Ben McAdoo will hold his first press conference as head coach of the New York Giants on Friday at 10:30 a.m. ET. You can watch the proceedings via the live stream on Giants.com.
This isn't exactly an "introductory" press conference. McAdoo, after all, has been the team's offensive coordinator for two years. We know him. We know what kind of offense he runs. We know some things about his personality. There are a lot of things we still don't know about the Giants new head coach, and how he plans to try and shake the Giants out of their recent malaise. Thus, the press conference should be interesting.
Here are a few of things I will be watching for when McAdoo steps to the podium.
- Can he command a room? The media has gotten glimpses of McAdoo the past couple of years, short sessions weekly during the regular season and a quick press conference here and there during training camp or offseason workouts. This will be the biggest stage McAdoo has ever been on. Can he take charge of the room? Can he sound confident, like a guy who can take charge of a full team? Can he placate a hungry New York media that, from his clipped, generic answers over the past two years, already has doubts about how well he will work with them?
- Will he retain play-calling duties? All indications are that he will, and that makes sense given his coaching background. He learned from Mike McCarthy with the Green Bay Packers, and maintaining play-calling duties would follow the McCarthy model. My guess is that while McAdoo has learned a great deal about coaching and motivating from Tom Coughlin that his style will more closely follow the McCarthy model.
- What will he say about assistant coaches? There has been a lot of speculation about Steve Spagnuolo, Mike Sullivan, and Joe Philbin. Let's see if McAdoo addresses the structure of the staff.
- What about the defense? Will McAdoo give any hints about how the Giants will address their defensive shortcomings, or about what style of defense he would like to see? He has never been a defensive coach so how he approaches that side of the ball will be interesting.
Those are just a few of the things I will be listening for. What will you be listening for? If you can't watch the press conference live, use the Twitter stream below to follow along. Alos, be sure to check back with Big Blue View once the press conference is over as we will continue our coverage of the beginning of the McAdoo era.