Football Weekly Press Conference: Western Carolina
Nov 10, 2015 | Football
Head coach Kevin Sumlin, coordinators Jake Spavital and John Chavis and select players met the media on Tuesday at the Aggies' weekly football press conference inside of the Kyle Field Media Center.
A&M is preparing to host Western Carolina on Senior Night at Kyle Field this Saturday, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.
A summary of Coach Sumlin's comments is posted below.
KEVIN SUMLIN PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Offensive Decline. Combination of a lot of things. Couple young guys who played quarterback. Not a lot of experience. But last week thought big story of whole game was we lost turnover battle 3-0. Two of those were in end zone, were touchdowns. Moved football fairly well in our rushing attack. Third quarter we came out in closer game, but got behind and took long time to score in 3rd quarter. Forced us into a different kind of football game. Combination of things. Can't lose turnover ratio 3-0 and can't give up 300 yards rushing and expect to beat another SEC team. Things work hand in hand. Like most teams in America, when we limit turnovers and penalties, we have won. When we haven't, we haven't won. Turnover ratio becomes a complete team statistic, ability to get turnovers and to protect ball on offense. First game in don't know how long we didn't get a turnover on defense. And we turned it over twice in the end zone. Penalties, we did alright, we only had a couple. That's been story of this season.
QB position. Like I said Saturday, we will evaluate Kyler. Left game Saturday night. Without being specific about injuries, which we never are, yesterday was more of mental day. Get back into pads today and see where he is and what his status is through week. Kyle and Jake need to prepare this week just like they do every week but particularly right now like they're going to start the game. That doesn't change any other week. Pecking order from there will be based like it always has been--on practice. Will see where Kyler is from a physical standpoint. If he's in place where he's practiced—he needs reps, needs to be able to do that—and is ready to go, he'll be starter. If not we'll make decision later on in week.
Message to fans, where program is fourth season. I would say this. Just like any coach, want to win every game. Want to be undefeated. My message would be let's wait to end of season and we will figure out where we are.
Receivers this season have lost share of 50/50 balls. Had couple of games in particular where that's been case. It shows up in particularly last week, you're referring to inparticular a touchdown pass. Or against Alabama. It gets back to what we just talked about earlier. Those things are amplified in losses. In 3 games we've lost that's another part of the formula for non-success. Turnovers fit into that. Been in those games, more than a couple of those turnovers have been those types of balls. Not only have they not been completed they've gone to other team. That fits into that category. Just like what most people notice, you notice more particularly in a loss.
Troy Mitchell. We didn't recruit him. Probably should have, he's the all-time yardage guy there. He's a Houston product. Cy-Falls guy. They've got one guy from state of Texas on their team. He's that guy. He's one of greatest players in their history at quarterback. Will be excited to come in here. Probably have a lot of people here. An exciting player. Averages close to 50 yards a game rushing. Can throw it around. Good for us because it's a read option team. Little different than zone read. Things that gave us some issues last week. Will have to be disciplined with what we do and tackle in space. Obviously all-time leading yardage guy and passer for a reason. Been able to put pressure on people a lot of different ways. Played Tennessee earlier this year. They're used to big stadiums and travel. Will be good. We need to get back on field and play. We need to get away from talking about things and dissecting this and that. We need to play football and play it against someone else. Will be good for us Saturday night.
Preparation for home games against SEC opponents. No we haven't changed anything. But old adage is we want to make preparation for road games as similar to home games as possible so there's no break in the routine. Been the way we've done things. To say that the preparation or the routine is different for home or road games for us, that hasn't been the case.
Quick fixes at linebacker or something that just has to come over time. Yeah it is. Started off the season, AJ Hilliard didn't play first 2 games. Seen he's gotten progressively better this year. Statistically probably his best game Saturday. Otaro Alaka not playing this year is a real blow to us. He'll get this year back. That will help him. Shaan Washington is really healthy and has gotten better. Young freshmen we have are all playing special teams. Don't have a lot of guys who have played at that position before this year. Signed four or five linebackers last year. This year you've seen Claude George and Richard Moore play in flashes. First-year players. They are getting better. Like many positions on this team all those guys will be back next year.
Last home game for seniors. Goes by real fast. In meeting yesterday we talked as team—nobody cares more than seniors because for a lot of these guys they're guaranteed really 180 minutes more of football. Yeah there's a bowl game, don't know where that's going to be. But for most of them this will be the last time they play organized football for the rest of their life. Their sense of urgency is always different. Younger guys always say there's always next year. Think it's a long ways to that point. Was laughing with Mike Matthews. Told him seemed like yesterday I was driving up to your house with the white picket fence…I lived maybe 4 miles from his house in Houston at that point…seems like just other day was there sitting with mom and had dad on speaker phone. He said man that's hard to believe, I've got 3-4 more games left here. For everyone else it seems like long time but for these young men, you blink your eye and time flies by. They understand it. Emotional time. Jake will be here this weekend. Think they're taking family Christmas pic on sideline. Wil be first time all of them have been together at one place in maybe last 6-7 years. That's just one example of what happens. Look at this group of guys, really the first class of guys to go thru SEC football as a complete class. Transitional guys, came here with a purpose. Very, very proud of what they're doing and how they're doing it. Will be like most senior nights, an emotional one for lot of players and families. Should be, because of special moments they've had at A&M and the ones that they're still fighting to achieve.
Offensive line progress. Depends on how you look at it. Statistically, we've been able to run ball pretty well last few weeks. Tra Carson has been effective, up around 4-5 yards a carry. Anytime you're not winning at a rate that you want to win, everyone is looking for what's the problem. Sometimes it can be a combination of a lot of different things. When you turn the ball over the way we have in our losses, everything gets amplified. Had 9 possessions Saturday. Combination of 2 things…we average somewhere between 11-14 possessions a game. We had 9. Scored on 2. Turned ball over in end zone twice. Moved the football. Did we score the points we wanted to? No. Always wanting to get better. At times have been effective, at times we haven't. There are things we have tried to address and are addressing on weekly basis, even with scheme or tempo or different players in there. All those things are all in play, but the execution is probably more important than the actual play itself.
Progress from last season. Let's wait and see after the season. Got two more conference games. Got a game this weekend. Let's see where we are. Try to make progress every week. Look at our football team and probably the biggest thing that jumps out to me is that just about everybody who is in a key position on this football team will be back next year. Probably our most visible and biggest playmakers will be back. What does that tell you? I don't know. But I do know they're playing meaningful games. They have had good moments and bad moments. That's what experience is all about, particularly defensively. Defensively, there's a foundation of guys there that we've spent time with that are gaining experience and not walking out the door. Alonzo Williams and Julien Obioha have done a very, very nice job and are steady inside. Given Zaycoven Henderson and Daylon Mack a lot of reps in there too. Lot of young guys having their learning experience. Not a young football team, but a team that has a lot of players coming back next year that have played a lot.
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