Fewell, Gilbride wait for call to big chair

INDIANAPOLIS -- Perry Fewell and Kevin Gilbride both want the ring. But they also want the line on their resume.

The Giants' key coordinators made no secret this week of their desire to become head coaches in the NFL. Neither has interviewed for any openings this season -- one of the paradoxes of a Super Bowl run is that by the time you are ready to interview, most of the available jobs have been filled, although in their cases, no teams called and asked for permission to speak with them -- but they have an eye on future opportunities even as they prepare the Giants to face the Patriots.

"I think it gives me more marketability in the future," Fewell said when asked what a Super Bowl win would mean for his career aspirations. "Now I have the experience of coaching in the Super Bowl, knowing what the preparation is like for a Super Bowl week . . . I think that adds value to what I can do."

Gilbride won a Super Bowl with the Giants four years ago and he's had a few interviews, but they did not go anywhere.

"Disappointed" is how he said he feels about being passed over for any of the seven head-coaching openings this offseason and the 28 coaching changes in the last four seasons.

"Certainly I was hopeful of getting a look and a chance to talk to some people," Gilbride said of the interview process that took place without him this past month. "You hope that [other teams] look at what you've done and say that we'd like to have something like that with us. That they'd like to have someone who is a good teacher with young guys, a disciplinarian, someone who can take us to where we'd like to be."

Both men have had a taste of being a head coach. Gilbride coached the Chargers in 1997 but was fired before the end of the 1998 season. Fewell was an interim head coach with the Bills in 2009 after Dick Jauron was fired.

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"The opportunity to be a head coach is a special one, and those memories are still very vivid," Gilbride said. "It's just unfortunate that it didn't work out. It was a lot shorter [stint] than I wish it was. We had a young quarterback [Ryan Leaf] that wound up struggling in this league and never quite made it. But quite honestly, I always felt that if I had had a chance to stay, I would have gotten him going."

Fewell said his even shorter tenure with the Bills was an eye-opener.

"I learned more in those seven weeks about how to use personnel -- how to work with players -- than I've probably learned in 13 years in the National Football League and 13 years in college football," Fewell said. "When you are put in that position, there are so many different areas that you can grow and learn and experience. It's second-to-none as far as growth and development."

Fewell is known as a defensive schemer, so one of the obstacles facing him might be limited offensive experience. But he said he coached offensive players in the college ranks to prepare himself for what he knew he really wanted to coach: defense.

"You have to know offense in order to coach defense," he said. "I really believe the people you go against in this league or offensive coordinators, or the people that you play against, you have great respect for what they do. You should know if presented the opportunity to be a head coach who you would like to be your offensive coordinator based on what they did to you."

Fewell likely will get more sniffs than Gilbride. He's younger by nearly a decade; Gilbride will be 61 when the 2012 season begins. Time may be running out for him to get another shot at one of the 32 big desks.

Regardless of what happens against the Patriots, Gilbride thinks what the 2011 Giants offense accomplished shows that he can be a head coach. And Fewell certainly added to his reputation, bringing the defense through a year in which it lost its starting middle linebacker and a starting cornerback to injuries before the season even began.

Both are expected to be back with the Giants next season. For the Giants and their players, that likely sounds like good news. For Gilbride and Fewell, well, that's just the way it is.