That eruption heard in Spartanburg, S.C., was cheering.

It was a bunch of virtually unknown Panther players rooting for another of their kind, 350-pound Kevin Farkas, who was trying to run his 40-yard sprints under the mandatory time.

One player waved a towel in Farkas’ face. Another used a towel to cool his back. And Farkas made it. His teammates howled into the night.

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Some of the player at Jacksonville say they are treated like they are in high school, said Panther safety Bubba McDowell. Here, they treat you like a man.

They have been publicized as the National Football League’s cute little expansion twins. By joining the league in the same season they will even play each other in their initial games next week the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers are bound together.

Which just about makes them want to throw up.

Although born less than two months apart in the fall of 1994, the league’s two new teams are from different eras.

To look at the Jaguars is to glimpse football’s future. Eighteen-hour days, 12 months a year, veterans running timed sprints in March, coaches studying films on June mornings before the dew disappears.

Coughlin, former offensive whiz with the New York Giants, hired away from Boston College in the winter after the 1993 season, was working that hard last season even when he didn’t have a team.

He studied films during the week, scouted on weekends, and even used his computer to play games between his nonexistent squad and real ones.

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He’s just very intense, without much patience for those who do things other than the way he wants them done, said Steve Beuerlein, Jacksonville quarterback. When that happens, he goes off.

Coughlin has enough rules to fill a Florida tourist brochure, covering everything from the feet to the eyes.

Well, I have this thing about sunglasses, Coughlin said. I just don’t think they look good, period.

So nobody associated with the organization can attend practice wearing sunglasses. Period. Talk about long afternoons in the Sun Belt.

Coughlin also has a thing about hair. Journeyman Andrew Moore’s Mohawk haircut caught Coughlin’s eye at a meeting last spring.

What is that? Coughlin reportedly shouted. Get rid of it.

Moore promptly shaved his headthen was surprised to learn that his hair was not the only thing that had been cut.

Then there was Ferric Collons, former Los Angeles Raider defensive tackle who engaged in three fights during Coughlin’s aggressive spring minicamp workout.

After the last fight, Collons was so upset he threw his opponent’s helmet 40 yards. Coughlin ordered Collons to retrieve the helmet. Collons, deciding that the action would humiliate him, refused.

Coughlin released him on the spot, reportedly saying, Bye, bye, bye.

The next day, seven teams tried to sign Collons before he landed with the Green Bay Packers.

A number of NFL teams commented to me that Coughlin was running a boot camp down there, a stalag, said Angelo Wright, Collons’ agent. You can take guys off the street and beat them up, but can you give away a defensive lineman who was sought by seven teams the next day?

I really feel sorry for those players down there if they go three games and lose all of them.

Coughlin smiles at that kind of talk.

I like to put people in uncomfortable situations, see who can do the job, see who the leaders are, he said. This is all very planned.

But the game seems very different at Carolina. Led in the front office by old football men, Mike McCormack and Bill Polian, the Panthers are a team from yesterday.

From the off-season, unofficial team meetings at a South Carolina sports bar to the laughing on the practice field, these are pros who think like collegians.

The Panthers don’t cut high-strung players, they sign them, hoping that the family atmosphere will change them. Loudmouth cornerback Tim McKyer will be one of the defensive leaders. Troubled running back Barry Foster will lead the offense.

Off-season workouts were casual. Players weren’t afraid to miss a voluntary session to attend a friend’s wedding, unlike the situation in Jacksonville.

Capers wasn’t even hired until after last season, when he made his name by harnessing some of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ most precocious athletes into the league’s best defense.

I like to think that guys at this level have a certain emotional maturity and competitive maturity, Capers said. I coach guys the way I wanted to be coached. Why yell if you don’t need to?