E-Boland & Gang Green

By Ken Berger

The Jets' second consecutive offensive coordinator with four syllables and the word "Heimer" in his last name sat down with the beat writers today, our first chance to get a feel for him and fire questions his way about his offensive philosophy and search for a quarterback.

I like Brian Schottenheimer already, and not just because he's an engaging and quotable interview subject. Such attributes will quickly become irrelevant because I am sure this will be the last time we get to speak with him. Head coach Eric Mangini's access policy will soon take effect, making assistant coaches off-limits to the media.

Schottenheimer is smart, driven, enthusiastic, and from what I hear, extremely tough on his quarterbacks. My guess is he'll have a little Steve Spurrier in him -- he wants to call plays like a quarterback would -- and a little of his father, Marty. When he mentioned the words "ball security," he sounded an awful lot like Paul Hackett.

Don't panic, but Schottenheimer coached tight ends for Hackett at USC in 2000. Today he praised Hackett's attributes as a quarterbacks coach and said he still uses some of Hackett's methods in teaching footwork and other fundamentals of playing quarterback. My impression is that he will be nothing like Hackett as a play-caller. Hackett was too system-oriented. Schottenheimer seems to be player-oriented.

First, Schottenheimer has to find a quarterback to run his quarterback-friendly plays, and according to him, the four-man competition could drag into training camp. Personally, I'd like to see the field narrowed to two by the time training camp starts. Whoever is going to be the starter will need all the reps he can get.

From what I can gather of Schottenheimer's approach, I like the fact that he appears not only willing to give his quarterbacks input, but insistent upon it. While Chad Pennington still has a long way to go in his comeback from another right shoulder surgery, I believe that in a perfect world he can thrive in a system that takes advantage of his ability to read defenses and change plays at the line based on his pre-snap reads.

Despite what Schottenheimer says about his willingness to start a rookie quarterback if he's the best player, I think it would be a terrible career move for a 32-year-old rookie coordinator to place the offense in the hands of a rookie QB. Schottenheimer says he is looking for leadership first from his QB, and I don't think there's any question he will find it in Pennington. To steal a phrase from Pennington, if I'm a betting man, I'm betting on No. 10 to be Schottenheimer's first opening day starter.

This will be a big-time transition year for the Jets' offense, and Schottenheimer deserves the benefit of the doubt going in. When he came here to interview a few months ago, with no prior connection to Mangini, he thought it was just a courtesy interview. But the two hit it off, and now Schottenheimer is in charge of an offense that has a starting tailback, Curtis Martin, older than he is.

I wish him luck.