herrmann for that, and it’s not like the Giants really have any young linebackers that need developing, but I wonder where Herrmann fell into the equation of trying to develop the 6th overall pick.
No less, he’s our guy this year, and he does have a pretty nice resume…especially at the college level. I’m sure we wont see any drop off in linebacker play this year as a result of a coaching change. Sheridan is still there to put him in place..just in case.
Tagged Jim Herrmann |
When former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo decided to take his presence elsewhere and take his coaching to St. Louis, the Giants did not panic. Instead, they hired from within, promoting linebackers coach Bill Sheridan to defensive coordinator.
Sheridan has been in the Giants system since 2005, but the extent of his football experience spans much longer than that. Since 1981, Sheridan has coached on the defensive side of the ball, extensively in college for teams such as Michigan State, Michigan, Army, Cincinnati, and Notre Dame.
Its been a bit of a rocky road for Sheridan since 2005 in regards to the linebackers for the giants…but in a good way. Every year he has dealt with different adversities that caused him to adjust. He did so accordingly and has kept this group of linebackers as one of the better ones during his tenure.
2006: Saw a slew of injuries to players Brandon Short, LaVar Arrington, and Carlos Emmons. Resulted in Antonio Pierce stepping up to be the pro-bowl middle linebacker he is today.
2007: Was instrumental in converting Mathias Kiwanuka from DE to outside OLB where he played very well, recording 47 tackles and 4.5 sacks before getting injured.
2008: Even more tumult arised when Osi Umenyiora went down for the season and took Mathias Kiwanuka away from the linebacking core. Instead, Danny Clark played the OLB position as the Giants ended the season 5th in the league in total defense. Sheridan was also a key component of helping ILB Chase Blackburn convert to the outside and be successful.
Sheridan seems to be the right guy for the job. He knows the players, he knows the system, and he’s been successful with both. This season, he has already been handed the task of dealing with some injuries as Michael Boley, Fred Robbins, and Barry Cofield among others are dealing with injuries that could be nagging come the season opener.
I don’t see any reason why this Giant defense should take a hit in terms of production from this year to last. Spagnuolo was a great coordinator, but Sheridan seems to be up to the task.
Tagged Bill Sheridan |
Coughlin Firmly In Charge
Head Coach – Tom Coughlin
Offensive Coordinator- Kevin Gilbride
Defensive Coordinator – Bill Sheridan
Offensive Assistants: Jerald Ingram (running backs), Chris Palmer (quarterbacks), Pat Flaherty (offensive line), Jack Bicknell, Jr. (asst. offensive line), Mike Pope (tight ends), Mike Sullivan (wide receivers), Sean Ryan (quality control)
Defensive Assistants: Mike Waufle (defensive line), Jim Herrmann (linebackers), Pete Giunta (cornerbacks), David Merritt (safeties), Al Holcomb (quality control)
Special Teams: Tom Quinn, Thomas McGaughey
Strength and Conditioning: Jerry Palmieri, Markus Paul
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Tom Coughin- Head Coach (6th Year)
Down-to-Earth and genuine, Coughlin almost lost his job after the 2006 season. He had always been known as a disciplinarian and his rigid tactics and unbending rules caused a rift in the locker room. His style was a 180-degree turn from his predecessor, the flexible and lenient Jim Fassel. Players felt he was taking the regimentation a tad too far.
With his contract due to expire at the end of the coming season, ownership extended Coughlin for a year in January of 2007 so he would not be a ‘lame-duck’ coach. With that extension came requests that he loosen up on the players. He did. The rest is history.
As a coach Coughlin was treading water after three seasons. He was 25-23 with two playoff losses and the team was stuck in neutral. Then Jerry Reese took over as GM and began bringing the young talent that would help turn his team into a serious contender. This season, Coach Coughlin has another crop of young studs to deal with. They will get the full treatment and he turn them into professionals.
Analysis: Coughlin tends to wear his heart on his sleeve, but since the Giants won a championship, that’s now seen as a positive. He’s outlasted the stubborn veterans who staged a mini-mutiny a few years back and has currently has more security and control than ever. Coughlin has built a solid staff of veteran coaches that adds to the success of the team. He rarely hires coaches with little or no experience. The Giants are pleased they stuck with Coughlin because he has become an excellent game coach: his strategy is usually right on and his ability to adjust in-game is up there with the best.
Offense
Coach Coughlin’s stamp is all over this group. He likes to surround himself with familiar faces. OC Kevin Gilbride held the same job under Coughlin in Jacksonville. So did RB coach Jerald Ingram. WR coach Mike Sullivan and QB coach Chris Palmer were also on Coughlin’s staff with the Jaguars. Jack Bicknell, Jr was a player at BC when Coughlin was the QB coach there under Bicknell’s father. TE coach Mike Pope coached with Coughlin in both New England and under Bill Parcells with the Giants.
Only OL coach Pat Flaherty and Quality Control coach Sean Ryan did not have prior working experience either next to, or under Tom Coughlin. That hasn’t put them at a disadvantage, though. This group understands what it needs to do to win ballgames. The major challenge has been having to go from a veteran team to a young team without losing any productivity.
Analysis: This year, that challenge gets even greater. The Giants will be asking their rookie receivers to step up and attempt to help re-establish the passing game. That will not be easy to do. The running game and the offensive line are staples on this team and both are amongst the leagues’ best. QB Eli Manning still remains an enigma – one game on, one game off. He needs to become more consistent. If he does, the Giants will be at the top of the standings again.
Defense
The Giants like to choose defensive coaches that have a history of sticking to basics and regimentation. DC Bill Sheridan coached at Army, Michigan and Notre Dame before joining the Giants in 2005. LB coach Jim Herrmann actually had Sheridan on his staff at Michigan in the early part of the decade. Herrmann played and coached at Michigan for a quarter-century and began his career under the great Bo Schembechler.
CB coach Pete Giunta coached at Penn State and was the Rams’ DC when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. Safeties coach David Merritt is a former NFL linebacker who once coached defense at VMI. Al Holcomb is a former phys ed teacher that toiled in the NCAA Division II coaching ranks before being hired by Coughlin last year to become the defensive quality control coach for the Giants. Finally, DL coach Mike Waufle has a long resume. Waufle has been coaching defensive lines in both the collegiate and professional ranks for nearly 30 years.
Analysis: The defensive line rotation when it gets cooking under Waufle is practically unstoppable. Last year, the rotation took a hit when Michael Strahan retired and Osi Umenyiora missed the entire year with a knee injury. This year, they are stacked again with bodies. They will bring the pressure big time, which will alleviate the stress on the back seven. The linebackers are going to shock people. Herrmann loves the possibilities of having Michael Boley and Clint Sintim flanking captain Anotnio Pierce. Look out. The secondary has benefited from three top draft choices – Corey Webster, Aaron Ross and Kenny Phillips. Giunta and Merritt work well together and this group has the potential to become great, not just good.
Special Teams
Tom Quinn and Thomas McGaughey are back running the show. Last year, the Giants sent 3 special teamers to the Pro Bowl: punter Jeff Feagles, kicker John Carney and long snapper Zak DeOssie. This year, Carney is out and Lawrence Tynes is back in. The Giants will see how much Ahmad Bradshaw and Domenik Hixon are needed on the offense before deciding on whether to switch them out of their returner roles. The Giants are one club that actually makes out on the new wedge rule. They normally don’t run many kicks back for big yardage, and they usually fend the kickoff very well.
Analysis: The Tynes for Carney switch makes everyone uneasy, but Tynes has a long-term deal with four years left so live with it. The coaches would prefer that Hixon continue his returner role. That would happen only if the rookie wideouts unseat him in the starting lineup.
Strength and Conditioning
Jerry Palmieri is another guy who has been following Coughlin around. From BC to Jacksonville to the Giants, Palmieri has been keeping the Giants in top physical form. He was awarded the NFL’s S&C Coach of the Year in 2007. His assistant, Markus Paul, is a former DB for the Chicago Bears and has worked in an S&C capacity for the Jets, Patriots and Saints before joining the Giants in 2007.
Analysis: The Ginats just recently moved into a brand new training complex, just west of Giants Stadium. The 199,000 square-foot complex contains all of the modern amenities for proper training, including a 7500 square-foot weight room and four full practice fields: 3 grass and one FieldTurf.
Quick Question: What is the job of an NFL quality control coach? A quality control coach helps break down tape of the opponents, monitors his team’s tendencies so that measures can be taken to make his team less predictable and helps keep the players on script during practices. He is available to the head coach for whatever else needs to be done during practice or in preparation for the upcoming opponent. – Thanks to Steve Corkran of the Contra-Costa Times
Tagged Giants Coaches |
Paul Shwartz
give us a look at new Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan:
New Giants Coordinator runs similar defense
Great news, in fact I’d appreciate it if he ran the exact same defense as coach spags. Last year this was the 5th overall defense in the league, and the year before they ranked 7th while leading the league in sacks…oh oh and they stopped the best offense the NFL has ever seen. Again a similar defense is nice, the exact same defense would be even better.
“I told him the most important thing for a coordinator is competence (Sheridan speaking to Coach Coughlin)” Interesting choice. Sheridan could have said leadership or charisma or style. Or even personality.
Yep he could have, but then charisma, style and leadership are all pretty relative. I prefer a coach who is competent. Plus I’m a bit sick of Charisma, hell Mark Sanchez went from a late first rounder to the 5th overall pick based on his ability to charm, not his actual talent. I’m not saying the guy won’t work out (I actually like him, well him or his charm), but he lost a job to Jon David Booty and has very little expereince. I actually think his early draft status is based on 2 things: 1) his charm…he ooozes charm, the guy is flat out charming.
2) Matt Cassell performing well in one year after never playing a down at USC.
By the way if your Kellen Clemens aren’t you insanely angry that you called Sanchez on draft day to wish him well, and then a couple of nights later Sanchez calls the offense into a players only meeting? A bit presumptuous no? Eh you got to forgive the guy based on charm alone….woah, I digressed far too much.
Anyway, good call on the competence Bill, makes me think you care about results, not a new job.
Sheridan, 50, never has been a coordinator at any level and takes over for the highly successful Steve Spagnuolo.
Slightly scary that he has never been a coordinator, but then again neither was Spags, and Sheridan has been coaching football for 20 + years. “Highly successful”is putting it mildly. Most Giant fans wanted to give Spags the “future coach tag” only with 2 years left on Coughlin’s contract there is no way Spags could have waited.
That’s the fast-track side of the position, a ride John Fox took before Spagnuolo. It’s a ride that dumped Tim Lewis, who, brought in when Coughlin arrived, was ineffective and discarded.
Ahhhhh noooo Paul, please never mention Tim Lewis…all I see when you mention Tim Lewis is Curtis Deloatch 20 yards off the ball watching receiver after receiver catching slants, hitches and outs 10 yards in front of him as Deloatch stared at the side lines with his arms stretched wide begging for Lewis to tell him to press. As Lewis clapped his hands, with a stoic look in his eyes as if it was all part of his master plan to make Giant fans insane. By the way if that was Tim’s plan he should be put up there with Stewey, Mr Burns and Dr Evil as one of the greatest evil geniuses of all time, I know he drove me to complete insanity. So he is not Tim Lewis right?
Sheridan says he will keep the system Spagnuolo imported from Philadelphia and make minor adjustments, mainly making the schemes less multiple —
No adjustments would be even better.
be more effective with less — and asking his pass rushers to drop in coverage less frequently than the past.
Like everyone else I never want to see AP have to cover Westbrook in the flats ever again, but that’s not always possible, especially when you are bringing blitzes from all angles. And based on the combines it would be best to keep Sintim away from any coverage as well. There is nothing like hearing your D coordinator say he doesn’t want pass rushers in coverage, it just makes you believe he is going to send the house all the time…although it may be more likely he is talking about fire zones, and if you are blitzing, that will leave Linebackers in coverage, still very inspiring statement Bill.
It is fitting that Sheridan, unlike the majority of NFL defensive coordinators, has decided to call the game from on high, up in the press box, meaning no TV face-time clenching his fists or exhorting his troops from the sideline.
This bother me, it shouldn’t but it does. It’s like saying David Eckstein has heart while the New York Mets don’t, it MEANS NOTHING. And yet it bothers me. I know rationally that Sheridan being in a booth in no way affects the results on the field , but I like the idea of the defensive coach on the sidelines with his troops. Put the offensive gurus like Martz , Turner (did I just call turner and martz guru’s?) and Payton up in the booth. I want my defensive coach frothing on the sidelines. Again it’s meaningless, I just can’t remember a defensive coach who had success up in a box….anyone, readers? Or is it reader? Big John, anything?
The new man in charge is excited, even if he doesn’t always show it.
Well if your excited you should show it…SHOW IT DAMMIT. Well Eli doesn’t show much, but it does stick in my craw (whats my craw?) that a defensive guy is stoic…makes it easier to hate guys who don’t “seem” to care. Then again fans and media alike killed Coughlin for showing too much on the sideline.
So what have we learnt about coach Sheridan? Nothing tangible, except it appears Sheridan will keep things similar to coach spags and that’s a good thing, a great thing in fact. What’s even better is Sheridan is inheriting the 5th overall defense in the league and they just added Osi, Boley, Rocky, Sintim and Canty, how can you not get excited for that (I just threw a chair out my window thinking about this D).
Eli Optimistic About Giants’ Receiving Options
Eli Manning said he was “confident” that the Giants’ receivers would be competitive and and play at a high level but warned that it was important for the rookies to get off to a fast start.
Injuries and holdouts are the most difficult obstacles for rookies, but Eli emphasized that there is also a “learning curve” for new players coming into the league and tempered expectations by adding “We’ll try to see what they can do and how they can help us next year.”
David Tyree, Steve Smith and Domenik Hixon are three returning veterans who vowed to assist the new players in any way possible. Smith and Hixon are currently penciled in as the starters and Tyree is returning from a knee injury that cost him the entire 2008 season.
Tyree, he of the most famous catch in recent NFL history, praised top pick Hakeem Nicks‘ circus catch in the Meineke Care Bowl last January as “one of the best I’ve ever seen”.
“It’s all about competition and we’ve got a lot of at this position,” added Tyree. “If you’re not hungry enough – especially with the way things have shaken out at our position with last year’s starters being gone – to just come in and compete and give it your all, then you don’t have the right mind-set.”
“What Plax and Tooms did for us, I’ll try to pass that on and give some advice,” Hixon said.
Sheridan Era Begins
Bill Sheridan, the Giants’ new defensive coordinator, assured the fans, the media and the team that the transition to him from Steve Spagnoulo would be seamless. Sheridan said a few changes would take place such as coaching from the booth rather than from the sideline and not requiring defensive ends to drop back in pass coverage as often.
When asked about the role of 2nd round pick, LB Clint Sintum, Sheridan vowed to play to Sintum’s strength as a pass rusher. He also affirmed Mathias Kiwanuka‘s status (“He’s a defensive end”) and laughed off the suggestion that Antonio Pierce‘s performance was declining.
Tom Rock of Newsday takes a look at Giants new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan. LB Danny 
Clark describes Sheridan as such; “One of the most intelligent football minds I’ve been around. I’m sure he’ll put his own spin on the defense we have in place and make us better. I don’t question his ability to take us to the next level. He’s an intelligent guy who really knows football, and he’ll put us in the best position to make plays.”
DE Justin Tuck had this to say “I know what type of guy he is and we’ll be OK. He has his own set of rules for doing things and it’s different from Coach Spags, but we’ll get used to it and once we do everything will be off and running.”
Tuck and Clark go on to say that Sheridan is less animated then Coach Spagnuolo, more analytical, more cognitive, and less of a rah-rah guy. Personally I love the rah-rah coaches, while it is not an indicator of how good a coach they will be, it seems a lot easier to love the coaches who can’t contain themselves. More importantly, it seems easier to hate the stoic coaches who “seem” not to care. Which is why I was always bothered when the NY media ripped coach Coughlin for his sideline histrionics. Personally I love seeing a coach lose it, or get overly excited, in fact my 2 favorite images of a coach is watching Lou Holtz and Bill Parcells grab players by their facemasks . I am not saying guys like Sheridan, Belichick or Joe Torre don’t care, but I prefer seeing it in their faces and bodies, probably because I care so much and find it impossible to can’t contain myself while watching.
So if it were up to you would you have a rah rah guy or a more anlaytical coach. I suppose all that matters is results, but for boring off-season sake just asnwer the question.
Giants linebacker coach Bill Sheridan spoke to reporters today at camp. The following is a full transcript of his comments.
Are your guys ready for Thursday?
Yes. Absolutely.
You’ve had a lot of injury issues to deal with during camp. Has that been a little tough?
Yes. Unfortunately, you get kind of used to it. Not just at linebacker, I mean that’s kind of the nature of the league, especially with the numbers being cut back a little bit in camp. We only brought nine linebackers to camp and up until yesterday, we’ve never practiced with nine linebackers. The players have been great about it. They’ve kind of double upped some of their reps, which you don’t like to do, because you get them worn out a bit, but they’re great about it and they know that’s just part of the deal and they just jump in there and take the extra reps. Yeah, you’d love to have the full allotment of three deep. In this time of year, you try and rotate them three deep, but we just haven’t been able to do that. Now, Gerris is back there practicing, which is wonderful, so it should be a little bit better as we move forward.
Anything about Detroit concern you?
No. No. It’s just a preseason game. I’m sure they’re not too concerned about us either. You know, most teams mostly just play their ones in the first quarter and then really you’re looking at your seconds and thirds. You’re trying to find out who is going to make the roster, so I’m not really overly concerned with scheme. We’re going to expose our players to what they’re going to do, and what we think they’re going to do, they have a different staff, you know, offensively, but I’m not overly concerned. Our twos and threes are going to be playing against their twos and threes for the majority of the game, especially in the second half.
Gerris (Wilkinson) just coming back and Danny (Clark) just one a day, does that make the weak side kind of a mystery going forward. Is that hard to evaluate?
Well, I think it’s unsettled, the position. I mean, I think Bryan Kehl has had a really good camp. It’s not beyond thought that he would play. But, yeah, the fact that Danny is only able to go once a day and Gerris is just starting back into it now, it’s an unsettled position for sure. I mean, Danny has run with the ones all camp and that’s good and if he wins the job, that’s great too. It’s not a done, settled decision about whose going to be the starting WILL linebacker and they know that.
How far behind is Wilkinson?
Just from the physical reps standpoint. But he actually has more experience in the defense than Danny because he was here a year ago with Steve (Spagnuolo), when Steve came in, but there’s nothing like getting the practice reps. He looked good yesterday afternoon, and I think he’ll pick it right up, but you just always have a concern about long range health, because he didn’t have surgery and is going to rehab himself through. He’s got some catching up to do from a repetitions standpoint and that’s the best way to learn the stuff and get oiled up.
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