When the New York Giants parted ways with Pat Shurmur, there was a fear that some of the quality assistants he had on staff might be inclined to leave East Rutherford and seek opportunities elsewhere.
In some cases, that’s exactly what happened. In others, they were shown the door. But when it came to special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, incoming head coach Joe Judge wasn’t going to let him get away.
The Giants officially announced their coordinator hires on Friday night, and it included word that McGaughey would be back in 2020 and potentially beyond.
“I’ve known T-Mac from going against him as well as being in the business and I have a good relationship with him professionally and personally,” Judge said, via team release. “I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a person. He gets the most out of his players. I’ve competed against him and I knew it was always going to be tough sledding in the game there.
“From the perspective of having to go against him, you understand you don’t want to get him out of the building; you want to hold onto guys like that. They’re definitely key assets. He and Tom Quinn do an outstanding job of working together, coaching the players in techniques and coming up with schemes for game plans that allow them to apply pressure on the opponents.”
Following word that he would return to the Giants, McGaughey not only expressed an excitement about being in East Rutherford for the team’s turnaround, but an excitement over sharing similar philosophies with Judge.
“Our philosophies match up perfectly,” McGaughey said in a Giants.com interview. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back. We’ve coached against each others for years. He was at Bama when I was at LSU, and obviously being in New England over the years we’ve coached against each other when I was with the Jets. . . It was a good mesh.”
McGaughey and Judge meshing well will mean nothing but good things for the Giants, who had one of the better special teams units in the NFL this past season.
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