07/24 — The unofficial time was 1:54:30. That's as in 1 hour, 54 minutes and 30 seconds. That's as in the length of this morning's first full-squad practice of training camp, from start of stretching to breakup of practice-ending huddle.

As Eric Allen detailed in last week's report on head coach Eric Mangini's classroom session and news conference with reporters, Mangini talked of scaling back this year's camp practices to two hours or less. And despite a wet, cool day that might have encouraged another coach to squeeze in a few extra minutes of work, Mangini stuck with the plan.

"I wasn't running for Mr. Popularity, but I thought it would be effective," the coach said during his recently concluded morning news conference about running shorter practices. "I think the important thing for us to understand, and I keep talking about it, is tempo and finish. We've got to be able to get things done in a more concentrated amount of time. If not, there's only one thing you can add to it, and that's time."

This was the 53rd camp practice in Mangini's three seasons as Jets head coach and it was easily the shortest and in fact was the first ever under two hours. And the players' initial review was favorable, if reserved.

"He's throwing us a bone," said wideout Laveranues Coles, "and we don't want to make him upset. So right now I'm excited about it."

"It's a good start," safety Kerry Rhodes said. "When it gets hotter and we start making a few more mistakes and he gets a little bit more irritated, we'll see how it goes. But he's giving us a chance to do it, so that's a start. He won a few more people over today."

But center Nick Mangold was taking a longer view. "We will see. TBD," he said. To be determined.

Mangini touched on a number of subjects in his opening news conference of camp, and we'll bring you stories on several of the major topics. I'll have a story on the first day of the latest quarterback competition, Allen will report on tight end Chris Baker's toned-down news conference and Stephen Haynes will have a Radar entry on the ins and outs of the morning practice.

For now, here are a few more Coach points from his lidlifter.

On Baker's possible return from the active-PUP list: "You never know the timetable, but my expectation is that it'll be sooner rather than later."

On Coles: "LC is a great dude. We've got to make him an assistant coach here soon. I really like the work he's doing with the receivers. You see him all the time pulling guys over and showing them stuff. The same in the room. And he's doing a lot of work with coverages. Now it's not just 'What am I doing and why?' It's a deeper level of why. He's been working on that and I've been happy."

On NT Kris Jenkins: "The way he worked in the off-season, you can see his condition, how he's shaped his body. I think he's in really good shape. He was strong to start out with and I think he's gotten stronger. He was pretty enthusiastic to get going."

On Jenkins' 360-pound size fitting in well in the Jets' 3-4 front: "He kind of makes it a 34-and-a-half."

On the lessened expectations at least of the so-called national media experts for the Jets in 2008: "The radical expectations of our first two years here just reinforced what we talk about all the time. Expectations don't mean anything. What we do means something."