09/18 — No housekeeping or hard news at head coach Eric Mangini's news conference today. It was more a day to talk about the San Diego challenge and a few other topics.

Such as making a West Coast trip, something the Jets haven't done ... can it be since the 2004 season?

Now the Jets are about to embark on perhaps the most prodigious road schedule in their history — four trips to the West Coast, beginning with Saturday's flight to San Diego to play the Chargers on Monday night.

Not surprisingly, the head coach said, he studied the issue of whether to leave for the 3,000-mile trips one day before the game or two.

"We spent a lot of time in the off-season researching, whether it be long flights or transition from time zones," Mangini said. "[Head trainer] John Mellody and his group and [head strength coach] Sal Alosi and his group interviewed a lot of people who've been in that situation, and we tried to incorporate those things into our preparation."

But going out two days ahead instead of one day, the coach said, was "something the players voted on when I was originally doing the itineraries, and it was a pretty strong vote to go out early for all these West Coast trips."

Mangini was asked if he would've preferred having back-to-back Pacific Time Zone games rather than four trips separated by at least one home game.

"I don't mind having it broken up," he said. "I've done the extended say out on the West Coast — it's been OK. Oakland's had so many East Coast trips, and Bill Callahan's on our staff. They've done it both ways there as well. When you look at it wins/losses, it's not consistently skewed one way or the other or else everybody'd follow the same package."

I'm sorry to say I have not charted the number of days the Jets have flown out in advance of West Coast games over the years. But I can tell you that the team's worst WC stretch was 0-9-1 in the Sixties, when the AFL Jets flew to Oakland and San Diego, usually back-to-back, every season.

But now the team is in an upward trend in West Coast games, having won five of the last eight since 2001 and the last three — at Oakland in '03 and twice at San Diego in '04, in Week 2 and again in the AFC Wild Card Game.

Here is the Jets' West Coast record by decades:

Clowney's Status

Mangini was asked about WR David Clowney's situation. Clowney, you'll recall, got off to a great preseason start, only to go down with a shoulder injury midway through the second summer game vs. Washington. He is listed for the second week as being out for the game ahead.

"David's doing well, moving along with his rehab," the coach said. "There's no real timetable, whenever it's ready to go. I'd say he's plugging along, and at some point here he'll be back with us."

This Week's Jets Radio

Tony Richardson brought another special Jets guest with him for this week's "Paving the Way with T-Rich": backfield mate Leon Washington. The two joined host Eric Allen for this week's edition, which is available on the newyorkjets.com home page. And EA and I will have our third "Jets Two-Minute Drive" of the season up on the site. Scheduled time is 3 p.m. Friday but we may be delayed in getting the show posted due to technical issues here at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Facility.