From the day he was named Giants head coach, Ben McAdoo did not look or sound the part.
Now, some 11 months later, the Giants have a bona fide NFL Coach of the Year candidate in their midst.
McAdoo’s appointment to succeed Tom Coughlin, who led the franchise to two Super Bowl titles, did not sit well with a lot of Giants fans because many considered him to be a mere extension of the regime that failed to lead the team to the playoffs the previous four years.
After all, what franchise-turning changes was Coughlin’s offensive coordinator going to implement after having been on the job for only two years and never having been a head coach?
To add more uncertainty to the equation, McAdoo’s public persona as a coordinator was rigid, nervous and paranoid — and it painted a picture of someone with zero it factor.
The last thing McAdoo looked like was a head coach who could stand before 50-something players from diverse backgrounds and varying degrees of NFL experience and command the room.
“Yeah, I can see that — you probably don’t think much looking at him,’’ Giants defensive tackle Jay Bromley told The Post on Tuesday. “I actually didn’t know how cool he was until he got the opportunity to speak to the team as the head coach. He might not look cool, but he’s much cooler to talk to than you would think. But looks can be deceiving.’’
Especially when they come with the results McAdoo has delivered.
Fourteen games and 10 victories into his first season as a head coach and a Thursday night win over the Eagles in Philadelphia away from bringing the Giants to their first playoff game in five years, if McAdoo is not at the top of the list as the NFL’s Coach of the Year, he’d better be close to the top.
“He demands perfection and he makes sure everyone knows what the mission is,’’ defensive end Olivier Vernon said. “He has everybody’s respect. For a first-year head coach to be doing what he’s been doing …’’
Vernon didn’t finish his thought. He didn’t need to.
“Funny enough, I really didn’t know too much about Ben; he was like a ghost — that guy with those glasses on looking at that sheet of paper with all the plays on it,’’ Bromley said.
McAdoo was not hesitant about stamping his fingerprints on this team.
For a guy who presents himself as so stiff in public, only five teams have gone for it on fourth down more than the 16 times McAdoo has (making first downs eight times). So he hasn’t been afraid to go for the jugular, which is energizing to his team.
One of the first things McAdoo changed was the players’ schedule — giving them Mondays off instead of Tuesdays in an effort to help them recover better from the games. He, too, has “Fresh Fridays,’’ when the players do their preparations in the meeting rooms, not on the practice field.
It’s difficult to measure the effect of these changes, but McAdoo’s team has been markedly healthier than Coughlin’s teams were the last three years.
According to the Football Outsiders Almanac, the Giants had been the most injured team in the NFL the previous three seasons — losing the equivalent of 138.7 games by starters to injury last year, 141.3 games in 2014 and 137.5 games in 2013.
This season, other than defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (sports hernia) and safety Darian Thompson (foot), the Giants’ starting 22 has gone fairly unscathed.
Luck? Maybe. But perhaps McAdoo’s changes — going heavier on mental preparation than heavy-lifting practices — have been the difference.
“Ever since I was in San Francisco [as an assistant], I would collect schedules,’’ McAdoo told The Post. “I talked to strength and conditioning coaches, talked to the people in the medical field and talked to different coaches, figuring out a way how you can build a team up physically, how you can harden them and then, once you get them where you want them as the season goes on, then how you start to taper things down to get them what they need but don’t overexpose them to too much work.
“I think that you need to have a solid foundation in place from a scheduling standpoint, everyone needs to be on same page and you have to be a little bit lucky.’’
There’s a saying that goes something like this: Luck is the residue of hard work, design and preparation.
“He’s done an unbelievable job,’’ left guard Justin Pugh said. “I’m happy for him and I’m happy to see us respond and play for him the way he deserves.’’