Mangini Takes the Press to School
Yesterday, Eric Mangini gave the beat writers to a special treat. He taught them about football. What we would have given to be in that room!
For over three hours, Mangini detailed basic offensive and defensive formations and the associated Jets terminology and gave them specific examples of where Jets players showed good decisions or technique, along with the opposite. This from Cimini’s post on the Daily News Site.
I’m sure you’re wondering if I was able to glean any information about the team and its personnel and his thoughts about the upcoming season. Well, he spoke glowingly of CB Darrelle Revis, showing a clip where he neutralized Cowboys WR Terrell Owens on a particular route. He praised LB David Harris for his smarts, being able to make the defensive checks as a rookie. He showed a clip where LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson and new LG Alan Faneca worked in lockstep on a particular pass play in practice, foiling a “game” by two pass rushers. He gushed about LB Eric Barton’s smarts, showing a clip from the Dallas game where Barton sacked Tony Romo on an instinctive blitz in which Barton made a great read.
What about the quarterback competition? Mangini didn’t give away much there, although I couldn’t help but notice that Kellen Clemens missed a wide-open receiver in a minicamp practice. Explaining a defensive breakdown on a “bunch” formation, Mangini noted how the defense left a receiver all alone in the middle of the field, about 12 yards from the QB. Clemens apparently didn’t see him and threw somewhere else for an incompletion. He also showed a bunch of clips where Chad Pennington alertly spotted an uncovered receiver at the line of scrimmage, called a quick-snap and fired quickly to him. That’s called “Smoke,” in case you’re wondering. I don’t think Mangini was making a statement about his quarterbacks, but I found it interesting.
Here’s two notes to the beat writers. First, Mangini values the gritty detail of football far more than the tabloid appeal, second he’s trying to tell you something. If he’s taking the time to talk with you for over three hours about some of the smallest parts of the game, thereby giving you a better appreciation for it (and maybe get you to ask better questions in pressers) it’s clear that there are topics on which he’ll give you more than roundabout generalizations. Hell, we readers have known this since 2006, why has it taken some of you this long to figure it out?
So, we know that although there are questions that you as journalists have to ask, try to cover some new ground too … if you engage him with more strategy talk, he’ll give you a lot more information in return and you’ll make your readers more educated and they will thank you for it.
[Daily News - Rich Cimini]
[Newsday - Erik Boland]
33 Responses to Mangini Takes the Press to School
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Johnny Styne says:
Did Mangini put the weight back on? (10-7 fat, 4-12 not so fat) –
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BubbyBrister/shovelpass says:
Leave it to “Mr. Negative”, Rich Cimini, to take issue with a coach who is trying to share more than the obligatory answer to “who’s the starting QB, Eric?” And…” what kind of guy is so-and-so?” (answer: he has to be tough, smart, athletic, and love to play football). What a knuckle-head !
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j says:
There is no comparison between the 2 QB’s Chad is so much better in terms of managing the game, too bad he does not have the arm of KC.
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Harvlis says:
Now that Mangini has taught the media about the game of football, we should all expect insightful Jet columns in our local newspapers. Yeah, right.
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JustAGreenGuy says:
Harvlis I had three seconds of hope that insightful coverage might come and then remembered wait teh NY media can make anything a story. No chance
I wish I could have glanced through that play book tho.
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I was excited to read these two post because it actually had to do with football for once, rather than the circus surrounding it (like the Baker situation, how much the team spent, etc.). It was refreshing, and certainly, more of the same is always welcome!
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Reprocity says:
I actually got to look through the Giants D playbook a coupple of years ago and let me tell you it’s like a god dam phone book. To think of how much film you would have to watch to reverse engineer that play book, would take YEARS!!! I’m talking a 3 ring binder with over 20 tabs!
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Pete57 says:
I hope this is a sign of things to come for Mangini. His responses to the press are so dry and repetitive, it would be nice to see him be more comfortable and show his personality a little more.
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steviek says:
it goes to show that beat writers dont see their job as understanding x’s & o’s. they never can get to that level of knowledge and their editors know a big majority of readers don’t care or understand.
if their job is to get people interested, it’s who should go, the politics and personalities.
its just kind of funny that its also their job to question game day strategy, but the reporters i can read and respect have a feel they are out of their depth and don’t pretend otherwise. guess that’s why it’s a little ridiculous to read the post or the news’s coverage. -
pete,
if the press keeps asking about who’s the QB, whether Coles’ ankle is OK, etc. he’s going to continue to give the same dry answers … if they ask him about why they used zero coverage in a specific situation, they might get better soundbites.
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Read Jerry Recco’s take on the lesson
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Harlan Lachman says:
Kewpie to steviek! That is the entire point. Inasmuch as the NY sports media are as ignorant as most fans and have no desire to change that, all they can do is focus on Baker’s whining, who is the QB, personalties, etc. Great catch on the fact that they are content with their ignorance.
Anyone old enough (but not senile enough) to remember Dr. Z writing for the post knows there is another option. It is very depressing to realize how far away today’s mediots are from that.
harlan
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SackDance99 says:
I think Mangini is a great, not just good, but great tactical coach. Last season’s Steeler game was just a masterpiece and I thought that, with just a few exceptions (like the Dallas game), the team had a game plan to win, but the execution stunk. With the talent upgrade on both lines, Mangini should have the ability to come up with great game plans. I just hope the QB that starts can execute the offensive game plan.
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Great game planning. Great tactics and schemes. Good coach.
Not soo good of a motivator and gets a little too cute sometimes.
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RK says:
Mangini is a motivator in that he keeps the players focused and interested. He also keeps things fresh and uses outside personalities and film to rev the team up (Teddy Atlas, Boxing matches, etc.). The personalities they choose also brings it’s own motivation in that it is a team of over achievers and hard workers that can motivate themselves first so he doesn’t have to channel Knute Rockne.
If you think he’s cute you should buy his stuffed plush doll. Wasn’t he called the penguin for a while? What happened with that?
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Bent says: Come on…the Dallas game? That was his best gameplan of the year. When they ran the no-man front on third and long, the Cowboys were totally confused and forced to punt twice. Trouble is, they only got them into third and long twice the whole game because they were over-matched personnel-wise. Arguably this wasn’t his fault.
A few more opportunities to use that and the Jets might have stayed in the game long enough to make it interesting. Just needed a timely holding penalty here, Dallas taking a shot downfield and failing there. On any other day that would have happened, so they were slightly unlucky.
It may have ended up 34-3, but take away TO’s late running up the score TD, Chatham’s inept coverage on Witten and KC’s pick six where he threw the out but telegraphed it and you’ve got yourself another competitive game like nearly all of the other Jets losses last year.
Optimism? Sure, why not?
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ramble914 says:
Najy,
IMO, any coach who can get his 3-12 team to play as hard as Mangini’s did against Kansas City in the last game of the season is at least a good motivator. Again IMO, the Jets palyed hard in every game last year. I did not see one instance where any player quit at any point.
If that’s not a good motivator then I don’t know what is.
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Bent, I know you’re joking, but against Dallas, the Jets had no offensive gameplan. Against the Steelers, the defense got all the press for the 7 sacks of Big Ben, but the flea flicker helped get an early lead and TJ ran for 117 yards, the first 100-yard rusher since 2005, against the vaunted Steeler defense. The Steeler game was a masterpiece on both sides of the ball (and Leon had some great returns, too). The Dallas game plan…c’mon, the Jets were embarassed.
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I dont know… I guess they seemed dead after half time. Teams were notorious for having 7-8 minute drives on us to open of the half.
Also, he needs to light a fire under his ass and show some emotion. I think there was 1 time after a game were we got the crap kicked out of us and he was pissed in the press conference…
And I qoute…”Im tired of giving the same speeches every week. Im tired of giving the same excuses. Its just not good enough. The performance is just not good enough and there will be a reevaluation of the entire roster.”
I dont know.. what do you guys think? Dont you think he should show more emotion on the field????? Like a Bill Cowher…
Mangini should have been all over Adrian Clarke last year after he let up that sack in New England.
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Bent says:
I was joking, but my point was that even in that worst game of the year, there was some signs of innovation.
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Najy, I would love to see the team react to Mangini gets an unsportsmen like penalty for getting pissed off at the Ref. I remember Parcells getting one. A little off topic but I remember Brian Cox yelling at Vinny one time on the side line when Parcells benched him for a series and Cox was like “We aint going down with no back up quarter back!!!!!!” That’s the type of fire we need!
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Najy,
Every coach is different. You never see Parcells or Bellichek fly off the handle on the side lines. Mangini is a deciple of those two coaches. However, you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. I am sure he rips anyone who deserves it, a new assh_ole. Let’s see what happens in his third year.
One thing I always notice is that for all of Lavernous Coles’s critizism of Mangini, he plays his ass off every game.
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Brandon "You're With Me"riweather says:
Hey Bassett,
If there is a video of this session anywhere, it would be an awesome post. maybe those sny connections can come in handy?
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Ramble, You dont remember Parcells flying off the handle? That dude lost it on a coupple of occasions. My favorite coach flip out of all time was just before instant replay came back Bill Cowher stuffed a photo in the refs pocket because the ref wouldnt look at it, showing only eleven men on the field during during a last second field goal against san diego in which pitt was called for twelve men on the field.
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on the subject of mangini’s coaching ability, I completely agree with sackdance’s take on mangine being great in the tactical aspect of the game. And as far as the motivation part, i remember in 2006 players talking about how they had never been more prepared for games, and that in itself was a motivator.
I’ll take that type of coach over the “rah rah” speech guy any day.
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sjfalcon2001 says:
I’m glad Mangini doesn’t make a fool of himself on the sidelines or in the pressers after it. Parcells was legendary for his Presser outbursts and they were always fun, but Mangini’s other coaching mentor was Belichick who never gave anything away and always gave things in a deadpan voice. Mangini is more personable than Belichick and less animated than Parcells, but there is a common denominator between the three, they all have their teams prepared, even if they lose, and they never quit on their coach.
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J. says:
Najy: What do you want, “New York Jets Go Rolling Along”? This is the NFL. Everybody’s motivated. They beat Kansas City to the detriment of draft position. They want to win. I want a coach who has them adequately prepared. Except for Joe Namath, there are no guarantees but Mangini has certainly given us reason to think he can be successful. Unfortunately, this town is not known for its patience. Success better come soon.
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Glenn212 says:
That rah-rah coach stuff doesn’t work in the NFL. what players`want (besides money) is a prepared coaching staff. The one thing you can NEVER say is this Jets staff is unprepared..ever! You can disagree with a play call or a decision..thats the beauty of being a sports fan, but from my view the NY Jets are a well coached team and they always play hard and never has anyone brougt up “clock mangagement issues with this staff..I’m tellin you Mangini is going to be a excellent pro coach for a long time and I’m glad he is coaching our team.
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Football is an emotianal game… I jsut think you cant shew your gum on the sideline all game and you gotta get in peoples faces sometimes…
And please, the game against Kansas City was a battle of who was worse… It was an overtime win against a horrible team…
Bill Parcells did it all the time.,, he even use to call out certain players in press conference if he wasnt happy with them…
I am not sayin I want Mangini to be like a Tom Coughlin, who loooks like an idiot and gets mad at the wrong time, but I think it would be appropriate to have a coach who shows emotion when necessary…
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You don’t go up to a full grown man and embarrass him in front of 80,000 fans and a couple million people. You think that wil motivate him? Would it motivate you? That chewing out is for locker rooms and meetings not on the sidelines..It almost cost Coughlin his job two years ago and he stopped doing it didn’t he? This is not high school where too many coaches are screaming all the time..it’s idiotic..if a player continues not to perform it’scalled “released or cut”.
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Glenn212,
I take it that you didnt read my last paragraph????
Read it the last paragraph in my last post and then reply back…
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Najy,
Okay I see..I don’t think Mangini being or having any emotional outbursts on the sideline makes a difference..We have no idea what goes on the night before or right before the game. The one thing these Jets under Mangini ALWAYS do is play very hard..no one can deny that FACT. I have coached HS football for close to 30 years with quite a bit of success and I was never big on the emotional outburst thing and I think my players appriciated it a lot.
If that was Herman I mean Harmful Edwards. He probably would have given the press a 3hr soundbite on “how to win the game”. In hindsight getting Mangini was the best decision the FO has made since getting Parcells.