MANGINI : Eric the Great ? ~ ~ ~

Feb. 22, 2006

Eric the Great?

Age won't determine if Mangini is the right fit in New York
By Ron Borges
Feb. 22, 2006

At barely 35, Eric Mangini is too young and inexperienced for the job he has been given. The new head coach of the lowly Jets has heard that before.He didn?t believe it back when he became the 21-year-old head coach of the Kew Colts, an Australian semipro team he led to a local championship while studying abroad.He didn?t believe it when, in four years, he went from being a 23-year-old ballboy with the Browns to an NFL assistant coach.He didn?t believe it when, at 33, he replaced the departing Romeo Crennel as defensive coordinator of the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots last year either.

So why start now?

That?s the attitude the man who replaced Herman Edwards has adopted from the moment he accepted the Jets? five-year, $10 million offer to right their floundering ship. And he drove the point home by not retaining defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson, whose defenses finished seventh and 12th in the NFL the past two seasons.Mangini insisted he will build a defense that mirrors the approach he learned from Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, who are now his rivals, not his friends, in the AFC East, and an offense that will beat them both, eventually.

?I?ve worked with some of the greatest coaching minds in the NFL (including Belichick?s mentor, Bill Parcells),?? Mangini said by way of bolstering his own thin r?sum?, yet he was quick to set the record straight at his first press conference as head of the Jets when he pointed out, ?I called every single play last year (in New England).?? That was just in case anyone thought Belichick was the man behind the curtain.But doubts about young Mangini will not be so easily erased. That can only come with time and success, because he has never been the head coach of anything but a semipro team in Australia, and the one year he was a defensive coordinator, the Patriots finished 26th in the league in total defense.

That doesn?t mean he isn?t up to the task of turning around a troubled franchise, however. It just means there were many more experienced coaches available to fill the Jets? vacancy. So why did owner Woody Johnson choose the untried Mangini? For exactly the same reasons Mangini feels confident in himself ? his list of mentors.Does that mean the quick-thinking Mangini, who was a two-time Academic All-American at Wesleyan University during his days as an undersized small-college defensive lineman, can duplicate the successes of Parcells and Belichick as NFL head coaches? No, it doesn?t. But in a world without guarantees, it?s a start.

?Being compared to Bill Belichick is one of the highest compliments you can be paid,?? Mangini said on his first day in New York. ?But I?m not Bill Belichick. I?m not Bill Parcells. I?m Eric Mangini. I?m going to approach this my way. I?m going to take the experiences and the lessons that I learned from those guys and apply that to my team.??

My team? That?s a start too. When you take over a 4-12 team with an injured quarterback, aging running back and battered offensive line, that?s what you need to do first. You need to find a place to start.?I?ve been a (NFL) coach for 11 years,?? Mangini said. ?I?ve been with three Super Bowl-winning teams. I?ve been with two of the greatest football minds in NFL history. I?ve got an extensive foundation to build the Jets into a Super Bowl-caliber franchise. We are going to build a team that can play anyone, anytime. You can?t be afraid in this league.??

Mangini was not afraid to replace a guy who jumped ship for a better deal and a better team in Kansas City, and Johnson was not afraid to hire an untested kid of 35 with the pedigree he values most ? a direct link to his most hated divisional rivals. So fear is not the issue. Competence is. That will have to be demonstrated over time, but for now, it is enough to have Mangini?s list of references.

?He?s got a strong pedigree,?? Johnson said the day he announced the signing. ?He?s been a major contributor to a very successful organization. But the most important thing is he demonstrated to us a passion for football, a passion for teaching. He knows something about the culture of football that appealed to us.??In other words, he once worked for Bill Belichick, who, to Johnson, is the genius who got away. Belichick, of course, famously quit as the HC of the NYJ one day after taking the J-O-B, a setback the Jets have never totally recovered from nor forgiven Belichick for. Now, Johnson has hired Belichick?s clone, his disciple, his acolyte really. Hired him right from under their noses. If Mangini?s r?sum? appeals to the men he will be trying to lead the next few years as much as it did to Johnson, then his age won?t make a difference in a division that now has the long and the short of it in terms of calendar years after the Bills hired 80-year-old Marv Levy to run their football operations.

In between them towers Bill Belichick and his Patriots ? the measuring stick for both. In the end, he will be a far more formidable problem for them than anything their age restrictions might suggest.

Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Globe.

The above content is featured from our Pro Football Weekly print edition ? Issue 29 ? and has been updated.

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