HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- When Al Groh stood before a full New York Jets team Monday, he was a changed man.

"I've made the point that even though there has been an ongoing relationship with the players, we've never dealt with each other as a head coach to his players," he said as the team began minicamp. "They should expect and want something different. We need for me to be the head coach talking to them."

Groh was elevated from a defensive assistant to head coach in January following wild upheaval. Bill Parcells retired Jan. 3 and his hand-chosen successor, defensive coordinator Bill Belichick, quit the next day. Belichick eventually wound up as coach of the New England Patriots, Parcells moved into the chief of football operations job with the Jets and, voila, Groh was Parcells' successor.

Groh is a head coach for the first time since 1986, when he completed a six-year stint at Wake Forest. He faces a monumental task, following a man who won two Super Bowls and turned around the fortunes of three franchises.

	“	Every team in every sport is reborn again each year. It never comes back as the same team. For all of us who have been expectant parents in the past, you know that birth is an exciting thing. ”
		— Al Groh, Jets head coach

He also will coach a team that traded its best player, Keyshawn Johnson, to avoid a salary dispute, and whose quarterback, 36-year-old Vinny Testaverde, missed the 1999 season with a torn Achilles' tendon.

Not to mention the lack of a pass rush and uncertainty at free safety and tight end.

Not surprisingly, Groh prefers to emphasize the positives, which include running back Curtis Martin, linebacker Mo Lewis, cornerbacks Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman, a solid offensive line, receiver Wayne Chrebet, good special teams and four first-round draftees.

Plus the impressive way the Jets ended 1999, with four straight victories over playoff teams to finish 8-8.

"There was a very strong sense of accomplishment," he said. "I think very few football teams who at the point we were at last year -- and with the lofty expectations we carried into the season -- would have rallied up and showed what they did.

"If you really are a competitor, you like to win games. It's about winning on every particular Sunday. It is fun to win games on Sunday."

The Jets began building toward that with this minicamp, which runs through Friday.

"Every team in every sport is reborn again each year. It never comes back as the same team," Groh said. "For all of us who have been expectant parents in the past, you know that birth is an exciting thing. I'm not about to say the birth of the 2000 Jets approximates that ... but I've always been an attendant. I'll be the prevailing physician on this one."