NY Post:COUGHLIN PROMISES BIG BLUE CHANGES

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COUGHLIN PROMISES BIG BLUE CHANGES

By PAUL SCHWARTZ

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NEW REGIME:

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Tom Coughlin told The Post yesterday Giants need new direction after last year's 4-12 campaign. Photo: David Rentas

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March 3, 2004 -- Tom Coughlin this week is granting his first one-on-one interviews as Giants head coach. Yesterday was The Post's turn for a 15-minute huddle. Here's a sampling:

On the team he inherits: "Obviously things didn't go well; to have a 4-12 football team means you've got problems, you've got issues. You've got some people who have the talent and the ability that were not as productive as you'd like and there are, quite frankly, people that are not that talented."

On the change in atmosphere in store for the Giants: "I think people have to understand we're not talking about a lounge act here."

On if there's any fun allowed on a Tom Coughlin team: "I have no idea logically how to have fun if you're not performing and doing the things you say you are all about. Now, let me just say this: does that mean that the spontaneity of laughter is not going to be there? Of course not. Somebody does something funny on the practice field, people are not going to be walking about goose-stepping."

On facial hair on players: "I like a neat, clean, well-presented individual, but guys today express themselves in different ways. I never had anything steadfast along those lines."

On his rugged training camps: "We'll wear pads a lot. We're gonna be a football team. We're gonna be calloused and hardened when we come out of camp."

On not speaking personally yet to Kerry Collins: "I've left messages, he's left messages for me. My message was, 'congratulations on the birth of your daughter, look forward to speaking to you.' "

On limiting media appearances by players during the season: "I think there's a time for everything and then there's a time also, when Wednesday morning starts, let's not do anything to break our concentration."

On the franchise he now leads: "I know the Giant tradition, I know what this is all about. We're not a finesse operation here, we've never been, and I don't expect to be."

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Jerald Ingram, the Giants' running backs coach, said Ron Dayne has been a regular at workouts.

"The guy's happy that he's got a new clean slate, and he knows that this is it, if he's gonna do it, he's got to do it now," Ingram said. "He needs to be an impact kind of guy this year. Now he's mature, he's older, he's become a man instead of just being a boy."