Rex in the City-Putting Our Faith in Coach Rex Ryan

May 4, 2012; Florham Park, NJ, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan addresses media after first day of minicamp at the Jets Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

As a followup to our piece “Life with Mikey“, I wanted to talk about coach Ryan a bit tonight.  He’s an interesting guy, is he not?  I’ll tell you one thing for sure, he certainly stirs the emotions on either side of the pot.

You either love this guy, or hate him, am I right? Does anybody know someone who has indifferent opinions about Rex Ryan? I sure don’t, at least not among football fans.

Even Jets fans debate about this guy. Some love him. Some are getting sick of him. He does say a lot, I won’t give you any argument there. Did his statements last year put added pressure on the team? Maybe. But there is one thing I will tell you for sure. I love Rex. Despite all of the bravado, I love our coach. I have no trouble putting all of my faith in his ability, and firmly believe that he will get us where we all want to be.

First of all, Rex Ryan has come to New York and given the team an identity. You can debate as to whether or not the offense has/needs an identity, but not the team as a whole. The team is going to come after you from the opening whistle to the final gun, and that is the personality of the head coach.

Has Rex put his foot in his mouth? Of course he has, and I think it’s a safe bet that the same will continue to happen. But you know what? I really don’t care. I don’t care because the Jets have never had any swagger before, and now they do. What do you want instead? Eric Mangini? He said nothing to anyone ever, and we know how that worked out. Rich “We were swarming” Kotite? I think not. Go around, there is no one better for this team right now, than coach Ryan, despite everything.

My point there is simply this, that the Jets were always looked at as jokes. Almost like they didn’t belong in the league, that is how they were treated. Not after Rex got here, Rex gave them some attitude. And it has worked.

We cannot forget that it has worked. Even though the guarantees were for Super Bowls, they did get to AFC championship games 2 years in a row, leading one at halftime.

They have become a good road playoff team. No matter what happens, the Jets have not been a push over.

They did go 8-8. We can’t deny that either. But, this doesn’t mean that the message has been lost.

This is killing Rex. He feels major let down, because he let us down last year. This is only going to focus him more.

Yes Rex has to give some thought as to what he does. Don’t we all? Don’t we all constantly work on what we do in order to get better? And get better Rex will.

I have said many times in the past that a lof of what happened last year had to do with execution and I stand by that. It’s much easier to blame coaches, because there are far fewer of them than there are of players. But that shouldn’t make the coaches the only scapegoats.

The Jets will get better. Rex will get better. For those that wonder about his mouth, have faith. The Jets will get there with Rex. I am “all in”, everyone else should be too.