For the past few years, Kevin Gilbride was living alone in a hotel when he wasn’t calling the plays and running the show for the Giants as their offensive coordinator. His wife, Debbie, had moved to Rhode Island to care for their granddaughter while their daughter was working.
Finally, Gilbride decided enough was enough and on Thursday he announced his retirement after a 39-year coaching career. The timing is either curious or impeccable, considering Giants co-owner John Mara called the offense “broken’’ after this 7-9 season and Gilbride’s job security was certainly up for discussion.
“It’s hard to say, ‘It’s time,’” Gilbride said. “To finally do it, it’s a very unnatural feeling. I’ve been telling my wife for years I was going to do it. I knew this was it and I was going to do it. I finally pulled the trigger. But it’s difficult.”
For the first time since 2007, the Giants need a new play-caller, someone new in charge of their offense. One name that surfaces immediately as a candidate is Mike Sullivan, the former Giants receivers and quarterbacks coach under Tom Coughlin. Sullivan just completed his second season as the Buccaneers offensive coordinator. Although Sullivan has been characterized as an overwhelming favorite to succeed Gilbride, a team source indicated that assumption “is really jumping the gun.’’
Mara, however, did say, “We obviously think very highly of him,’’ when asked Monday about Sullivan, who was fired in Tampa with the ouster of Greg Schiano’s entire staff.
Gilbride, 62, was an assistant for Coughlin with the Jaguars and one of his most trusted allies. He has been with the Giants ever since Coughlin arrived in 2004, coming to the Giants as the quarterbacks coach, asked to help shape the NFL career of a rookie named Eli Manning. He was named offensive coordinator in 2007 and in his first season, Gilbride ran an offense that was good enough to win the Super Bowl, a feat the Giants repeated four years later. The Giants finished in the top 10 in the NFL in scoring offense five consecutive years before this season’s decline. The Giants in their long history have scored 400 points in a season five times — three times under Gilbride.
“It’s not an easy thing to part ways,” Coughlin said. “Kevin is a professional. He’s been an exceptional football coach for the New York Giants. He has done a great service to the franchise.”
Coughlin, Mara and general manager Jerry Reese are engaged in high-level organization meetings, and Mara said fixing the offense and deciding who stays and who goes on the coaching staff is a top priority. Gilbride’s retirement certainly helped ease what might have been a painful parting.
“He will be remembered as one of the best coaches to ever represent the New York Giants,’’ Mara said.
No one should forget Coughlin’s background is offense and that whoever is named coordinator calls the plays for a system that has Coughlin’s fingerprints all over it. Gilbride’s offense fell apart this past season. Manning threw a career-high 27 interceptions, the offensive line got old and injured, the running game was non-existent, with Andre Brown breaking his leg and David Wilson suffering a career-threatening neck injury. Receiver Hakeem Nicks did not score a single touchdown and looked like a diminished player. It all added up to a feeble offensive product, lowlighted by a league-high 39 turnovers.
“It is difficult to walk away after a season like that, no question,” said Gilbride, whose son, Kevin M. Gilbride, is the Giants’ receivers coach. “All of the success we’ve had offensively through the last five or six years, we just weren’t able to get it done this year with all of the things that took place.’’
Late in the season, Manning told The Post he preferred Gilbride and the offensive staff remain intact, insisting he was comfortable in the system and it did not need to change. Now he will hear a new voice.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Kevin,” Manning said. “I’m really sad to see him retire. He has been with me from Day One. He really taught me everything I needed to learn to become an NFL quarterback.’’
Gregarious and more than willing to share his insights, Gilbride was quite popular among his players. Victor Cruz went to Twitter to call Gilbride “my mentor and friend’’ and “a second father to me.’’ Fullback Henry Hynoski tweeted he was “blessed’’ to play for Gilbride.