SAN DIEGO — Rex Ryan noticed how things changed in training camp.
“I always talk about how when we first started there were all those different cars, one guy per car,” the Jets’ head coach said this week. “Then as the camp went on, there were three or four guys per car. I think that was a step in the right direction for sure for us.”
Ryan trained the Jets upstate in Cortland this year, and as Gang Green prepares to battle the second-seeded Chargers in San Diego this afternoon in a contest that could land them in the AFC Championship game, Ryan believes his team’s resiliency is its biggest strength right now.
“This is about as resilient of a football team as I’ve ever been around,” Ryan said. “That’s what gives us a chance moving forward.”
Ryan called the Cortland experience “a big thing for our football team.”
“Without question, it builds your team,” he said.Ryan says the Jets became real teammates because they didn’t have anything else to do while they were up there.
He points out they couldn’t retreat to Manhattan nightclubs.
“They’re not going home at night. All they have are each other,” he said. “It’s not like they’re going out at Cortland all the time, so they’re enjoying each other, watching TV together [and] playing cards together.
“It just brings your team closer, and I think in tough situations, you don’t let go of the rope. You hang in there together. The more you invest in yourself [and] in your teammates, the harder it is to let go, and I think you’ve seen that from this team.”