Jets HC Aaron Glenn Explains Emotional Practice: ‘It hit me pretty hard’

The reality of the situation finally hit Aaron Glenn.

More than seven months after being hired by the New York Jets, the first-time NFL head coach got surprisingly emotional Saturday — and it had nothing to do with the 12 penalties called on his team during practice.

“I’m sure this is going to hit at some point, but I told the players this: the first time since I became head coach, today was the first day it really hit me,” Glenn said to open his post-practice news conference. “And it hit me once I heard the fans give the ‘J-E-T-S’ chant.

“And I don’t know why, but it just hit me.”

The 53-year-old Glenn was drafted by the Jets in the first round in 1994 and played for the franchise for eight of his 15 NFL seasons. The three-time Pro Bowl cornerback was also a personnel scout for New York for two seasons and a longtime assistant coach, most recently as Detroit‘s defensive coordinator for four seasons, before getting the chance to lead his former team.

“It hit me pretty hard,” Glenn said, his voice cracking slightly. “Man, I am so thankful. I’m thankful for this organization that gave me a shot. I’m thankful for this organization that gave me my second shot at becoming a coach.

“I don’t know why, fellas. But it hit me and hit me pretty hard, and, man, I just feel grateful. Grateful to be in this position.”

Glenn, along with new general manager Darren Mougey, faces the task of turning around the fortunes of a franchise that has the NFL’s longest active playoff drought at 14 seasons.

He has talked several times since being hired in January about changing the culture around the Jets and building them into a consistent winner by stressing fundamentals and competition. But with the team practicing in front of packed stands for its annual scrimmage at the facility, Glenn couldn’t shake his emotions — especially when he heard the fans.

“Yeah, I was,” Glenn said when asked if he was surprised he felt that way. “I thought it had already hit me.”

One thing Glenn has focused on during training camp is cutting down on penalties after the Jets were called for the most in the league in each of the past two seasons. He has officials at every practice to try to get players to understand how plays will be called. But it didn’t seem to help much on Saturday.

The Jets had 12 penalties called on them during what Glenn called a “pseudo scrimmage,” including several holding calls.

“There are a lot of things we’ve got to clean up and the one thing I’m sure everybody saw is the penalties,” the coach said. “I’m glad we had the refs out there because that’s one thing we want to hit — we want to make sure we hit those hard. And I want them to ref it just like it was a game and I thought they did a good job of that.”

It made for a sloppy practice as QB Justin Fields and the rest of the offense, including the backups, struggled throughout the session. Some calls even had the fans booing.

“There [are] no excuses,” Glenn said. “Our players understand that. We know penalties, they’re discipline issues and we’ve got to make sure we are more disciplined in aspects on both sides of the ball. We will get those cleaned up, I promise you that. But there’s a lot of work to do.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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