For almost as long as Jim Fassel was rumored to be on the coaching hot seat in New York this season, onetime Giants assistant coach Tom Coughlin has been rumored to be the leading candidate to replace him. Nothing about Wednesday's developments in New York change the equation. Fassel will officially be dismissed after the Giants play their final two games, and Coughlin remains New York's most likely choice to take the reins in 2004. There's really only one question that appears to be keeping the former Jacksonville head coach from approaching slam-dunk status in New York: After eight years of being his own GM and personnel chief with the Jaguars, with mostly great results, can the autocratic Coughlin smoothly co-exist with Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi? If Coughlin and Accorsi can find a comfort zone, and the indications coming from Coughlin's camp are that he's open to such an arrangement, then Giants ownership is expected to quickly sign off on the deal. Giants owners Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch have a good relationship with Coughlin dating to his days as Bill Parcells' receivers coach in 1988-90. As of Wednesday afternoon, Coughlin's agent, Gary O'Hagan said the Giants had not made contact with him about a possible interview for Coughlin. But that step is not expected to take long, now that Fassel has been informed of his fate. The Giants coaching search will begin immediately, Accorsi said Wednesday. The last time the Giants hired a coach with previous NFL head coaching experience was 1993, when Dan Reeves replaced Ray Handley. Reeves clashed at times with general manager George Young regarding control-related issues, and Accorsi was Young's assistant GM for most of Reeves' four-year tenure. Coughlin, who was out of the league in 2003 after being fired by the Jaguars last offseason, probably has to convince Accorsi that his coaching tenure will not be a repeat of the Reeves years. Who else figures to be on the Giants' wish list? Coughlin's heavyweight competition will be LSU head coach Nick Saban, who has a relationship with Accorsi dating back to their days together with the Cleveland Browns in 1991-92. Saban was an assistant under Bill Belichick and Accorsi was the team's GM. Saban is not thought eager to leave Baton Rouge for the NFL, but he could be swayed by an offer in the $5 million per year range, providing it comes with enough say in personnel matters to suit his taste. The Giants would seem to be a long shot to satisfy Saban on both those fronts. Five other current NFL assistants are among those expected to interviewed by the Giants: New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, Dallas offensive coordinator coach Maurice Carthon, New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, St. Louis defensive coordinator Lovie Smith and Chicago defensive coordinator Greg Blache. Both Crennel and Weis once served as Giants assistants under Parcells and Handley. As for Fassel, who still has one year at $2.7 million remaining on his Giants' contract, for weeks he has been considered the leading candidate to replace Dave McGinnis in Arizona, should the Cardinals follow through with their expected coaching change. Oakland is seen as another, less likely possibility for Fassel, who spent 1995 as the Raiders quarterbacks coach and 1996 as the Cardinals' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. -- Don Banks, SI.com

The head-to-toe special teams revamping didn't work. The patchwork right side of the offensive line didn't come through. The Tiki Barber fumbling problem didn't go away. The Jeremy Shockey first-year magic didn't return in full force, and the injuries, well, they just never stopped coming.

From the very start, the New York Giants' 2003 season was one of those years that didn't go as planned. Head coach Jim Fassel paid for those failures with his job on Wednesday, a piece of news that has felt like a certainty for weeks now as the Giants' current six-game losing streak continued to unfold.

Not quite five months ago, I was there the day the Giants were talking Super Bowl as they reported to training camp in Albany, N.Y. The hype factor is always a part of the scene with New York teams, but this time, it didn't sound farfetched to hear the Giants speaking so openly about finishing their season in Houston.

After all, New York had gone 10-6 and made the playoffs in 2002, losing 39-38 at San Francisco in the first round on a blown call that the NFL felt compelled to apologize for the next day. With key improvements made on special teams, and the offense looking poised to be New York's best since the late 1980s, there was a lot to like about Fassel's seventh Giants team.

"I believe the expectations are realistic,'' Giants defensive end Michael Strahan said as camp opened. "I can honesty say this is one of the first times I've come to camp where I can say I expect to win the Super Bowl, and honestly believe it.

"This is definitely the most talent we've had coming into camp. And we've had talent before, but we haven't always had guys willing to push themselves and do what it takes. I wouldn't say we have a swagger. But I think everybody here thinks we have a chance to be special. If things line up, we can do it.''

But things never came remotely close to lining up for the Giants, who still haven't had back-to-back playoff seasons since the close of the Bill Parcells era in 1989-90. And the omens were everywhere. Even before the regular season started, two important cogs in the rebuilt special teams units -- kicker Mike Hollis and long-snapper Ryan Kuehl -- went on injured reserve. Another prized free-agent special teams addition, return man Brian Mitchell, has been largely a non-factor all year.

All told, New York has lost nine players to IR this season, and that doesn't even include quarterback Kerry Collins, tight end Shockey, receiver Ike Hilliard and left tackle Luke Petitgout, all of whom are out with injuries now but have not been shelved for the season.

The worst of the injury wave hit the secondary, where New York has lost its top three cornerbacks -- Will Allen, Will Peterson and Ralph Brown all are on IR -- and been reduced to starting rookie Frank Walker and journeyman Kato Serwanga. To no great surprise, the Giants' pass defense has been a particularly glaring weakness.

New York's offensive line issues were supposed to be balanced by line coach Jim McNally's well-documented knack for making chicken salad out of chicken droppings. Sure, the Giants had lost the right side of their line in free agency, but they were confident that young players like tackle Ian Allen and guard David Diehl could fill the bill and keep the train rolling.

Once again, the reality differed from the best-laid plans. The Giants' O-line has gone through seven different lineup variations, with centers playing guard, guards playing tackle and continuity becoming an obvious victim of all that change. Makeshift as it has been, the line never managed to protect Collins very well, and that development has affected the efficiency of New York's touted passing game, which was supposed to be a season-long strength.

Toss in Barber's maddening penchant for fumbling, which grows worse by the season, and the Giants' offense became a turnover machine. New York's minus-13 turnover ratio ranks 31st in the NFL, better than only Arizona. The Giants' offense was at its worst in the red zone, where a lack of execution cost it again and again in the games that were winnable.

Add it all up and Fassel's team had become unrecognizable by the standards of his previous Giants tenure. Though he entered this season having never lost more than three in a row in New York, Fassel has dropped his last six games and is now the first Giants head coach to lose 10 games since Dan Reeves' final season of 1996. With two more defeats to close the season, New York will have its first 12-game loser since Parcells' first year on the job, in 1983.

The Giants' defense has always been the franchise's foundation, but this year's injury-riddled unit is on pace to surrender 378 points, it's highest total since 1980 and the Ray Perkins era. Can it possibly get uglier than Sunday night's 45-7 loss at New Orleans, New York's worst regular-season loss since a 42-0 drilling at Oakland in 1973?

Despite everything that has happened with the Giants this season, the tone of their season hinged on two plays that cost them two early losses and sent their confidence level reeling. First, there was Matt Bryant's out-of-bounds squib kickoff with 11 seconds left in regulation in Week 2 against the visiting Cowboys, which gave Dallas the chance to tie the game and win in overtime. And then, in a Week 7 home loss to the Eagles, New York led 10-7 until it let Brian Westbrook rumble 84 yards for a punt return touchdown with just 1:16 left to play.

"We lost those two early games that we should have won, and then we started getting injuries, and it was all over,'' a Giants assistant coach said Wednesday. "It's been a tough year. We don't have the team we thought we'd have.''

Fassel has known what was coming for weeks now, but Tuesday he went to Giants owners Wellington Mara, John Mara and Bob Tisch and asked whether his fate had been decided. It had, came the answer, and with that he decided to inform his staff and players of the news Wednesday morning. The team meeting wasn't particularly emotional, said one observer, but the impact of the decision was felt.

"It was hard,'' said a Giants assistant. "Jim kept it pretty factual, but the players know he's going to be a tough guy to replace. The players really respected him. They loved him, because he was fair. And this place has had only two winning coaches leave here in the past 35 years. So they know he can coach.

"It just didn't work out this year. You have one bad year in this league and you can be gone. But we've got a good group of guys. I know they'll keep playing these last two weeks. I'll promise you that.''

It doesn't sound like much. Not for a season that began with such promise.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.