Mangini?s World Starts New Each Day By KAREN CROUSE Published: September 10, 2006 NASHVILLE, Sept. 9 ? Do not ask Eric Mangini, the Jets? first-year coach, for any predictions for the 2006 season. The projected records and predicted finishes that pass for reporting this time of year mean nothing to him. The 35-year-old Mangini treats them about as seriously as he would the latest alien abduction story in a supermarket tabloid. Mangini did not become the youngest head coach in the N.F.L. by planning too far ahead. From his days as a low-level assistant for the Browns in 1995, he has lived in the moment. His philosophy can be summed up in a line from the Kris Kristofferson song ?Help Me Make It Through the Night?: ?Yesterday is dead and gone and tomorrow?s out of sight.? Before the Jets can earn respect or a postseason berth, they have to play the Tennessee Titans in their season opener Sunday at LP Field. So that is where their focus will begin and end. Let the fans wring their hands over last season?s opening-day debacle at Kansas City or whine about when the franchise will join the ranks of contenders instead of the cursed. In any discussion of the Jets, Mangini regards things like the team?s 4-12 record last season as a non sequitur. ?None of that really matters,? Mangini said, adding, ?All that matters right now is Tennessee.? If only it were that straightforward. Since being crowned Super Bowl champions at the end of the 1968 season, the Jets have appeared in two American Football Conference title games. In Mangini?s lifetime, the franchise has won two division titles and endured 17 losing seasons. Sometime during the lean decades, a can?t-do culture took root. When Herman Edwards became the coach in 2001, he tried to transform the culture by changing the team?s mind-set. Instead of setting low expectations so as not to let anyone down, Edwards talked up his team?s potential, making the Super Bowl a stated goal. Mangini, who won three Super Bowl rings as an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England, brings a poker face to the table. He may like his hand, but his enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that he cannot control the cards that others are holding. Besides, Mangini has seen firsthand the folly of trying to forecast N.F.L. fortunes. Not much was expected of the 2001 Patriots, who added 24 new players after finishing last in the A.F.C. East for a second season in a row. After starting 1-3, they won the Super Bowl. Mangini said what he learned at Belichick?s knee was this: ?All that matters is that day, that meeting, that practice. When you start stringing those things together, the progress and the success comes.? The grease board was made for coaches like Mangini, for whom nothing is written in indelible ink. He chooses to list his players alphabetically on the depth chart, the better to drive home the point that nobody?s destiny is fixed. The underused player this week ? running back Cedric Houston, for example ? could be the workhorse next week. Injuries can recast a depth chart, as the Jets discovered last season when they finished with a dozen players on the injured reserve list. But so can initiative. Every week is a new opportunity for a player to make an impression. The snapshots of this season will reflect the digital era, with images constantly being erased to make room for new ones. Focusing on the moment means that the rookie left tackle D?Brickashaw Ferguson can forget about the three false starts he made during the preseason and play in a way that validates the Jets? decision to take him with the fourth overall pick. It allows defensive end Bryan Thomas to forget the boos that greeted him when he was drafted in 2002, and the negative commentary that has dogged him since, and distinguish himself at outside linebacker in the new 3-4 defense. It makes it possible to forget that the injured running back Curtis Martin is not in the Jets? starting backfield for the first time in nine seasons, leaving a hole that will take four running backs ? Derrick Blaylock, Kevan Barlow, Leon Washington and Houston ? to fill. It enables quarterback Chad Pennington to forget his six fumbles in the Jets? 27-7 loss at Kansas City last season in circumstances that will be similar to this year?s opener ? a road game, the debut of an offensive system and his first regular-season start after shoulder surgery. Progress is a sensible, if not sexy, goal for a Jets team that is unveiling a new coaching staff, a new offense, a new defense and 22 new players. Mangini said: ?My goal is simply to make progress each week and to improve on the things that we did the previous week. To me that?s the important thing, to constantly be taking steps forward.?
Hard to argue with his philosophy. Taking everything one step at a time is the only way to get a thousand steps in a row right, and the fastest way to retrace and fix things when you miss one.
The comparison to the '01 Pats season is a good one. I clearly remember the talk surrounding that team being as being negative and hopeless. In fact, one of the "experts" claimed that it would probably be Belicheks last year just one month into the season! The NFL is designed to let every team compete at a high level. That may not guarantee success, but it certainly levels the playing field. Commitment, and desire are equally as important as talent. Mangini's formula may just carry this team further than most of us expect.
