One week and one day of training camp in Cortland are now officially complete for the Jets.
The next item on the team's agenda: the annual Green & White scrimmage, scheduled to kick off around 6 p.m. ET Saturday night at Cortland Stadium on the SUNY Cortland campus.
Earlier this week, head coach Rex Ryan announced the scrimmage would be played on the stadium's new turf rather than on the practice fields where it had taken place in previous years. The stadium has a seating capacity of 6,500.
"It'll be great to be playing in the stadium," quarterback Mark Sanchez said. "We'll have a little crowd noise and it will be fun for us. It will be like a real game."
The Jets held their final practice before the scrimmage this morning. The practice, which was closed to the public, was highlighted by the offensive players wearing the team's black practice jerseys for the first time this camp. The black jerseys, awarded by Ryan to the unit that performs best in the day's previous practice, had previously been worn only by the defense.
"We didn't agree with it," linebacker Aaron Maybin said of the black jersey switch, "but hey, you can't have things go your way every day."
From an outsider's perspective, there will be plenty of extra anticipation for tomorrow's scrimmage. But many of the Jets aren't viewing it that way.
"The number one thing, like Coach Sparano says every day, is just go have fun," RB Bilal Powell said. "Rex says it all the time that this is still a little kids' game, back to when you were in Pop Warner, so that's all I'm looking forward to."
Guard Matt Slauson added, "I'm not sure how it's going to go. But it is going to be extremely physical on both sides. There's going to be a lot of pads popping."
FB/TE Josh Baker hopes the scrimmage showcases "the offense beating up on the defense." On the flip side, the defense's aim, said cornerback Antonio Cromartie, is to "kick the offense's behind as much as we can."
Maybin said the coaches hadn't yet informed the team on the format of the scrimmage, but expects them to mix things up as well as show a variety of looks and matchups.
"At the end of the day, no matter what the matchups are, you're going to have a good competition out there" he said.
The fourth-year linebacker and second-year Jet also noted that his mentality heading into the scrimmage will be the same that he carries every time he steps onto the field.
"Anytime you have an opportunity to strap it up and go against the offense, you always want to go out and send a message that the defense is going to be a dominant defense," Maybin said. "And in order to do that, you have to go out and execute."
And Maybin said he is welcoming the chance to fire off the line on the new FieldTurf.
"The one thing I will say is that when you do play on turf like that, it gives you a lot faster track," he said, "so for a pass rusher like myself it definitely helps with our takeoff."
The scrimmage is free to fans and appears to be a memorable experience for all that plan to attend this next event as the Green & White head toward the start of the 2012 season.
"Jets Nation, they always come out and support us," Maybin said. "We're looking forward to them being out there, being rowdy and keeping us into it."
Four More Hop On for the Ride
The Jets announced late Thursday the signing of four new players. They include a pair of rookie WRs in Chris Forcier, who will wear No. 7, and Wes Kemp (8), rookie safety Marcus Lott (27), and second-year LB Damario Ambrose (56). Along with Wednesday's signing of CB Devon Torrence (and the waiving of FB Fui Vakapuna and S Tracy Wilson), the roster is now at the NFL maximum of 90 players.
