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Coach Tom Coughlin

Q: When did you decide to change the practice for today?

A: Last night. We have a number of people that are playing in a limited fashion and a number of people that are out. I wasn't willing to go ahead and risk having somebody else pull up. So we got a good mental day, it was real good right until the end.

Q: What are your thoughts about playing a football game for the first time at the new stadium?

A: We'll be excited to play, to get a chance to go ahead and play a game and of course being in the new stadium will be an exciting experience in itself.

Q: Corey Webster looked like he was doing some stuff…

A: He did some stuff, Terrell (Thomas) did too. We're just going to have to wait. If you ask me if you have an individual in mind, I'll answer but I'm not going to go down a list of people because there's many people from now until game time that if they improve enough they could play a little bit.

Q: Are there definite outs?

A: There are definite outs.

Q: Snee? Boss?

A: Snee, Boss, Smith, Phillips, Bulluck.

Q: Bulluck is not going to play?

A: No.

Q: One tight end I assume?

A: Well I don't know. We had a little bit of work this afternoon. (Scott) Chandler worked a little bit and we'll see how he is.

Q: Rex Ryan said he's going to play his starters for a quarter and at least a series, if not two, does that affect you at all?

A: No. You asked me earlier in the week and I said we play 15 to 18 plays. Maybe it'll be a quarter. If one team gets to play more than the other guy may play a little bit into the second but that'll be the gage.

Q: Are some of these defensive guys going to get some snaps at tight end if these other guys can't go?

A: We'll see. We have offensive linemen ready to do that. We've also worked a couple guys basically to help us practice. I know everybody including Avis (Roper) has publicized the fact that we have all these multiple tight ends playing. Take a look at the depth and then you know why we're doing it. We have to present something against the defense.

Q: What about Tollefson? Do you think he'll get some time to play during the preseason?

A: He's had some snaps out here but we'll see.

Q: Is there still any concern about the turf at the New Meadowlands Stadium?

A: No. I don't think there should be. We were brought over to go over initial concerns with good detail and I think that's been rectified.

Q: Are you still anxious to see how it plays on Monday?

A: Always.

Q: Are Michael Johnson, Tim Brown, and Mario Manningham out?

A: Mario should play. Hopefully he'll be okay to go. Tim Brown, no, and Michael Johnson – it doesn't look like Michael is going to make it.

Q: What about Osi Umenyiora?

A: Osi will make it.

Q: Did you ever live tackle during training camp?

A: Goal line.

Q: As head coach though, even in Jacksonville, you only have ever live tackled during goal line?

A: There may have been a few snaps but not many.

Q: Do you feel like the guys start out tackling a little bit less well because of that?

A: We do tackling drills all the time. There are two basic fundamental drills that we do. One is turnovers and the other is tackling and we do it all the time. We have four preseason games to tackle.

Q: What do you think of the back and forth between some of your players and some of the Jets players going into the game on Monday?

A: I'm not aware of any of that and I certainly don't encourage that. I don't think it has any place here. What we're doing here in preseason – we're trying to prepare ourselves to play. It's a very very worthy opponent. It will be a good test. Just play and evaluate our people.

Q: There is talk of extending the regular season. How many preseason games do you think are necessary?

A: I'm out of that one. You can just leave me on the sidelines on that one.

Q: How confident are you in your team right now overall?

A: Well we've made progress. We've certainly been set back on offense because of some of these injuries. We've done the best we can to work around those things but I'm not going to tell you we're where we'd like to be. We're basically a multiple tight end team that plays a lot of formations and we've been very limited by that…but we've made some adjustments.

Q: How has training camp gone so far this season?

A: Training camp experience has been a good experience. The weather has been great. We have not had one rain delay or one cause for concern along those lines. Fields have been good. We've had the opportunity to have our team all isolated and to put everybody in the same situation the way in which I like it and it's been good. A good experience.


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