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news, stats, photos and moreNY Jets coach Rex Ryan names Vernon Gholston starter in place of suspended Calvin Pace
by M.A. Mehta/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday July 22, 2009

Ryan, whose entertaining and energetic style has injected life into the organization, admitted that linebacker Vernon Gholston, the 2008 first-rounder who disappointed as a rookie last season, will start for Calvin Pace, who was suspended four games earlier this month for violating the league's performance-enhancing substances policy.

Ryan's take on losing Pace and throwing Gholston into the fire:

"Calvin's a rare guy ... He's a great football player. It is unfortunate that he's suspended for the four games. We certainly look forward to him coming back that fifth week and moving forward. He accepted responsibility for what happened. I know he thinks he's letting the teammates down ... We know the kind of person he is and the kind of player he is. We'll be excited to get him back. With that, we talked about Vernon and how he's going to have to step up and how we expect him to make great strides this year and how he was going to be a big reason in our successes moving forward. He's just got a roll with it now where he's going to be a starter. We'll see how he does. ...

"The plan is that we're going to play the best 11 and if that means a guy is going to change a position then he'll change a position. This is a deep football team so we're going to play all of our guys. Some guys will have maybe more of a role on first down or maybe more of a role on third down. But we're going to use everything that we got. We're building a football team. And we don't have to play the same 11 guys. This is all about what's best for our football team, putting our guys in situations to be successful. Again, we look forward to getting Calvin back. But that's certainly not going to be an excuse for us."

NY Jets coach Rex Ryan names Vernon Gholston starter in place of suspended Calvin Pace - NJ.com