HOLMGREN AND CAPERS USE DIFFERENT FORMULAS : NFC CHAMPIONSHIP CAROLINA AT GREEN BAY.

Byline: Dave Goldberg Associated Press

Dom Capers and Mike Holmgren are different, but in style more than substance.

``Dom's a good friend,'' Holmgren said. ``We do things in different ways with different styles, but the bottom line is that we both want to win.''

The substance is winning, the style is personal - from the professorial Marv Levy to the earthy Barry Switzer and the blue-collar Bill Parcells, who grew up in a white-collar family but projects the image of a New Jersey truck driver.

So it is with Capers and Holmgren, who fall somewhere in between.

Capers, who will lead the Carolina Panthers into Lambeau Field today to play Holmgren's Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game, is known for his defensive innovations - like the zone blitz, current fad among NFL defensive coaches. He was Bill Cowher's defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, a defensive coach under a defensive-minded leader. Holmgren is offense. He was a Bill Walsh protege at San Francisco, a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator who grew up in an offensive-oriented system.

Capers sleeps in his office at Charlotte's Ericsson Stadium three nights a week (Joe Gibbs school of intensity). Holmgren always goes home (laid-back San Francisco although he has the same fire inside). ``He's as intense as any coach I've seen,'' said Lee Remmel, the Packers' public relations director, who goes back to Vince Lombardi. ``It just doesn't show all the time.''

Capers is a statistics freak, who knows where every drive started - the 28-yard line and not the 27, and that makes a difference. Holmgren rarely has that kind of thing in his head; he knows the score and that's all that matters.

``Coaches are all different and all the same. I've gotten along with most, and some, like Buddy (Ryan), haven't gotten along with me,'' said Steve Beuerlein, Carolina's backup quarterback.

``The best? I'd say Dom (Capers) and Jimmy (Johnson). Dom's obsessed with football, the way Jimmy was, with being as perfect as can be. You know how Jimmy wants every hair in place? Dom's clothes are never wrinkled. They're both organized and focused. They know what they want.''

Holmgren's never been accused of wanting every hair in place and he often seems to look rumpled. With his bushy brown mustache, he resembles Craig Stadler, golf's ``Walrus,'' although at 6-foot-5, he's taller and svelter.

And he's more casual California. He once played in a rock band, and last year led his team into Texas Stadium for the NFC title game riding a motorcycle.

But beneath that casual demeanor is a rock.

In his first season, when some of the Packers complained after a loss to the New York Giants that they had been done in by the officials, Holmgren snapped at his team: ``Shut up. You lost, and the way you played you deserved to lose.''

Almost everyone's gone now from that 1992 squad. All-Pro safety LeRoy Butler and kicker Chris Jacke are the only players Holmgren inherited who remain with the team.

But Holmgren arrived at the same time as a number of current starters, led by Brett Favre, who was obtained in a trade with Atlanta. The others include center Frank Winters, tight end Mark Chmura, linebacker George Koonce and running back Edgar Bennett.

Favre is linked to Holmgren because of the coach's expertise with quarterbacks.

Time: Sunday, 9:30 a.m.

Television: Channel 11

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CAPTION(S):

Box, Photo

Photo: Green Bay Packers fans are expected to be out in full force at Lambeau Field today.

Associated Press

Box: NFC Championship (see text)