Just a little blurb for the football starved... note the sentence about kendall/mangini talking......... Encore for Eric Mangini, Jets try to top selves - and Patriots - in second year BY RICH CIMINI DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER On his family vacation, Eric Mangini ventured into enemy territory. He spent a blissful week at Cape Cod, soaking up summer's simple pleasures - swimming, ice cream, etc. - in the heart of Patriots country. Even when he gets away, he doesn't get away from that team. Not that he minded kicking back in the land of Belichick. "I was pretty anonymous up there," the Jets' coach said this past week. Mangini likes it that way, but those days could be ending, especially in these parts. His surprisingly successful rookie season, combined with his cameo on the next-to-last episode of "The Sopranos" and last week's announcement that he will serve as a youth-level adviser for USA Football, has turned Mangini, 36, into a budding coaching star. The "Man-genius" reference on the celebrated TV show did wonders for his popularity. "I'm sure that was very funny for my high-school teachers and college professors to hear that," the self-deprecating coach said. Life is good for Mangini, but coaching pedestals in the NFL don't come with lifetime leases. To maintain his standing, and to prove he's not a one-year wonder, Mangini must overcome a new set of challenges in Year Two, which begins Friday with the opening of training camp at Hofstra. After overachieving in 2006, the Jets are widely regarded as a legitimate playoff contender, which means Mangini must deal with the often-dreaded ?E' word - expectations. If not managed properly, it can become a virus that destroys the season. "When we mentioned the playoffs last year, everybody laughed at us," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said recently. "Now we say the playoffs this year, and it's an expectation." That's a credit to Mangini, who needed only one year to restore the organization's pride. Historically, encores are difficult. In the salary-cap era (since 1994), only seven of 50 first-time head coaches produced winning records in their first two seasons. Of those, only three improved in the second year, not counting Barry Switzer, who won 12 games in each of his first two seasons with the Cowboys and captured the Super Bowl in the second year. "The first year, there's a new sheriff in town and the concentration level goes up," said former Giants coach Jim Fassel, who went 10-5-1 in 1997, his first season. "The second year, there's one thing you have to look out for: Guys getting too comfortable. "I don't think that will be a problem for (Mangini)," Fassel continued. "He has a maturity level and a presence about being a coach that a lot of head coaches don't have." On paper, the Jets are better than they were in 2006, with new running back Thomas Jones plugging the biggest hole, but their schedule is more demanding, and what are the odds of remaining relatively injury-free for the second straight year? Indeed, quarterback Chad Pennington played his first full season in '06, coming back from his second shoulder surgery. There's some sentiment in the locker room that it was Pennington's return, not Mangini's arrival, that keyed the team's turnaround. But it would be unfair to dismiss what Mangini accomplished. With no Pro Bowl players on offense or defense, the Jets finished 10-6 and captured a wild-card berth. "When you look at a head coach, you have to ask: Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? That's what I saw last year with the Jets," said former longtime GM Charley Casserly, a CBS analyst who observed the team in a recent minicamp. "(Mangini) has a command of the league. He has the big picture in mind. He has a quiet confidence about him. He's a no-nonsense guy. "Will that translate to more wins? Maybe not," Casserly added. "The schedule is tougher, and people are focused on playing you, but the Jets have themselves a good football coach." Mangini still is enjoying his honeymoon, but he will be graded on a different scale this season. Immediate success increases the pressure the following year, although Mangini isn't a believer in the carryover effect. "You can't gauge a season by what happened the previous season," he said. "The second you do that, you've lost what's important." Mangini spent the better part of the offseason trying to convince his team that 10-6 is ancient history, that it is going to take a greater effort to simply make it back to that point. The players expect another grueling training camp. "I don't think there's going to be a lot of marshmallow roasting and ghost stories," Mangini said. Atop Mangini's agenda is the Pete Kendall situation. The disgruntled guard wants a new contract and is threatening a training-camp holdout, creating a staredown that probably won't be resolved until the 11th hour. Kendall wants his release, but the team may do nothing, forcing him to make a decision. The mandatory fine for holding out is $14,000 a day. Kendall and Mangini talked recently by phone and there seemed to be a slight thaw. "I don't want to characterize (the conversation) beyond that it was professional," Kendall said in a phone interview, claiming he hasn't decided on whether to report. Said Mangini: "I definitely expect him to be at camp with the other veterans." The Jets return 21 of 22 starters, so they have continuity on their side. What they need to do is get stronger in the trenches. A team that ranks 20th in rushing offense and 24th in rushing defense, as the Jets did last season, isn't ready to win a championship. Some players are curious to see if Mangini takes a different approach with regard to his game planss. Last season, the Jets changed schemes week to week based on the opponent, which may have been too mentally taxing at time. In any case, don't expect Mangini to change much. Why should he? After all, as Artie Bucco tells Tony Soprano in his restaurant, "You know who's in tonight? Man-genius." Does the nickname fit? "We'll see," Vilma said. "If you get six or seven Super Bowls in the next six or seven years, that'll fit him pretty well."
Well, Mangini has Jim Fassel's praise. That's all I needed to hear. Can the Jets have their Superbowl rings now please?
I'm glad to hear Mangini spoke with Kendall on the phone... that's good news. Maybe Kendall will soften on his position once he realizes it'll cost him $14,000 a day to sit on his couch and watch Oprah.
I think the Kendall thing will get worked out! I disagree with the reference to the week to week game planing. If belichk can get the best game plan in week to week and plan for different teams then screw the menta taxing abd go with what work's ; Their millionaire's who are supposed to be the best at what they do. so do it!
See, now you're just a trolling little tool. Every post of yours has been a one-line piece of garbage about B. Smith. Why don't you try a more original approach?
