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FOXBORO - One way or another, it always comes back to Bill Parcells.

The Tuna, the head coach and larger-than-life figure who engineered the Patriots' franchise from pretender to contender during his coaching tenure from 1993-96, has made several more stops along the NFL highway since departing Foxboro to "shop for the groceries," as he put it - the Jets and Cowboys as a coach, and now with the Miami Dolphins as executive vice president of football operations.

Now, although he rarely steps into the spotlight - as seemed to be common practice during his other positions - there's no denying that Parcells has rebuilt the defending AFC East champions in a recognizable way, and using an unmistakable mold.

"I think this has Bill Parcells stamped all over it, there's no question about it,' Patriots'

coach (and former Parcells disciple) Bill Belichick said Wednesday. "I think everything that Bill believes in is evident to this team." The Dolphins will be in Foxboro Sunday (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12), and clearly, they are following a similar path to success as other Tuna-led teams.

As Belichick said Wednesday, there is a Parcells blueprint, dating back to his days as head coach of the New York Giants (1983-90), that has been followed in each of his subsequent reclamation efforts - efforts that got the Patriots to a Super Bowl and the Jets to the cusp.

"All the defensive linemen are all strong," Belichick said. "All the linebackers are big. All the outside linebackers can rush. All the corners are big. The running backs are big. The tackles are big. They are a big, powerful team. I'm sure that's the way Tony (Sparano, head coach) wants it. That's the way Bill wants it. That's the way Jeff (Ireland, general manager) wants it."

As a part of the staff that engineered the Giants' success, a trusted collaborator in the building of the 1996 Patriots that lost to the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI and the right-hand man in the rebuilding of the Jets, Belichick is uniquely qualified to know how Parcells would take that blueprint and continue to use it successfully.

"The Giants, New England, Dallas, Miami, the Jets - some of them are the same guys or the same type of guys," Belichick said. "It's worked for him every place he's been. There's no way he's going to change and there's no way he should change it."

As a part of that, Parcells has managed to take members of his coaching staffs and other executives with him from stop to stop.

"He hired Sparano, who was with him in Dallas," Belichick said. "(Paul) Pasqualoni was with him in Dallas. (Dan) Henning, they've been together since '72 at Florida State and a lot of other coaches on that staff, too you can go right down the line. A lot of those guys have connections to Bill. Jeff Ireland was with him in terms of personnel, so players they bring in are all the kind of players he likes.

"He does it in a hurry, too," Belichick added. "He gets somewhere and pretty soon they're competitive and he gets the team shaped up the way he wants it to look. I know he's always working it and trying to get it better, working the bottom half of the roster as much as the top half of the roster. He brings in guys for reasons - roles. And that's what they do and he does a great job of it."

Even Tom Brady, whose only exposure to Parcells has been as a player wearing the other uniform, has noticed the similarities.

"Coach alluded to it this morning, it's a very Bill Parcells type of team that he's built as general manager," Brady said. "They're all big. They're all physical. They're all tough. They're very stout in short-yardage situations, good in the red area. "We weren't very good in the red area against them last year," Brady added, alluding to the 38-13 loss to Miami in the first of last year's two meetings, the one in which the Dolphins unveiled the "Wildcat" offense to the world. "We were 4-of-8. So they have their strengths and I think we've got to understand ways that we need to try to attack them, the ways we need to try to go out and execute well so we can hopefully produce points."

Say what you want about the relationship between Parcells and Belichick and the path it has taken since the latter refused to succeed the former as head coach of the New York Jets. The respect and admiration remains intact, especially since both are committed to making their teams the best they can be.

"I don't think you could do much better than he's done in his coaching career or general manager career, whatever you want to call it," Belichick said.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.