Giants are eyeing top college coach to fill their head coaching job in 2026

The New York Giants may have done the right thing in moving on from head coach Brian Daboll last month. But things haven’t gone great since then either. Big Blue needs a new commander-in-chief, and quickly.

Interim head coach Mike Kafka has been doing a decent job, but he has gone 0-4 since taking over. He’s not viewed as a serious candidate for the full-time job when it becomes available in January.

The Giants are expected to conduct a wide-ranging and sweeping search for their next head coach. That will include current NFL staff, whether head coaches or coordinators or positional coaches. But it also includes guys from the college ranks.

NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo revealed early on Week 16 Sunday that the Giants were going to be strongly considering Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman for the vacancy. Garafolo called him the “foremost” of the college candidates the Giants would consider.

“Marcus Freeman mentioned as a guy that should be in their coaching search. Yes that is the case,” Garafolo reported. “I expect him to be the foremost among the college candidates.”

Freeman has gone 43-11 in four full years as the head coach at Notre Dame. He won the Gator Bowl in 2022 with a 9-4 record, the Sun Bowl in 2023 with a 10-3 record, and lost in the National Championship Game last season with a 14-2 record. 

His team went 10-2 this year but was not selected for the CFP, which resulted in them throwing a tantrum and boycotting all Bowl games. Freeman could definitely be ready for a fresh start after that.

At 39 years old, he’s a young and exciting coach who not only knows the game, but is the rare person who can be drill sergeant as well as a player’s coach.

Giants’ head coaching search is expected to be “widespread”

Apart from Marcus Freeman, Garafolo didn’t give out any other specific names the Giants would be considering, only indicating that it would be a big search.

“As it pertains to NFL coaches, this is gonna be a widespread search because there’s no Ben Johnson, offensive play-caller, belle of the ball-type candidate in this cycle,” Garafolo explained. 

“And a lot of head coaches are calling plays offensively as well, so that really dwindles down the offensive guys. I expect to see some defensive guys, some veteran coaches as well.”

With Black Monday just a few weeks away, the ranks of potential head coaching candidates for the Giants will swell. But while a large pool of coaches can be a positive, something tells us too many options may overwhelm the Giants’ decision-makers, namely overmatched general manager Joe Schoen. 

Big Blue will be praying they make the right call this time around. And Freeman certainly seems like a great candidate—if they can get him.