Here are Mark Sanchez’s remarks to the media from Aug. 4, courtesy of the New York Jets:
On diving into the end ne during the goal-line drill…
I had a touchdown for sure (laughing). (Bart Scott’s) just giving me a hard time. He coached me up on it afterwards, telling me what to (do) – to project myself and obviously go for the endzone as well. It’s good to have guys like that on the team who give you a little razzing here and there and at the same time they’ll help coach you, so it was good.
On if it was fun to go through goal-line, short-yardage situations…
It was cool. Coach Ryan said it best, ‘this is a man’s practice.’ This is short-yardage, this is who wants it more, you pretty much know what the team is going to do, a little trickery there with Kellen (Clemens) pulling the ball at the end, and beating Kerry Rhodes. That was a big-time play and a smart move by Kellen. Most of the time, it’s just ‘run it up in there’ and you may as well point out where we are going, (the defense) knows and everybody ‘dig in’ and let’s go. That was great, to see what our team’s all about and it obviously wasn’t one-sided. That’s important too. Both teams are fighting and we’ll be good in that situation.
On what he hopes to show in Thursday’s Green-White scrimmage…
Just being smart and managing the game (well) and being smart with the ball. Also moving the chains and knowing the situation. In practice everyday, you work on a specific situation. Today, it was short yardage and goal-line, sometimes it’s four-minute offense, two-minute offense, and in the scrimmage, any of those situations (could) pop up at any time. It’s time to put all that practice into play, know what situation it is, and show that by the way you play.
On his growing confidence…
I feel a lot better. This is the third time the plays have been installed. First in OTA, then we had a couple days of practice right before we reported for camp (here) in Cortland and now I’m getting all of these plays for the third time. It’s really starting to sink in, I’m feeling good, I’m asking the right questions, and I’m performing a lot better. It’s good.
On what he does at night…
Sometimes it’s time for playbook stuff and sometimes you just shoot Coach Schotty (Schottenheimer) a text message or coach Cavanaugh a text message, ‘hey, call me back when you get a second’ and you just talk a little one-on-one (on a) play you want to get ironed out, or ‘what’s our read on this, I know we changed the read from yesterday, and you focus on one little thing. Other than that, you just get down and get some sleep. The smart guys, they’re not up playing video games, they’re not up walking around, hanging out, sitting out in the sun, just get down, close the blinds, get under the covers and go to sleep. That’s what I’m trying to do and wake up fresh for the next practice.
On if he’s gone out to do anything fun after practice…
This (practice) is fun. I was telling everybody yesterday that I used to love the fact that camp was around the corner. Come August, you kind of have this time clock and then, when you’re still in school, it’s like, ‘Aw man, we have school in two weeks.’ I wish we could just keep going through camp, and now, you get to just play. You keep playing and there are no classes and it’s all meetings. This is very fun, I wouldn’t want to do anything else.
On if he has caught his “second wind” since the start of camp…
I think a lot of people looked at it as, “Man, we have extra practices.” The rookies had two days of double-days right before we came up, so this past Thursday was our day off. We came up to camp and had two practices already so we got that soreness out. Thursday we were really sore and I got in the ice tubs up here. On Friday we came out (for practice) and I haven’t been sore since. I’m just throwing a lot of balls, but taking care of it after. The training staff is awesome. (Head Trainer) John Mellody, (Assistant Trainer) Josh (Koch) and (Assistant Trainer) Dave (Zuffaleto), they’re great. They give us massages, they put the ice bags on, they use the stim unit it’s everything you want. It’s perfect, they’re giving us extra stretches to do, so I haven’t been sore once. Maybe that’s my youth, maybe it’s that I’m real excited, I have a lot of adrenaline running or something, but I’m feeling good.
On if Bart Scott said he would be sore if Scott tackled him on hi end zone dive…
He said, “Bad career move (laughing),” so obviously I want to go back and look at it on film, but there will hopefully be a situation someday in my career where it’s me or the other guy and I’m betting on me. Whereas Bart Scott or anybody (on defense would bet on themselves) and that’s just the way you have to play it as a quarterback, whether you’re a rookie or not. I think you like that (the intensity), that was one thing (where he can) talk a little smack to me and get after me a little bit, but at the same time I think he kind of admired the fact that, “Hey, this guy’s going for it. Whether he’s young or not, he’s going to take it.” That’s important too, and like I said, it’s great to have Scott to come back to and bounce some ideas off of him. I said, ‘what’s the toughest thing for you to react to in this situation?’ and he gave me a couple pointers, so that was great.
On the bootleg play…
We were supposed to have a delayed leak-out route in the back of the endzone and we didn’t get it, so I just tried to pump-fake and, he’s (Bart Scott) pretty quick, he got under me real fast.
On eating the ball…
I thought I was down to the two-minute mark, so it wouldn’t matter if I threw an incompletion, he was talking to me about the range. If there’s 2:03 left and we have a pass play on and we’re ahead in the fourth quarter, “go ahead and throw an incompletion” since the three seconds are going to (tick off) anyway and the clock is going to stop (for the two-minute warning). If there’s 2:10, 2:15, you might not eat up all that clock and have the clock stop before the two-minute (warning) and give them two timeouts. It’s a fine line right there, he’s (coaching) me tough and that’s what I need. He’s exactly right.
On how he felt during the seven-on-seven period…
I felt good. I felt, ‘right on.’ I was delivering the ball well, the guys were running the right routes, and it shows that the chemistry is getting better and better and things are improving. Wallace Wright – still my guy (laughing). He was doing well again, he’s all over the place. I think all the quarterbacks – (Kellen) Clemens, (Erik) Ainge, (Chris) Pizzotti – all of us, checked the ball down really well today and gave Danny (Woodhead) and Leon (Washington) and those guys a chance to run after the catch, where you can really make some big yards. That’s where you improve your completion percentage, so it was good.
