Giants’ Coordinators Graham, Garrett Discuss Ivy League Connection

When the New York Giants hired Joe Judge to be their head coach in January, many felt it was a risk. Judge was a longtime assistant in New England under Bill Belichick but had never been a head man anywhere in his 37 years on Earth.

That is why Judge and the Giants decided to stock the coaching ranks with veteran faces. They kept special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert but filled the other roles with familiar, accomplished faces from the outside.

The offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys for the past decade. The Giants know him well and in turn, he knows them well. Garrett also played for Big Blue as a backup quarterback to Kerry Collins from 2000-2003.

Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham worked with Judge in New England and also had a stint with the Giants as their defensive line coach under Ben McAdoo a few years back. What many don’t know is that both men began their football journeys as players in the Ivy League. It is a bond that both men are building on.

Graham was a defensive lineman at Yale in the early 2000s. By admission, he wasn’t much of a player but knew of Garrett, the former Princeton QB, and his accomplishments. Ivy Leaguers stick together.

Garrett, 54, was a star at Princeton in the 1980s, going undrafted in 1989. His  15-year odyssey took him from New Orleans to the World League of American Football to the CFL before landing back in the NFL. Before his time with the Giants as a player, Garrett won two Super Bowl rings as Troy Aikman’s backup in Dallas.

As a coach, Garrett began his career as the Dolphins’ quarterback coach in the mid 2000s under Nick Saban in Miami. He soon moved onto Dallas where he became the offensive coordinator and then head coach. He told reporters on Tuesday about his respect for Graham.

“In regards to Patrick, just a great experience for me getting to know him. Obviously, I’ve known him from afar,” said Garrett. “Different people who have been around him have great respect for him. In the time we’ve been together, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and how smart of a football guy he is, the different experiences that he’s had, and the ability to work together. When you’re a coordinator, often times you have to work together with the other coordinator to help get the practice to function the way you want it to function and how you can compete against each other. But also work together to put your units in the best situation you can. He’s been a real joy to work with right now despite the fact that he’s a Yale guy.”

With the Giants, Garrett is on the same page with Graham, asking players to be more aware and disciplined. Graham is dressing fundamentals while Garrett said “tolerate” is not a word in a coaches’s vocabulary.