The link between the Super Bowl champion Giants and the Bucs doesn’t just start with the assistant coaches the Bucs hired from the Giants in the offseason, nor Eli Manning’s budding friendship with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

No, the link goes back to when Tom Coughlin was coaching the Jags and Schiano was looking to NFL pastures when he was a secondary coach at Penn State.

“I interviewed Greg one time when I was at Jacksonville and he went to Chicago,” Coughlin told the Tampa Bay pen and mic club via teleconference this afternoon. “I have followed [Schiano’s] career from a distance and was very much aware of his presence at Rutgers and on occasion visited with Greg. I think highly of him.”

Both Schiano and Coughlin drink from the same football well. Coughlin, along with Bill Belicheat, were two main branches rooted to the Bill Parcells coaching tree. Schiano is a Belicheat disciple through and through.

So while the Bucs may have knowledge of the Giants’ inner-workings though Schiagno’s dealings with Coughlin and both Bucs coordinators having worked under Coughlin, so too does Coughlin know the Bucs.

“The entire [Bucs win over Carolina] was a positive relection of Greg and his values and what he has tried to instill on his team,” Coughlin said.