Daily Iowan

Issue date: 6/22/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Wesley Cropp/The Daily Iowan

Last year offered a combination of bumps and smooth sailing for former Hawkeye Tim Dwight.

On one hand, Dwight's first campaign in the Big Apple enjoyed some success - his Jets squad managed to reach the playoffs. However, a foot injury kept the Iowa City native out for the latter part of the 2006 season, and he was forced to watch his team make an early exit at the hands of Dwight's former team, the New England Patriots.

With all that said, he still carries a glass half-full mentality.

He called living in New York "unbelievable."

"There's just so much stuff going on, you got to be real focused on the job at hand," he said. "Living in the city has been great."

Among the group of people Dwight hangs around on a regular basis is a head coach who became an instant overnight celebrity.

Although he said that he never really watched "The Sopranos" when it was running on HBO, he did get a chuckle out of seeing Jet coach Eric Mangini make a cameo on the popular program.

"Eric's real good about making sure he's doing things right, in a positive way, and being on 'The Sopranos' I think was one of them," Dwight said. "It's the Jets, and the Mob, and it's New York, so sooner or later, those people are going to pass each other.

"It was just kind of a fun, little incident they put on the show."

Dwight likes the direction "Gang Green" is heading, and he liked the improvements the Jets' offense has made, like acquiring running back Thomas Jones from the Chicago Bears.

"He's been a feature back," Dwight said. "Anytime you can bring that into your team, that's a huge plus."

As for his current injury status, he said the foot was doing better, but he's still taking his time recovering because of how severe the damage was to his toe.

"It was a pretty major injury, and they had to reconstruct some stuff down there," he said. "It's a process. Anytime you hurt anything below your knee, people don't understand the amount of pressure that goes through your feet.

"You've just got to be really smart about what you're doing."

It wasn't just his current team that got Dwight talking. He also chimed in on the upcoming season for the Hawkeyes, saying it will be an exciting year.

"Last year was kind of a disappointment for them," he said. "I know, going in, they had some big expectations and things, but it just goes to show you that you really need to focus on what you're doing each day at hand and not worry about down the line.

Continued...

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