Tom Coughlin, 08.25.09

Q: What happened to [Aaron] Ross?

A: Hamstring. The poor kid cannot get beyond that. He starts working his way back and he obviously made a sudden move to try to catch back up to a receiver that was going by and…it’s very frustrating because he’s not had a lot of time on the field.

Q: Can you tell anything about the severity of it?

A: Not until they do all the tests.

Q: Is his anywhere near [Chris] Canty’s?

A: When he reported back I thought he could go. He started and he went a couple of days and all of the sudden he said he couldn’t go. These are the frustrating things because on paper – the plan – we don’t have any injuries coming back. I mean, we knew about Canty, we knew about those things, but those people that ended up having issues, we really were not prepared for that because there was no medical anticipation of that kind of a thing. Over the course of his career he’s had mild strains from time to time but nothing like this.

Q: Would you like to come back to Albany for camp?

A: You’re not going to get me into the politics of this. It’s beyond me. We’ve indicated things that we really think are important for coming back. I just talked to President (George) Philip and he’s working hard to resolve all of those. I know Mayor (Jerry) Jennings is doing the same thing. Obviously we’ve had an exceptional weather camp. We missed our conditioning run and that’s all. That hasn’t been the case in other years. As you know, when we do have rain we have no place to go. That was a major issue for me. The weather has been exceptional and the idea of us being all together and being in a camp-type setting – that’s a really positive thing.

Q: From a coaching standpoint, to get a team away…

A: For me, if you’re looking at one thing, to meld us into one somehow, some way. It can be done a lot of different ways. There isn’t just one way of doing it. In a good way.

Q: What are the disadvantages of going away?

A: Well I think you’d have to ask your marketing people and that type of thing. If you do have facilities that can accommodate… You’re still going to be in a hotel, you’re still going to be in "camp-type conditions."

Q: You’ve done it both ways, do you have a preference?

A: I’ve done it both ways, there are plusses and minuses to both. This obviously is not that far from home. That time we were in Wisconsin.

Q: Do you think if they got turf it would help?

A: I’m done guys. I’ve said my peace.

Q: Any update on [Chris] Canty from the doctors yesterday?

A: Nothing of any further information as far as the extent of the injury or that kind of thing. I know they did some other procedures to try to speed the healing.

Q: After practice do you just tell them to take it easy on the way down the thruway?

A: You tell them a lot of things. You review the schedule for tomorrow, you review lunch – which is mandatory, treatment – which is mandatory, University at Albany property, respect for the people, respect for the traffic laws as you’re leaving here, be careful driving down the thruway, that kind of thing. Make sure everyone gets back all in one piece.

Q: With Ross out, how have Kevin Dockery and Terrell Thomas done?

A: They’ve played a lot of snaps and they’ve done well. A lot of good stuff. You watch those two guys practice – they certainly benefited from the amount of snaps and they haven’t backed down a bit. I’m hoping that stays that way. I think you have to reassure – like we did this morning with the players – this is one practice a day now, this is not – we’re not going twice, this is once. I think we can gear up and have good focus and try not to get overly fatigued when we have one a day.

Q: You mentioned yesterday that [Hakeem] Nicks had a good practice. Today he had a few drops and…

A: He came back with a play. That was good to see at the end.

Q: As camp breaks are you satisfied with the amount of work your team got?

A: That’s not a word that I even consider. You’ve got a long way to go and we’ve got our third preseason game coming up fast and so you place a lot of your preparation time on the practice field and then how our guys are going to play in the amount of time depending on the particular circumstances and situations that surround them so we’ve got to – that’s a big part of the evaluation for a lot of guys.

Q: Did they show the focus and the work ethic that you were hoping for?

A: There was a period of time last when it wasn’t as good, wasn’t as focused and it was obvious by virtue of the game that we played. I think we were better this week and we’ll see.

Q: What do you think about the Jets versus the Giants preseason game?

A: What do I think about it? Third preseason game. That’s what it is.