Mike Munchak: 'I'm not worried about the players being ready'

Despite the challenges of being a rookie head coach and the lockout preventing him from putting his stamp on the Tennessee Titans, coach Mike Munchak expects the AFC South franchise to be ready for kickoff Sept. 111 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"Of course we are," Munchak told the Nashville City Paper. "Will I be sitting here saying, ‘Well, if only we had more time in the offseason’? No. We're going to have as much time as everybody else is going to have and … if we have a whole preseason uninterrupted, we can do it our way. We’ll definitely be ready to play, and to think we’re not is foolish.”

The Titans are breaking in a new quarterback, possibly rookie Jake Locker or a veteran that hasn't been acquired yet, possibly Matt Hasselbeck.

Nonetheless, Munchak expects a well-prepared football team.

“I’m not worried about the players being ready to play,” Munchak said. “I’m not concerned about those things. For me, though, selfishly, it was more of having time to experiment with doing practice this way, having meetings this way. I lost out on those opportunities, which isn’t really going to affect how we play on Sundays.”

“The hard part about coaching now — people say, ‘Man, you haven’t had these guys here and all this other stuff’ — is that I haven’t gotten to try anything. I haven’t had any trial-and-error time, like with practices. I have to be willing to adjust to what I’m seeing. I’m excited about the opportunity. It’s going to be a unique time, obviously."

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Aaron Wilson covers the Ravens for the Carroll County Times.