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BY IRA KAUFMAN

It’s been said love is lovelier the second time around.

What about coaching?

By the numbers, the Todd Bowles era with the Jets was a disaster. After a 10-6 start in 2015, he went 14-34 the rest of the way. New York’s offense was sloppy and stagnant in those final three seasons and the Jets couldn’t stop anyone.

The Bowles era ended with a 38-3 loss at New England as a guy named Brady fired four TD passes to trigger a coaching change.

Joel Glazer talks head coaching philosophy with Ira Kaufman.

Despite that uninspiring 24-40 record, Bowles was the obvious choice for the Glazers to replace Bruce Arians at One Buc Place.

“Our biggest conclusion is there’s no replacement for experience,” Joel Glazer says. “Unfortunately in the NFL, people get thrust into positions and it’s their first time and in reality, it’s not a long window you have to get it right. Because of that, a lot of people don’t get second chances.

“I’m of the view you learn from experience, you learn from your mistakes and if you’ve had that experience you are four steps ahead next time. I view that all as positive. A lot of times, it’s the hand you’re dealt. It’s not as simple as wins and losses. We’re very confident in Todd. This was the natural choice.”

Bowles had four years to prove himself in New York — and he came up short. But let’s remember this is a franchise that still hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010. In the past six years, encompassing three head coaches, the Jets are 27-70.

That goes to poor ownership and poor personnel decisions. Mike Maccagnan, hired a few days before Bowles, was out of his depth as GM and Bowles was outmanned for much of his tenure.

Here are New York’s top two draft picks from 2014, the year before Bowles arrived, through 2018: LB Calvin Pryor, TE Jace Amaro, DE Leonard Williams, WR Devin Smith, LB Darron Lee, QB Christian Hackenberg, S Jamal Adams, S Marcus Maye, QB Sam Darnold, DT Nathan Shepherd.

That’s called setting yourself up for failure.

Bowles doesn’t claim to be the innocent victim here — and he shouldn’t. The Jets were incredibly undisciplined under his watch with a minus-34 turnover ratio in his final three seasons. In the last two
years under Bowles, the Jets were flagged for 233 penalties, ranking in the league’s top 10 both seasons.

Bowles was routinely questioned about his clock management and utilization of timeouts. In retrospect, he peaked too early in New York.

The Jets went into the final game of 2015 at 10-5 with a 5-game winning streak, needing only a victory at Buffalo to clinch a postseason berth that would have made Bowles king of the Big Apple tabloids. The Bills were going nowhere at 7-8, finishing out the string with Tyrod Taylor under center.

But the Bills never trailed en route to a 22-17 victory as Ryan Fitzpatrick was intercepted on each of New York’s final three possessions.

“You win the game, you go to the playoffs,” Bowles said after the most consequential game of his head coaching career. “You don’t, you lose. We understand the consequences of it and we’ve got to live with it. We were building something. We’re a work in progress and we’re growing. We’ve got a lot more growing to do, but we made some strides. We’ve just got to make more.”

GM Jason Licht talks second chance sand tells Ira he made the most of the patience granted to him.

It never happened, but now he’s got Brady under center and a team stocked with talent.

“A lot of head coaches that go on to get second opportunities have a lot of success because of the things they learned,” says Jason Licht. “I know if I would have been let go four years ago and then got another opportunity — which I don’t think I would have at the time — I know I would have learned a lot.”

At the age of 58, Todd Robert Bowles is getting another chance to call the shots. He’s going to do things his way, in his style, knowing he’s working for an organization loading up for a championship run.

“I think I was trying to fix everything,” Bowles says of his New York State of Mind. “You’re putting your finger in the dam but you’ve got 50 different holes and only 10 fingers. As a first-time head coach, you go into it with some measure of invincibility, like this team is bad but I can coach them better.”

It helps when Brady is executing your offense instead of Bryce Petty.

If Bowles is smart, he’ll lean on Bruce Arians for advice on situational football. After surviving the mean streets of Elizabeth, N.J., and the harsh New York media, Bowles says he’s braced for the upcoming challenge.

“Good players make good coaches,” he says. “I’m not going to apologize for inheriting a talented team. The one thing I do know how to do is coach football players, regardless whether you’re an All-Pro or a rookie. I can help people get better.”

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Ira drives a 2020 Ford Escape (cherry red).