WAY BACK WHEN: This will be the 13th season assistant coach Bob Sutton has walked the Jets sideline, dating back to even before the Chad Pennington/Herm Edwards days. (
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Bob Sutton thought this time he and his wife Debbie actually would have pack up their belongings and load up the moving trucks.
It was January 2009 and Jets head coach Eric Mangini had been fired a few weeks earlier. Sutton had been Mangini’s defensive coordinator, the third Jets coach he had served under. Now, the Jets were bringing in Rex Ryan, who Sutton did not know.
“I was getting ready to move,” Sutton said. “I was getting ready to take another job [in the NFL]. Rex said, ‘Let me just talk to you.’ ”
Like his three predecessors, Ryan liked what he heard from Sutton, and Sutton walked away impressed with Ryan, deciding to stay on as the linebackers coach. Three years later, Sutton is in his 13th season as a Jets assistant, the most consecutive and most overall of any assistant in team history. Only Walt Michaels (17 seasons, six as head coach) has spent more time on a Jets sideline.
Al Groh hired Sutton in 2000 after he lost his job at Army following nine seasons as head coach. Sutton told Debbie they had to be prepared to move because coaching in the NFL was so volatile.
“She kids me a lot and says, ‘I thought we’d be moving,’ ” Sutton said. “I say, ‘Well we’ve been through as many head coaches as I said. We just haven’t moved.’ ”
The unassuming Sutton, who looks more like an English teacher than a football coach, is the only constant on the coaching staff through Groh, Herm Edwards, Mangini and now Ryan.
“That’s one thing you learn,” Sutton said. “There isn’t one thing you can cookie cut and say there’s a head coach. These are all different people, all talented guys. As different in personality as you can be one through four.”
He was the linebackers coach under Groh and Edwards, then the coordinator under Mangini. Sutton figured with Ryan, a defensive coach, taking over and brining Mike Pettine to be the coordinator, he could be out.
Ryan did not know Sutton, but knew of him. He knew Sutton had guided Army to the most wins in school history — a 10-2 campaign in 1996 that earned him Coach of the Year honors.
“He’s got an unbelievable resume and a super reputation,” Ryan said. “That reputation is earned. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever been around — tremendous. He’s helped me immensely with his background as a head coach. He bounces things off me. He’s like a mentor to me. He really is.”
The 61-year-old Sutton leaves notes on Ryan’s desk with suggestions. Ryan promoted
Sutton to assistant head coach this winter, a sign of his respect for him.
Mangini, now an ESPN analyst, first met Sutton when he interviewed with the Patriots before taking the Jets job while Mangini was an assistant there.
“He’s a great guy,” Mangini said. “He has no ego. He is all about the team. He’ll do anything you ask him to do. There are no negatives about him.”
Sutton looks back at the last 12 years and marvels at the changes in the organization. He has lasted from Mo Lewis to Bart Scott, Vinny Testaverde to Mark Sanchez. There are just a handful of people who have worked for the team longer than Sutton. He saw the Jets go from a tiny building at Hofstra with a leaky roof to their spotless, 224,000-square foot headquarters in Florham Park.
“I don’t think people could even believe how different it is,” Sutton said. “The whole organization to me has improved greatly.”
Outside linebacker Calvin Pace calls Sutton, “the best linebacker coach doing it.” Pace said Sutton has amazing attention to detail and holds everyone accountable.
“As a player you’re only as good as your coach, and he coaches every last one of us like it’s our first day in the NFL,” Pace said. “It’s a joy to play for him. … I don’t think you can find anybody in this organization that would have anything bad to say about Bob.”
Sutton began his coaching career in 1972 as a graduate assistant at Michigan under Bo Schembechler. Forty years later, he is not sure how much longer he will coach.
“I feel great physically and I really enjoy it,” Sutton said. “I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the individual coaching. This isn’t hard. It’s challenging, but it isn’t hard. I look forward to doing it.
“I just kind of keep going. I figure at some point it’s going to hit me that I don’t want to do it anymore. But it’s not there yet.”
brian.costello@nypost.com