He believes John Fox, the Carolina coach and the former Giants' defensive coordinator, will change the Panthers' fortunes.

They had also known Larry Brown, the Carolina coach, who in 1983 offered Ed Manning a job as an assistant coach at Kansas.

As Mack Brown, the Carolina coach, says, "We tell our players not to worry about the bowl situation because we're going."

But this afternoon the Carolina coach, John Fox, seemed to know something, and he applied it during the game.

Paul Maurice, the Carolina coach, smiled when recalling "three or four big hits this year" that Irbe has delivered.

This will be the Giants' first game against their former defensive coordinator John Fox, who is the Carolina coach.

Turner might be the offensive equivalent of Dom Capers, the former Carolina coach who was fired and is now the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Gamecocks have been bowl eligible every year Spurrier has been their head coach, a feat no other Carolina coach has accomplished.

Parcells has Belichick, and now Coughlin has the former Carolina coach, Dom Capers.

"J. R. showed he's a man," said Dean Smith, the Carolina coach.