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How has the weather been affecting your practice scheduling?

"Like every other day it's going to rain in the afternoon here or somewhere surrounding here, but we've been lucky really. Yesterday we were able to just push it back 40 minutes and still get practice in, even though it ended up being a hot one. We had the night practice two days ago and it happened to rain while we would have been practicing."

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But you control the weather though, right?

"Yeah, I have a dial in the dorm room. I'm going to start teasing them a little bit and have it start raining right after practice or right before."

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Talking about the weather and the heat, when did you have the idea for the cooling tent?

"There are some other teams that use one and Mickey and I talked about it a year ago and then this year he mentioned it to me and we decided to have it and add that flexibility. I think it has worked well. The whole idea is just for six or seven minutes to cool the core body temperature and really prevent any type of heat exhaustion. We've always tried to take enough breaks during practice; on the schedule it might say one break, but really there might be four shorter ones. The thought is that after one major break where it's going to be a little longer and guys are in there for a long enough period of time to cool their bodies down. What you don't want is to get into a situation where you're practicing and you're just running plays and everyone is just trying to survive practice."

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Have you noticed any of the players comment on the difference that the tent makes?

"Just from talking to them, they seem to have received it pretty well."

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It has looked like Reggie Bush has struggled a bit in punt return drills. Is that something you think will get straightened out in the preseason games?

"I feel pretty confident that he'll be able to handle punts. He's done it his whole career and it really hasn't been a big issue with him for us. I don't know if it's a certain technique that they're trying or if he's trying to do something a little different, but he's fairly trustworthy as a guy that's going to catch the ball. I think the key is just improving his skills as a returner."

Was he still having trouble with his neck today?

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"No, his neck is fine. He had some stiffness yesterday and I asked him about it this morning and he said it's fine. Everything is good."

When you have them run sprints after practice, is there a certain number of times they will go?

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"Typically if we're running the half-gassers, which we did yesterday, we'll go with four. It's hard with the heat here to do more than that. Yesterday's practice was pretty tough because it was hot, we ran afterward, and we were out on the turf field. I try to just pay attention to how practice has gone and decide how much we'll do. But if it's the half-gassers, we'll usually do four, or maybe six."

Will you try to work Sedrick Ellis into condition as he practices or does he have extra conditioning work to do?

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"It starts with practice conditioning, in other words getting into football shape. He'll do the conditioning test with Tracy Porter here shortly – once Porter is healthy, we'll run both of those guys to make up for what they missed. But it may involve extra cardio with (strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple) or a bike routine. There are a couple of those guys that are on an extra detail, just to get themselves in the right shape – and they're not necessarily all big guys; I'm still doing that with Jeremy Shockey, Mike McKenzie, Deuce McAllister and Hollis Thomas. I think they understand that there's a period of time here where they have to get acclimated and ready to play live football, as it pertains to the preseason and the regular season."

Given how well Drew Brees has played the last two years, is there still room for improvement?

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"I think so. There are certain things. He didn't have the kind of start last season that he would have hoped to have had. He's very very critical of himself in regards to ball location and decision making. He's probably as critical of his own play as anyone that I've ever been around. He's very focused on any way shape or form that he can gain an edge. He pays attention to that and that's a good trait to have in a quarterback."

How has this camp gone for Drew?

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"I think well. The one change is a new center, but that has gone smoothly and I think he has done well. He's healthy, he has good velocity, he's making good decisions, he's making quick decisions and he has a real good grasp of what we're doing?"

When do the players do the extra conditioning work?

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"If they're doing extra work, there is a bike circuit that we put them through inside in the weight room either in the morning or between practices."

If there were a weather situation where there was rain forecasted for two or three days, what is your back-up plan for practice?

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"I think really the back-up plan would be to get in the gym there and to walk through the scripts. We haven't had to do that yet. If you look in that gym, a third of it is dedicated to the weight room and then two-thirds of it is open, so it would be an area that we could go into with tennis shoes and try to get as much mental work done – not necessarily full-speed – but get the full mental reps of practice off the script."

After a couple of days would that still be effective?

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"We're always going to have to be smart enough to adjust, but the hypothetical you're talking about is a long-term rain, then we'd look at other options. Right now, the FieldTurf provides a surface that you can practice on with some rain or a lot of rain prior to practice and still have a decent surface. What becomes most important is the lightning, and that's what would bring us inside."

On special teams, are you pleased with the progress you've seen through camp?

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"It's hard to measure the progress because oftentimes it's a lot of tedious drill work. It's much easier to measure the progress once you play a preseason game and then when you play another one and another one, you begin to get an idea of how we're covering and how we're doing in the return game and how we're kicking. That's the challenge. You don't necessarily get the initial results as you would maybe on offense or defense as it pertains to practice. Saturday in the scrimmage we'll have a chance to include a lot of special teams snaps and then we'll be able to grade assignment and technique. But it's a little bit easier to do when you start the preseason games."

How open is the competition at the returner positions?

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"I think it's pretty open. I that it's a way for players to make the team. We've talked about Skyler Green and we've talked about Lance Moore and we've talked about Pierre Thomas. There are a lot of guys that are battling for positions and provide return skills as well, so all that gets factored into those final cuts and it's an important area that was a weakness of ours a year ago and we have to improve on it."

Are you spending more time on special teams this year?

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"I don't know that it's any more – the schedule is similar to what we've done for the last three years. We met a little longer last night on special teams to catch up on some tape work that they hadn't gotten. If Greg (McMahon) feels like he's gotten through what he needs, then the drills can be flexible and a little shorter. I don't know that we've changed the practice schedule and switched around times as much as we have just paid attention to what we're doing in each drill and how long the drills last. I think the focus has been there. It was one of the points that we brought up at the start of the season in regards to '07 that we have to correct, and that's something that we've talked about a lot."

Will Jon Stinchcomb practice this afternoon?

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"I think he's fine. There's really nothing…Reggie is fine, Stinchcomb is fine. There really is nothing new on the injury front."

Is Brian Young's injury lingering longer than you expected?

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"I think with Brian, he's a player that we're going to have to manage constantly and pay attention to how many reps he gets and be smart as to not wear him down. That's not unlike a lot of guys with his experience and where he plays position-wise. Although it's two-a-days in training camp, with a guy like him I just have to be smart about how we practice him and manage it."

What is the history with his knee trouble?

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"He has an arthritic condition that can flare up if there is too much pounding on it. He had a scope done at the end of the spring to clean some things out, but it's something that you just battle through and work through and it feels better with rest. When you get into these eight practices in four or five days, it's tougher on a player like him and we'll hold him out."

Did the team respond well yesterday to having the morning off?

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"Yes. I think yesterday's practice was a hard one – probably one of the hardest ones since we've been here. Just being on the turf, it was one of the harder practices and the defense did a good job and I think they handled the sprints afterwards. But last evening, you could see that it was kind of a hump practice for them."

Do you like the new coin toss rule?

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"If you win the coin toss a year ago, you take the ball. If you win the coin toss this year, you defer and you kick off, so the winners are the losers. When it's all said and done, if you win the toss always in years past you took the ball and maybe the exception would be in a real heavy wind that you felt was a major advantage and could pin an opponent and play most of the game in their end of the field, then you would kick off again in the second half. I think if you take the approach like many college coaches do, and that is to defer – if the opposing team defers then what do you have to do? You take the ball. So if you choose heads and it's tails, you're getting the ball and kicking off in the second half where a year ago, it was the other way around."

Would you go on defense even though you have a good offense?

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"You defer because the key is that you want to make sure that you're starting one of the halves with the ball. Barring any wind, I think it's defer and take the ball in the second half. The only thing you might say is that if we win the toss, we're taking the ball because we feel like we want to set a tempo with the offense. There is that decision which didn't exist a year ago."

Is it against your nature to want to go on defense first?

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"No. We went through a stretch last year where we lost four coin tosses in a row and we were playing pretty good ball at that time and winning games, so I'm alright with that. I just always look at it as who's starting with the ball. I think there are times when you say that we really want the ball because we want to set a tempo or in the Jacksonville game where we had an onside kick or a lob kick that we wanted to attempt right off the bat. I think we lost the coin toss and had the ball first and scored right away. There are times when you might specifically really want the ball or want to play defense, but you can't control that. The only thing you can control is that if you do win the coin toss, your choice a year ago was to take the ball and your choice this year is 'do we want it in the first half or the second half?' Philosophically, we'll probably have a plan as to deferring or taking the ball. If you don't like the rule changing, just take the ball every time you win the toss and it's the same as a year ago."

Are there any rule changes that you need to have clarified this weekend with the officials in camp?

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"They're here now and we met last night. The force-out rule I think is a good one and it makes it a little bit easier for the officials to officiate. Really when it's all said and done, you have to have two feet down in bounds, period. The only exception would be the receiver that jumps in the air five yards from the sideline, is tackled in the air and the defender carries him off the field out of bounds. That's a completion. But the split-second decision of was it a force-out or was his momentum going to take him out, I think that's challenging for an official to call and I think that rule makes a lot of sense and it clears things up. The replay on field goals makes sense. I think they do a good job and the opportunity for us to have three days with them here helps our players tremendously. Not so much with the new rules, but it also helps players in regards to rules that have existed for 10 years – how am I doing here with illegal contact? Is this something you would've called or is this something that you would've let go? I think the time we spend them is good. The meeting we had with them last night was good and then they'll be here for this afternoon's practice, tomorrow for two practices and of course for Saturday. The officials are really wanting to help educate the players and help them understand what they're looking at and I think that's a good thing."

What officials are here with you today?

"We have Gene Staratore and his group. There's probably about six or seven guys here, they were all at the meeting last night with the video presentation."

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Will you still be a gambler on fourth down this year?

"I think some of that is just your gut feeling and what you think you need to get accomplished at that minute in the game. The question I think you mean to ask is if we have changed our thought process in regards to how we approach fourth down, and I don't know that we have or I have. I think a lot of it is how you feel your team is playing offensively or defensively. If your team is playing outstanding defense then you might tend to be a little more conservative and punt the football and know that you're playing the odds of the game. A lot of that is how you feel like the course of the game is going and whether you think you need some momentum at that point in time. I think it's paying attention to the game more than anything."

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Bill Parcells did that a lot when you were with him didn't he?

"Yeah, Bill did. He treated fourth down and short as an odds-in-our-favor situation and based on field position, we were going to be pretty smart. We will see each game is a little different, but I think the players, when you send something in like that, have a lot of confidence like, 'Hey, let's make this go.' Based on the game and situation I think that's most important."

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Did Parcells ever give you advice about it?

"Well, we just knew his approach to fourth down, and you knew as a play caller you knew you just had to have a fourth down and short ready."

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How is Carl Nicks progressing so far?

"He's doing well; he's keeping his weight down. He is one of those rookies that I would say has jumped at us. He is big, he is powerful, and he is doing well. I'm anxious to see him in a game."

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What does that say about the team's commitment to the offensive line?

"It's a position to develop. It's expensive in free agency when you look at the premier players and Doug Marrone has done a great job with some of these guys starting with Jahri Evans, Zach Strief, and we've got some veteran players mixed in there. There is a good balance with young players and I think because you're playing with five of these guys on the offensive line each year you're looking, and if the rounds suggest that you can get a talent – and in Carl's case we felt like in the fifth round there was an opportunity for us to get a player that we had high grades on. He's handled it well. He's handled the transition so far pretty well."

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Can you talk about Mike Karney's role on the offense, and will it change with the acquisition of

Jeremy Shockey because he is such a good blocker?

"I think Shockey's strengths are a little bit more in line more than they are necessarily in the backfield, not that he can't block a fullback's position. So I don't know that Jeremy's role will effect Mike's at all. I think he has a pretty good understanding of what he does well and I think we have a pretty clear understanding of his strengths and weaknesses. I like having two backs as part of our plan offensively, not exclusively, but in order to have that the fullback has to be someone that can block the point of attack and can be a threat in the passing game and catch the football. So that won't change for him. Now, maybe there is some 12 personnel or two tight end sets that change by play design, because you have two tight ends in the game instead of a fullback, but that was the case for the last two years. I think Mike is doing well, he has his weight down a little bit from last year, probably about eight or 10 pounds. He's lighter and I think that is going to help him."

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Did you ask him to lower his weight?

"Yeah, we talked about it in the offseason. We felt he was a little heavy a year ago, but he has worked hard to shed the weight, and I think he moves a little bit better where he is at right now."

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Hadn't he gained that weight to be a little more physical?

"I think there is a balance. There is the one school of thought that we need to get bigger and put on the weight, but it would cost if it begins to affect your movement and your agility and your change of direction. There is that happy medium and I think you're always looking for that proper weight with players, and it's not an exact science. Often times it's the weight they are carrying until they have trouble carrying it, then you back off about five pounds."

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Is he down at his old weight?

"I think he is about 250 pounds right now and he was probably about 260 or so a year ago, but I would guess if he weighed right now he would be about 252 or 253, somewhere in that range."