08/02 — Eric Mangini made no excuses for the heat or for his long morning practice in the middle of it. (Did you expect him to?)

"The heat's bothering people, everybody's tired," Mangini said. "But heat, cold, rain noise, whatever it is, we've got to be able to function effectively regardless of the outside conditions."

As for the two-hour, 42-minute length, the coach explained that practice "is scheduled one way and it goes however it goes. I talked to the team again about that. It was scheduled for less time than it was last year, but we're not going to leave the field till it's right."

For the second consecutive practice, a band of Iraq war veterans was in attendance.

"The NYPD has a program called Wounded Warriors. They do a lot of things for our soldiers back from Iraq who were injured there," Mangini said. "Ten soldiers yesterday and seven soldiers today came to visit. It just puts things in such perspective. They're the ones who are dealing with truly difficult things, and you can't appreciate them enough. I'm just so happy they came out to visit. Once again, I can't thank our soldiers enough for what they do for us every day."

Mangini talked about the versatility of a few of his backs. The first time we saw Brad Smith at QB for the Jets was the Philadelphia preseason game last year, when he went in and ran the Jets offense for most of the fourth quarter. At that time Smith said he was just told on the sidelines by Brian Schottenheimer to go in and have fun. Mangini said today there was a little more lead time.

"We really threw him in the game with about 20 minutes of work at the team hotel," the coach said. "We said, 'Hey, Brad, you're going to play quarterback tomorrow.' He drove us back and scored, so we figured if we put more than 20 minutes into it, it might work out."

When Smith first arrived, there was even talk of trying Smith at DB. Mangini was asked about that again today.

"I'm not opposed to it," he said. "We worked some offensive guys on defense last year and just didn't get a chance to showcase their abilities."

As for Darian Barnes, Mangini had a few great descriptions. Barnes at fullback is "a big stick," he said. As for Barnes as a pass catcher: "Yesterday he caught a pass in the flat, turned it up and looked pretty good. In the tackling drill, he's given a few guys icepacks. I think he's a load with the ball in his hands."

Mangini, who for the second practice wore not his black top nor his white top but a green one, also announced the Jets had released Penn State punter Jeremy Kapinos and signed offensive lineman Nick Smith and cornerback Manny Collins. With Kapinos gone, the Jets are back to two kickers, Nugent and Ben Graham.

The Jets' second practice today will start later than usual, at 7:30 p.m., and is closed to the public.