As the Chiefs get ready to embark on the busiest segment of their 2009 off-season, it seems a good time to clean out the notebook with some tidbits of red and gold information.

ON THE FIELD

When the Chiefs hit the field for their fifth OTA session on Monday, June 1, it will begin a span of 18 days when the team has 15 practices scheduled on the field.

OTA sessions will go down on Monday and Tuesday. On Friday, starts a three-day mandatory mini-camp which generally includes four or five practice sessions. Then the next two weeks, the team will have four OTAs each week.

Come June 18th when the Chiefs wrap up their on-field work, Todd Haley and his coaching staff should have a much better idea of what type of team they can become in the 2009 season.

BUT IT’S NOT A DRY HEAT

It’s going to take Midwest native Mike Goff a few more practice sessions to get re-acclimated to the humidity. That’s what happens after spending the last five seasons in San Diego, where it can get warm, but seldom humid.

When the Chiefs finished up their fourth OTA under humid conditions, Goff was feeling it afterwards.

“I forgot how you walk out there and it (the humidity) just kind of hits you in the chest,” he said. “I’m feeling it now, but after a few more practices I’m sure it won’t be a factor anymore.”

COLQUITT/HOFFMAN CHAPTER TWO

As the Chiefs special teams coach, Steve Hoffman is working with the team for the first time. But it’s not the first time he’s worked with punter Dustin Colquitt.

That went down back in 2005, when the Chiefs selected Colquitt in the third round of the NFL Draft. After having Colquitt in for mini-camp, the Chiefs decided they wanted him to revamp his mechanics. Hoffman was out of the NFL at that time, and he was brought to Kansas City to work with Colquitt.

“He really understands kickers and punts, the positions, the mechanics and the mentality,” said Colquitt. “He doesn’t even have to be looking at me. He can just hear how the ball sounds when it comes off my foot and he knows if something wasn’t right.”

LESS DRAMA, MORE FOOTBALL

Center Eric Ghiaciuc comes to the Chiefs after four seasons in Cincinnati. In recent seasons life with the Bengals has sometimes been a reality show, with player problems off the field and personalities like Chad Ochocinco Johnson dominating the attention and headlines.

“As much as you try to focus on football with your day-to-day routine of meetings, lifting, walkthroughs, practices, games, you can focus but it’s still there,” Ghiaciuc said of the distractions. “It’s like when you turn your head, it’s still behind you. I think we were doing our best to focus on what needed to be focused on in our profession, but it was there and it was a bit of a problem.”

IT’S GOOD TO KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

It’s always an adventure for first time head coaches. No matter how much they might prepare to handle the top job, there are always conditions and situations that pop up out of the blue. It’s why Marty Schottenheimer used to say as the head coach he no longer coached, he was a problem solver.

Todd Haley is getting an education on that front and he’s willing to admit as much.

“This is my first go round; I am very aware of that and that is why I am happy with the staff,” Haley said. “I have a handful of guys that have done this before (head coach) at some level. I lean on a bunch of people all the time, in the building and out of the building to try and make sure I get it right, knowing that it is not going to be perfect, but trying to learn from our mistakes and get it right one way or another. Make it work is the bottom line. That is my job, to make it work on offense, defense and special teams one way or another.”