Long regarded as one of the NFL’s premier head coaches, Tom Coughlin reached the pinnacle of his profession in the 2007 season when he led the Giants to a victory in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants, heavy underdogs entering the game, scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat the previously-undefeated New England Patriots, 17-14.

Coughlin is one of just six active coaches to lead a team to a Super Bowl victory. The others are Bill Belichick, Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden. Coughlin became the 26th different head coach to win a Super Bowl, and the second to win one with the Giants (Bill Parcells won two). At 1-0, Coughlin is the 17th coach with an unblemished Super Bowl record.

Coughlin is 8-6 in the postseason, including 4-2 with the Giants. The four playoff victories are the second-most in Giants history, behind Parcells’ eight.

The championship season capped a Giants revival that began when Coughlin was named the 16th head coach in franchise history on Jan. 6, 2004. The Giants won only four games in the season before his arrival. A successful head coach in the NFL and on the collegiate level, Coughlin was an assistant coach with the Giants when they won Super Bowl XXV in 1990. He quickly put the team back on a path that would ultimately lead to another Super Bowl victory.

The Giants improved from four to six to 11 victories and the NFC East title in Coughlin’s first two seasons with the team. In 2006, they went 8-8 and earned an NFC Wild Card playoff berth. Last season, they were 10-6 in the regular season and again reached postseason play as a Wild Card. The Giants are one of just four teams to reach the playoffs in each of the last three years, joining Indianapolis, New England and Seattle. This is the fourth time in franchise history the Giants reached the postseason in three consecutive years. They accomplished the feat from 1933-35, 1961-63 and again from 1984-86.

Coughlin has won three division titles and led his teams to the playoffs seven times in his 12 years as an NFL head coach. He is 103-89 (.536) in the regular season, plus 8-6 in the postseason for an overall record of 111-95 (.539).

Coughlin’s 103 regular season victories place him sixth among current NFL head coaches, behind Holmgren, Shanahan, Dungy, Belichick and Jeff Fisher. Four of the five coaches ahead of him have coached at least one more season than Coughlin and one, Dungy, has coached the same number of years. Coughlin is the only one of the six to have coached an expansion team.

Coughlin’s 103 regular season victories tie him with Hall of Famer John Madden in 32nd place on the NFL’s all-time regular season list. His 111 overall triumphs put him in 32nd place on the career list, one behind Madden. A victory over the Jets on Oct. 7 was the 100th of Coughlin’s career, including postseason games. Coughlin won his 100th regular season game at Detroit on Nov. 18.

Coughlin twice led the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game prior to leading the Giants to victory in the NFC Championship Game. He is the sixth coach to lead teams to a championship game in each conference since the 1970 merger. The others include Parcells and Dan Reeves (both former Giants coaches), as well as Chuck Knox, Dungy and Gruden.

The 2007 Giants set several milestone achievements on their way to the NFL championship. The Giants became the fifth Wild Card team to win the Super Bowl, the second in three years (the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL) and the first from the NFC. They were the second team to win the Super Bowl after winning three postseason games on the road to get there (again joining the 2005 Steelers). The No. 5 Giants were the lowest-seeded NFC team to win the Super Bowl since the NFL began seeding teams in 1990. The previous low was a second-seeded team. The Giants were just the third team to win the Super Bowl after starting the season 0-2. The others were the 1993 Dallas Cowboys and the 2001 Patriots.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the 2007 Giants was their ability to win on the road. The Giants were the visiting team in the Super Bowl, which was their 11th consecutive road triumph (seven regular season, four postseason), extending their NFL single-season record. Put another way, the Giants won 11 consecutive games away from Giants Stadium. Prior to the 2007 postseason, the Giants had never won back-to-back toad playoff games. And they achieved their success with 11 rookies on their active roster, a record for a Super Bowl winner.

After starting the season 0-2, the Giants won six consecutive games to become just the fifth team in history and the second since 1947 to follow two opening losses with six straight triumphs. The last of those victories was over the Miami Dolphins in London’s Wembley Stadium, which made them the first team to win a regular season game outside of North America.

The Giants have also made dramatic statistical improvement under Coughlin. The team averaged 363.2 points per season in his first four years. Under Coughlin’s stewardship, the Giants have had two of the five highest-scoring seasons in the 83-year history of the franchise, with 422 points in 2005 and 373 points last year. The Giants scored more than 30 points six times in 2007, their highest total of 30-point games since 1963, when they had 10. The Giants averaged 285.6 points a year in the three seasons prior to Coughlin’s arrival. In 2007, the Giants’ 5,302 yards and 321 first downs were the seventh and fourth-highest totals, respectively in team history. The Giants finished the season with 77 penalties, their lowest total ever in a 16-game season (since 1978) and their 652 penalty yards were their third-lowest total in a 16-game season.

Last season, the Giants finished the season ranked fourth in the NFL in rushing yardage with 134.3 yards a game. That is their highest ranking since 1993, when the Giants were first with a 138.1-yard average. The Giants have finished seventh or better in rushing in each of the last three seasons, the first time since 1990-92 that they were in the NFL’s top 10 three years in a row.

In 2005, Coughlin’s second season, the Giants scored 45 touchdowns, their highest total since the 1985 team scored 48. They became only the fifth team in NFL history to have five different players score at least seven touchdowns. Tiki Barber scored 11, and Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer and Brandon Jacobs scored seven apiece. Their 5,787 total yards were the third-most in team history. The Giants’ 312 first downs were the fifth-most in team history. The Giants’ offense ranked fourth in the NFL with an average of 361.7 yards a game. It was the team’s highest ranking since 1972, when the offense also ranked fourth with an average of 320.2 yards a game.

Defensively, the Giants ranked seventh in total defense, allowing 305.0 yards a game. It is their highest ranking since 2002, when they were ninth. The 305 yards per game were the fewest allowed by the Giants since 2000, when they gave up 284.1. The Giants were eighth in the NFL in rushing defense, surrendering 97.7 yards per game. That was their highest ranking and lowest yardage allowed since 2001, when they were eighth 96.6 yards a game. In addition, the Giants led the NFL with 53 quarterback sacks. It was their highest total since 1998, when they had 54 sacks – which was the last time they led the league. Osi Umenyiora (13), Justin Tuck (10) and Michael Strahan (9) became the second trio in team history to record nine ore more sacks each in single season: In 1985, Leonard Marshall had 15.5, Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor had 13 and George Martin had 10.

Coughlin has also overseen a significant improvement in the Giants’ special teams. The year before Coughlin arrived, the Giants averaged only 19.9 yards a kickoff return. In 2004, they led the NFL in kickoff return yardage for the first time since 1953 with an average return of 25.1 yards. In 2005, their average kickoff return dropped by less than a yard, to 24.3 yards, good for fourth in the NFL. Last year, the Giants averaged 23.9 yards a return. The Giants also allowed only 173 punt return yards the entire season. For the second year in a row, the Giants succeeded on 23 of 27 field goal attempts (85.2 percent).

Many Giants players have enjoyed outstanding seasons in the Coughlin era. Quarterback Eli Manning, who threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes in the Super Bowl, passed for 3,336 and 23 scores in 2007. He is the second Giants quarterback in history with three consecutive seasons with more than 3,000 yards and 20 touchdown passes. Phil Simms did in from 1984-86. Manning’s 55 consecutive regular season starts is the fourth-longest active streak among NFL quarterbacks entering the 2008 season. Plaxico Burress caught 12 touchdown passes in 2007, leaving him tied in second place on the Giants’ single-season list with Del Shofner, who had 12 scoring catches in 1962. Burress’ had 10 touchdown catches in 2006 and became the first Giant since Shofner in 1961-62 to post back-to-back seasons with 10 or more scoring catches. Amani Toomer has continued to excel under Coughlin and now holds the Giants career records for catches (620), receiving yards (8,917), touchdown catches (50) and 100-yard games (22). Michael Strahan last season became the franchise’s career sack leader with 141.5 and Osi Umenyiora had a team-high 13.0 sacks. It was the fourth consecutive season he had sole possession of the team’s sack leadership. He is the first Giant to do that since Taylor led the Giants in sacks five years in a row from 1986-90. Tiki Barber, the franchise’s career rushing leader who retired after the 2006 season, made the only three Pro Bowls of his 10-year career playing for Coughlin. Barber rushed for 1,518, 1,860 and 1,662 yards his last three seasons and finished his career with 10,449 yards, the 17th-highest total in NFL history.

Under Coughlin, players such as Antonio Pierce, Chris Snee, Shaun O’Hara, Justin Tuck, Brandon Jacobs, Jeff Feagles and many others have consistently played well.

Coughlin previously coached the Jacksonville Jaguars, taking charge of the expansion franchise more than 18 months prior to its first game and guiding the team for its first eight seasons. Under Coughlin, the Jaguars were the most successful expansion team in NFL history. Coughlin compiled a 68-60 regular season record (.531), plus a 4-4 mark in the playoffs, and twice took Jacksonville to the AFC Championship Game. The Jaguars made the playoffs every year from 1996-99, the only expansion team in history to earn four postseason berths in its first five seasons.

Under Coughlin, the Jaguars compiled several impressive statistical records. Jacksonville was 55-12 in games in which it owned a lead entering the fourth period. The Jaguars were 40-28 in games against division opponents, 21-3 in games in which they scored a touchdown on their initial offensive possession and 51-30 in games in which they rushed for at least 100 yards.

Coughlin was out of football in 2003 but has been in the coaching profession for almost 40 years. He has always emphasized ball security and his teams have been among the very best in the NFL at securing the football. His career turnover differential is plus-41 in the regular season and plus-three in the postseason. In the 128 regular season games they played under Coughlin, the Jaguars committed fewer than three turnovers in 104 of them, including 32 in which they had no giveaways. In those 128 games, Jacksonville had 187 giveaways, giving Coughlin a 1.46 turnovers-per-game average. In 2002, Jacksonville’s differential was plus-12 and the Jaguars had only 15 giveaways to become just the third team in history with fewer turnovers than games played (the others were the 1990 Giants, a team which had Coughlin as its wide receivers coach, and the 2002 Kansas City Chiefs).

Coughlin’s Giants teams have been equally careful with the ball, turning it over only 101 times in 64 regular season games (1.58 a game). The Giants had fewer than three turnovers in 49 of those 64 games. The Jaguars’ turnover differential during Coughlin’s eight-year tenure was plus-34. In four seasons under Coughlin, the Giants are plus-seven.

Coughlin became the first head coach of the expansion Jaguars on Feb. 21, 1994, 559 days before the franchise played its first regular season game. In 1995, Jacksonville won four games, more than any previous expansion team in NFL history. The following year, Coughlin was named NFL Coach of the Year by United Press International as the Jaguars made the playoffs in just their second season and advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game, where they lost to the New England Patriots.

That began a streak of four consecutive playoff seasons for the Jaguars. In both 1997 and ‘98 Jacksonville won 11 games, winning their first division title in 1998. The following season, the Jaguars had an NFL-best record of 14-2 and again advanced to the conference title game.

Coughlin earned a reputation as one of the NFL’s finest offensive coaches. During his tenure, the Jaguars led the NFL in both passing yards (4,367 in 1996) and rushing yards (2,091 in 1999). In addition to having the most rushing yards in the NFL in 1999, Jacksonville boasted the league’s leading receiver in Jimmy Smith (116 receptions). The only other team in history to accomplish that double was the 1954 San Francisco 49ers.

Coughlin arrived in Jacksonville following three years as the head coach at Boston College, where he turned a struggling program into a Top 20 team. He was 21-13-1 in three seasons (1991-93) with the Eagles, including 9-3 in 1993, when Boston College won eight consecutive games, defeated top-ranked Notre Dame, 41-39, and beat Virginia in the Carquest Bowl. Coughlin’s last Boston College team was ranked 12th in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll and 13th by the Associated Press, despite starting the season 0-2. The Eagles were 8-2-1 in 1992 and 4-7 in his first season in 1991.

Coughlin was the Giants wide receivers coach under Parcells from 1988-90. Under his tutelage, receivers such as Mark Ingram, Lionel Manuel, Odessa Turner and Stephen Baker all improved and helped the Giants win their second Super Bowl.

Coughlin began his coaching career in 1969 as a graduate assistant at Syracuse, his alma mater. He was the head coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1970-73, compiling a record of 16-15-2. Coughlin returned to Syracuse in 1974, first serving as quarterbacks and offensive backfield coach for three seasons before being promoted to offensive coordinator for four years. He directed an offense that led the Orangemen to victory in the 1979 Independence Bowl, their first postseason triumph in 13 years.

In 1981, Coughlin went to Boston College for the first time, as quarterbacks coach under Jack Bicknell. He helped the Eagles win their first bowl game and coached Doug Flutie, who would win the Heisman Trophy in 1984, one season after Coughlin’s departure. In 1983, Boston College won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy as Eastern Champion, its first in 42 years.

Coughlin entered the NFL as the Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receivers coach in 1984 and ‘85. He held the same position with the Green Bay Packers in 1986 and ‘87 before moving to the Giants for a three-year stint.

Coughlin was a standout scholastic star at Waterloo (N.Y.) Central High School, where the football stadium now bears his name. He was a three-year letterman for legendary coach Ben Schwartzwalder from 1965-67. A wingback, Coughlin played in a backfield with All-America backs Larry Csonka and Floyd Little. As a senior in 1967, Coughlin broke Syracuse’s single-season pass receiving record. That year, he won Syracuse’s Orange Key Award as the university’s outstanding scholar-athlete. He graduated in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in education and received a master’s degree in education the following year.

Thomas Richard Coughlin was born on Aug. 31, 1946 in Waterloo. He is the oldest of seven children. Coughlin and his wife Judy, have two daughters, Keli and Katie, two son-in-laws named Chris, two sons, Brian and Tim, two daughters-in-law, Andrea (Tim’s wife) and Susie (Brian’s wife), and five grandchildren, Emma Rose, Dylan, Shea, Cooper and Caroline May.