Jeff Ulbrich brings same mindset from defensive room to entire Jets team now
Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich looks on during warmups before a game against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Errol Anderson
Robert Saleh’s catchphrase, “All gas, no brake,” left the Jets’ building when he was fired last week. His replacement, Jeff Ulbrich, comes fully equipped with his own mantras.
A few of them are “effort eliminates mistakes,” “how we do one thing is how we do everything” and “heart, mind, fist.”
The latter is more of a style of play that Ulbrich has ingrained into his defensive players’ minds and now is preaching to the whole team as the Jets’ interim head coach.
“We sit and we laugh and we joke in the team meeting room, like, ‘Yo, this is what we hear every day, this is what motivates us every day,’ ” Jets defensive back and safeties coach Marquand Manuel said. “It’s the same; we’re just hearing it now on the global scale of the team meeting room on a daily basis, which is awesome for the guys.
“For the guys to get that sense of camaraderie from the guy who’s in charge, that means a lot. I just laugh when he starts talking because I hear it every day. It’s something motivating every single day. It’s a real awesome moment right now — sad, but awesome that he’s getting to lead us, too.”
Ulbrich made his head-coaching debut Monday night when the Jets faced Buffalo at MetLife Stadium with a chance to move into first place in the AFC East.
A former linebacker with the 49ers, Ulbrich has established himself as one of the better defensive coordinators. The Jets finished in the top five the previous two seasons and rank second this year.
Now Ulbrich gets the chance to put his imprint on the entire team by using the same philosophies and standards he’s instilled in the defense.
“All the little messages that helped us get to one of the top defenses in this league, he’s just spreading that to the whole team now,” linebacker C.J. Mosley told Newsday. “Even though the message is similar, sometimes that change is needed. Maybe the way he’s saying it, somebody can hear it a different way.”
“Heart, mind, fist” can be broken down this way, according to Mosley. The “heart is your why” and it has me and we components to it. The “mind” is how you study, what you’re looking at and your mindset when you play. The “fist” is self-explanatory.
“The fist is when we get on the field and knock somebody out,” Mosley said with a laugh. “That’s what Coach ’Brich has been instilling in us. It’s been working well and guys are buying into it. We’re just trying to bring that defensive side of the culture all the way around.”
Ulbrich grew up in the 49ers’ system playing for Steve Mariucci, Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary. He coached under Pete Carroll, Gus Bradley and Dan Quinn.
Accountability has been a buzzword around the Jets this week. It’s something Ulbrich will enforce, perhaps more than Saleh.
“There’s an unwavering standard,” Ulbrich said. “This is the expectation. You’re either meeting it or you’re not. It’s not an emotional thing. Every human in this building — and that’s players and coaches — are going to be held to that standard.”
Manuel was the Falcons’ defensive coordinator when Ulbrich was Atlanta’s linebackers coach. He marvels at how much energy Ulbrich has — “You wonder when he sleeps” — and said he comes to work with new ideas every day.
Special-teams coordinator Brant Boyer, who is working for his fourth different head coach with the Jets, called Ulbrich “authentic” and “real” and said the players respond to him and those traits.
“If you’re a player and you’re sitting in those seats, he’s not saying things just to say it,” Boyer said. “He says it because he believes it. That’s what he made his life and his career on. There’s not a guy in all those seats if you’re a player that wouldn’t respect that and wouldn’t run through a wall for a guy like that. So would the coaches.”
Cornerback Sauce Gardner, one of many defensive players who is close to Ulbrich, said there hasn’t been much difference in him since his promotion.
Ulbrich would sit on the steps next to defensive players and dap them up when Saleh led meetings. He still dapped them up, Gardner said, and then he went to the front of the room and led the meeting.
“He’s not showing any signs of like change in terms of acting different,” Gardner said. “He’s still showing the love that he has for the game, the love that he has for the players. It’s a great thing to see . . . I was telling him, ‘Man, the way that you’ve taken this on, you’re inspiring me, you’re motivating me because it’s like a sudden change.’ He was prepared for it.
“We’re all extremely confident in Coach ’Brich.”
Notes & quotes: Mosley returned after missing the last three games with a toe injury . . . Bills RB James Cook (toe) was inactive . . . DT Leki Fotu was activated from injured reserve. The Jets released defensive lineman Jalyn Holmes.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
