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New York Giants coaching search includes Kirk Ferentz, Kyle Whittingham

By Patrick Schmidt

LINCOLN, NE - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes watches action before the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes watches action before the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /
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The New York Giants coaching search reportedly includes a pair of college coaches and a long-time NFL special teams coach.

There’s just one more game to go and New York Giants fans will be put out of their misery after one of the worst seasons in franchise history. The Giants have already begun removing the stench from this lost season after firing head coach Bob McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese. The general manager position has been filled by former Carolina Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman, who is now overseeing the coaching search.

And according to Jordan Raanan of NJ Advance Media, the candidates to be the next man leading Big Blue are two veteran college football head coaches and a long-time special teams coach. And I’m sorry to tell Giants fans those veteran college head coaches aren’t Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw. They’re Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham who join Kansas City Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub as names mentioned in the Giants job search.

Ferentz has had plenty of opportunities to leave Iowa for the NFL during the early part of his storied career with the Hawkeyes. All that’s happened is Iowa gives him a contract extension and a raise and that’s that. I fully expect the same thing to happen this go around.

Whittingham has long been one of the more underrated or overlooked head coaches since he took over for Urban Meyer at Utah. He has been mentioned for openings at bigger programs, most recently at USC before Clay Helton took the job. But he would be in for a massive culture shock to leave Utah for the New York Giants. I don’t see that happening under any circumstance.

Toub would be an intriguing candidate, however, and would represent an outside-the-box hire the organization may need to head into a new era. Toub rose to prominence as the special teams coach with the Chicago Bears under Lovie Smith where he helped make Devin Hester the most prolific return man of all time and a potential Hall of Famer. He parlayed that success into the same role with the Chiefs where he’s continued to have success and draw up imaginative ways for Tyreek Hill to break into the league as a return man before blossoming into a game-breaking wide receiver.

Jim Harbaugh made the leap from special teams coach with the Philadelphia Eagles to Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Baltimore Ravens, so it’s not unprecedented in the modern NFL. It may not be the sexiest move for the Giants, but there is serious upside should the Giants elect to move forward with Toub.

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And the coaching search is not limited to just these three names as you can imagine plenty of current and former NFL coaches are on Gettleman’s list of candidates, but Ferentz, Whittingham and Toub are perhaps the most interesting.

Stay tuned as this coaching search is about to take off on Black Monday when there is expected to be a handful of teams in the market for a new head coach.

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