(8/3) Hutchinson: Pennington sharp once again

[Sperm Edwards]

Pennington sharp once again

Thursday, August 03, 2006

BY DAVE HUTCHINSON

Star-Ledger Staff

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Eric Mangini insisted yesterday there still is a battle for the starting quarterback spot on the Jets.

But it would be hard to tell that by the way Chad Pennington and Patrick Ramsey performed during their late afternoon practice.

Continuing a trend that started shortly after camp began, Pennington looked good and Ramsey did not. The two took all the reps during a nearly 2 1/2-hour practice that was moved to the evening because of the heat. The similarity, however, ended there.

Ramsey struggled mightily as the Jets worked on their red-zone and two-minute offense to the sound of blaring music to simulate crowd noise. It may have been his worst practice of camp.

"I'm keeping my head down, staying in the (playbook), just trying to continue to run this (offense) as well as I can," he said.

Pennington, meanwhile, was sharp.

"I do have confidence and my confidence is growing," he said. "I'm proud of the people around me for their help in getting me to where I am and they deserve a lot of credit for helping me get back to being able to compete. That was my whole goal, to be able to come into training camp and compete and give it everything I have."

The Star-Ledger reported in Wednesday's editions that the team had decided Pennington had won the job -- because of practices such as this one.

Mangini denied the decision had been made.

"All I can tell you is I'm the head coach of this football team. The rotation will continue and there's no change in that status," he said.

By not announcing a decision, however, Mangini does gain one advantage: The longer he keeps the rotation going, the longer he can cut down on Pennington's reps, thus saving the training camp wear and tear on his arm.

When Pennington is with the fourth team, he barely gets a rep. As a result, he gets a practice off without the stigma of having to take a practice off to rest.

Mangini said he wasn't ready to change the rotation -- though yesterday marked the first time Kellen Clemens and Brooks Bollinger did not get any reps in team drills.

Pennington, meanwhile, joked around while dodging questions about having won the job.

"The only thing I know that has changed is the practice schedule for today," he said.