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By JOHN BRANCH
NY Times.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., May 2 — Kevin Gilbride was the starting quarterback for Southern Connecticut State in 1971. He was benched after a couple of early losses. Eventually, a third-string senior named Chris Palmer got the job, and the team won its last four games.
Although Gilbride and Palmer went their separate ways after college, their career arcs have been remarkably parallel and occasionally entwined. For 36 years, their lives have performed a slow weave, extending and knotting, extending and knotting.
Each climbed the ranks of small-college coaching and had a stint in the Canadian Football League. They were co-architects of the Houston Oilers’ successful run-and-shoot offense of the early 1990s. Palmer succeeded Gilbride as the offensive coordinator for Tom Coughlin’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Each used his success there to land a head-coaching job that was quickly undone by a prized quarterback who proved to be a draft bust — Gilbride with Ryan Leaf in San Diego and Palmer with Tim Couch in Cleveland.
Knotted again with the Giants, they hope that their decades of experience and familiarity can untie the riddle of quarterback Eli Manning’s stalled development.
“He’s somewhat enigmatic in the sense that we see moments of brilliance and moments of poise and physical toughness and skill that are just almost dazzling,” Gilbride, the Giants’ offensive coordinator, said of Manning, who is entering his fourth season. “There are countless examples of that. And then the frustration that sometimes comes because you don’t see, necessarily, what you’d like to see.
“So I’d say the biggest challenge you’re going to have is getting Eli to play as we see in moments over the course of the whole season. I think we can do that, and I think Chris is the perfect choice to be able to help bring that out of him.”
When Coughlin, the Giants’ coach, dismissed John Hufnagel as offensive coordinator late last season, Gilbride was elevated from quarterbacks coach, a position he held for three years. And when the Giants went searching for a new quarterbacks coach, Coughlin and Gilbride turned to an old friend: Palmer.
Just as Southern Connecticut State did in 1971, the Giants have done in 2007 — pinning much of their hopes to a combination of Gilbride, 55, and Palmer, 57.
“There’s certainly an understanding and a feel for the quarterback position between the two of us,” said Gilbride, speaking Wednesday on one of the few days each year that Coughlin allows his assistant coaches to speak with reporters.
Manning has become a good quarterback, but not the elite one the Giants believed they would get when they made a draft-day trade in 2004 for him after he was the first overall choice. His progress seemed to plateau last season. The Giants, 11-5 in 2005, were 8-8 in 2006, and Manning’s statistics were remarkably similar to what they were the year before.
Gilbride and Palmer are charged with matching Manning’s performances with the expectations. This spring, Gilbride has let Palmer and Manning get to know each other. The key, Gilbride said, is for the quarterback to be close enough to his coach to explain what he likes and does not like so that Gilbride and Palmer can tweak the offense to Manning’s comfort zone. Gilbride knew that process would take time.
“I think Eli’s nature is such that it takes him awhile before he fully lets his guard down and trusts you,” Gilbride said.
Palmer has learned that, too.
“It started slow,” Palmer said of his rapport with Manning. “But I would say he’s come on in the last three weeks. He’s opened up more to me and said things that he probably should have said earlier but didn’t, and I was encouraged by that.”
Palmer still knows little about Manning’s ability other than what he has seen on tape.
“The quarterbacks have had 14 film sessions, and we’ve had 14 on-the-field workouts,” Palmer said. “We have spent 13 hours going through 328 drop-back plays, and evaluating each throw and having a reason for each throw. And then we’ve taken the other 14 hours, 11 of them have been spent on footwork and the mechanics of quarterback play, and we threw just periodically.”
When training camp opens in late July, the triangular relationship between Manning, Gilbride and Palmer will be a focal point.
With the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Rough Riders in the mid-1980s, Gilbride brought in Palmer to observe through a guest-coach program. They learned the wide-open run-and-shoot offense, and when Gilbride became offensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers in 1990, he hired Palmer as the receivers coach to help run a similar attack, to great effect.
Since then, each served as offensive coordinator for the Jaguars under Coughlin, leading one of the league’s most dynamic units. Each helped quarterback Drew Bledsoe to some of his best seasons — Palmer in New England and Gilbride in Buffalo.
It seems everything has come full circle. Back when Gilbride and Palmer shared quarterback duties at a small college in Connecticut, the famous Manning was Archie, Eli’s father, drafted second in the 1971 N.F.L. draft.
A generation later, Gilbride and Palmer are teamed again. Their ties ever tightening, their mission is to loosen the knot that is Eli Manning’s potential.
NY Times.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., May 2 — Kevin Gilbride was the starting quarterback for Southern Connecticut State in 1971. He was benched after a couple of early losses. Eventually, a third-string senior named Chris Palmer got the job, and the team won its last four games.
Although Gilbride and Palmer went their separate ways after college, their career arcs have been remarkably parallel and occasionally entwined. For 36 years, their lives have performed a slow weave, extending and knotting, extending and knotting.
Each climbed the ranks of small-college coaching and had a stint in the Canadian Football League. They were co-architects of the Houston Oilers’ successful run-and-shoot offense of the early 1990s. Palmer succeeded Gilbride as the offensive coordinator for Tom Coughlin’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Each used his success there to land a head-coaching job that was quickly undone by a prized quarterback who proved to be a draft bust — Gilbride with Ryan Leaf in San Diego and Palmer with Tim Couch in Cleveland.
Knotted again with the Giants, they hope that their decades of experience and familiarity can untie the riddle of quarterback Eli Manning’s stalled development.
“He’s somewhat enigmatic in the sense that we see moments of brilliance and moments of poise and physical toughness and skill that are just almost dazzling,” Gilbride, the Giants’ offensive coordinator, said of Manning, who is entering his fourth season. “There are countless examples of that. And then the frustration that sometimes comes because you don’t see, necessarily, what you’d like to see.
“So I’d say the biggest challenge you’re going to have is getting Eli to play as we see in moments over the course of the whole season. I think we can do that, and I think Chris is the perfect choice to be able to help bring that out of him.”
When Coughlin, the Giants’ coach, dismissed John Hufnagel as offensive coordinator late last season, Gilbride was elevated from quarterbacks coach, a position he held for three years. And when the Giants went searching for a new quarterbacks coach, Coughlin and Gilbride turned to an old friend: Palmer.
Just as Southern Connecticut State did in 1971, the Giants have done in 2007 — pinning much of their hopes to a combination of Gilbride, 55, and Palmer, 57.
“There’s certainly an understanding and a feel for the quarterback position between the two of us,” said Gilbride, speaking Wednesday on one of the few days each year that Coughlin allows his assistant coaches to speak with reporters.
Manning has become a good quarterback, but not the elite one the Giants believed they would get when they made a draft-day trade in 2004 for him after he was the first overall choice. His progress seemed to plateau last season. The Giants, 11-5 in 2005, were 8-8 in 2006, and Manning’s statistics were remarkably similar to what they were the year before.
Gilbride and Palmer are charged with matching Manning’s performances with the expectations. This spring, Gilbride has let Palmer and Manning get to know each other. The key, Gilbride said, is for the quarterback to be close enough to his coach to explain what he likes and does not like so that Gilbride and Palmer can tweak the offense to Manning’s comfort zone. Gilbride knew that process would take time.
“I think Eli’s nature is such that it takes him awhile before he fully lets his guard down and trusts you,” Gilbride said.
Palmer has learned that, too.
“It started slow,” Palmer said of his rapport with Manning. “But I would say he’s come on in the last three weeks. He’s opened up more to me and said things that he probably should have said earlier but didn’t, and I was encouraged by that.”
Palmer still knows little about Manning’s ability other than what he has seen on tape.
“The quarterbacks have had 14 film sessions, and we’ve had 14 on-the-field workouts,” Palmer said. “We have spent 13 hours going through 328 drop-back plays, and evaluating each throw and having a reason for each throw. And then we’ve taken the other 14 hours, 11 of them have been spent on footwork and the mechanics of quarterback play, and we threw just periodically.”
When training camp opens in late July, the triangular relationship between Manning, Gilbride and Palmer will be a focal point.
With the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Rough Riders in the mid-1980s, Gilbride brought in Palmer to observe through a guest-coach program. They learned the wide-open run-and-shoot offense, and when Gilbride became offensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers in 1990, he hired Palmer as the receivers coach to help run a similar attack, to great effect.
Since then, each served as offensive coordinator for the Jaguars under Coughlin, leading one of the league’s most dynamic units. Each helped quarterback Drew Bledsoe to some of his best seasons — Palmer in New England and Gilbride in Buffalo.
It seems everything has come full circle. Back when Gilbride and Palmer shared quarterback duties at a small college in Connecticut, the famous Manning was Archie, Eli’s father, drafted second in the 1971 N.F.L. draft.
A generation later, Gilbride and Palmer are teamed again. Their ties ever tightening, their mission is to loosen the knot that is Eli Manning’s potential.
