Transcript of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's Thursday late-morning news conference:
Come on. Nobody wants to be here today [laughter]. That was our last public practice, so-to-speak. No one is going to show up to special teams. I don't blame you [laughter]. I think camp was great here. We talked about it. It exceeded our expectations as far as the people here in this community. They have been tremendous to us. I liked the support of the fans. I couldn't be happier with the way everything was here in Cortland. It was absolutely top-notch.
With that said, [Sione] Pouha got rolled up on in a 9-on-7 drill today. I think he's going to be OK, but I'm no doctor. The doctors will look at him and X-ray him. It's just more of an ankle-type thing. I think he's going to be fine.
Our guys are itching to go. [Alan] Faneca, [Damien] Woody you know they're all wanting to play I think but we've got to be smart there so, I don't anticipate them playing Monday night, but I thought Faneca for sure was out, but he wants to play. I think we will probably be cautious there. [Darrelle] Revis, I think he won't play on Monday, but he's doing well. He put himself in a couple of team snaps he wasn't supposed to be in. That was good. You can tell that these guys want to get back. Again, we're going to be more cautious than we would if this was a regular season game.
On if Revis was supposed to be participating in the first 11-on-11 drills…
No. That wasn't our plan to have him in there. Then all of a sudden he's in there and it's like, "someone get Revis out of there." It was one of those types of deals.
On who noticed that Revis was participating in the first 11-on-11 drills…
D.T. [defensive backs coach Dennis Thurman], I think. That was him pronouncing himself ready to go. Then it's like "Get out of there." But that's good. I mean, these guys want to come back. It's not like they're trying to get out of anything. They're ready to play. They want to play. We've just got to be smart. We can't have a foolish setback.
On what memories it evoked when he saw the Division III Cortland football team take the field Wednesday…
See, I was a Division I NAIA player. I think that's Division II now. You know, I was a big scholarship athlete [laughing]. This is a non-scholarship team. I understand they do really well in all the sports, so that's good. I still think that we can beat them [laughter]. I did look out there and I was laughing during the 1-on-1 drills. Not quite as much speed over there as you see on our field [laughing]. But there are some good players out there. ... "Ryan rips SUNY Cortland for lack of speed." [laughter]
On the Cortland coach knowing who their starting QB is going to be and what he thinks of his philosophy…
That's probably the ideal situation. That's good.
On Mark Sanchez's practice today…
The situation was the last play of the game, Sanchez made two great throws for touchdowns. The last play of the game, you've got to have it, win or lose. He had to scramble on both of them, found an open guy, showed good vision downfield and then threaded the needle. They were to Brad Smith. That was impressive, too.
On improvements that he's seen from the team as a whole…
I like the way the guys are around each other. The way they practice against each other. The communication has been good as well as the bonding. All that stuff has been important. That's one of the reasons we came here. That's been a big thing that I've seen. Obviously, there have been some players that have stepped up and improved their stock on this football team. I just like the overall attitude of our team.
On guys that have stepped up…
[Jamaal] Westerman is doing a great job as a pass rusher where now you might consider with our situation that he might be in a nickel situation for us. He's trying to make our team. Maybe that gives him a better shot of making our team. We picked up some guys late in camp as our scouts have been looking at them. We picked up this linebacker Josh [Mauga]. He looks like he's got a shot. That's been good.
I like the communication on the offensive line. We have very few times we're going to have a free runner. With our protections, everybody seems to be on the same page. Sometimes we'll have a free runner if there are five guys coming off one side. For the most part, the protection has been pretty good. I think the defense's communication with each other has been much better. They're getting to know each other, expectations for each other. I think it's going well.
On if Sanchez has exceeded his expectations during camp…
It's yes and no because it's yes in the fact that when you look at our offense and how much we have in our offensive playbook, the verbiage. Everybody exceeds my expectations with that because I'm like "oh my goodness." That's when you look at it "Alright I got you. Go for it guys." There's no way. I need to be playing defense, but they have a great grasp of it. With Kellen [Clemens], it's ridiculous his grasp. He knows where it all goes with the motions, the shifts and can get everybody lined up. Sanchez knows what he's doing. He knows the routes. He knows all that. I'm not so sure he knows the blocking patterns. I would say he's way ahead there. He gives himself a chance to be physical.
In other words, let his physical talents and abilities show because he knows what he's doing. If you don't know, you've got no chance. You can be the most aggressive guy in the world and if you don't know what you're doing, you're going to look soft. I think the coaches have done a good job getting our guys ready. We've got three games in two weeks it seems like so that will definitely be a challenge to us as well.
On if the King Ugly contest has been determined…
No, no. I gave you the wrong date. Tonight will be the deadline. The rookie show, King Ugly, and we're going to play Jeopardy also, so it's a packed schedule tonight.
On speaking with a SUNY Cortland student who was inspired to go into coaching after hearing him speak at a clinic…
I'll tell you that is a great feeling because you put a lot into those things. You try to give back to the coaching community when you go do those clinics. I always try to prepare and do a good job at those. In fact, I got my job with Brian Billick because he saw me speak at two different clinics. That's something that I would definitely try to prepare for. Anytime I spoke at one of those clinics I wanted everyone to come back with at least something they could possibly use. He [a SUNY Cortland student] was rattling off things that we do so he really studied it, and I wish him the best. That is kind of neat when you can have an impact like that.
On going from defensive coordinator to head coach…
They always say until you go through it, you think you understand, but you really don't understand the other commitments that you do have, but it's a great thing. You prepare all your life for it, so these decisions that you're making, all that experience you've had being around great coaches, which I have, it makes it much easier.
It's still kind of fun to get down there and even calling the defenses during the preseason game. I haven't called one defense out here on the practice field, but I called a quarter in the preseason game. I'm kind of looking forward to that a little bit, getting away from training camp and focusing more on the defense as well. I'm kind of a head coach/coordinator and I told Mike Pettine he's kind of the same thing also. I'm going to lean on him as well, and [Bill] Callahan can put that on there as slash head coach. So can Schotty [Brian Schottenheimer]. So can Mike Westhoff. It's a collective effort, so that's a good thing. It is funny. I even asked [Steve] Spagnuolo if he was calling the defenses and he said no because there are so many administrative things.
I have a tough time doing that. You work all your life to get to this spot. One of the reasons you get here is because you're probably pretty decent at what you do and to just turn it completely over and then if it doesn't go right, you have somebody else to blame instead of just putting it on yourself. If our defense doesn't do well, then that's going to be a reflection on me. Of course if our team doesn't do well, it's a reflection on me also, but I can handle it. I think we'll be successful in all aspects of our team, not just based on me but on the players we have and the coaches we have and our support staff. It's hard for me to imagine us not being successful.
On holding future training camps in Cortland…
I would like more training camps here because I have a tough time believing that wherever we go is going to be much better than Cortland. Our time has been outstanding here. I know sometimes with the particulars, whether it's the financials or whatever, there's a lot more that goes in to it than my opinion, but my opinion is certainly that we accomplished everything we wanted to here and we had the facilities to do it. We had great support from the people of Cortland and I just think it was a great place to have camp.
On if Kellen Clemens wins the starting quarterback job and then begins to struggle…
If Kellen wins the job then obviously we think at that time he's the right guy for the job. You treat him like any other starting quarterback in the league. I'm not a guy who says, "well, you're a starter, that's it, I'm not going to yank you out of a game." That's not true. I can yank a defensive tackle out of a game or yank a corner out of the game. It would be just like any other position.
On how he weighs games vs. practices in deciding the starting quarterback…
I think you have to look at everything. I really do. There are things that you see on the field from a leadership standpoint. Even in the drills that we do, you talk about the last play of the game. That's pressure as well, putting our guys in different situations. I really think that at the end of the day, we're going to make the right decision for us. There are other decisions and other competitions like that throughout the team. There are guys in competition just to make the team and some competitions for starting positions. We'll weigh everything and make the right decisions on all those aspects.
