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Football Weekly Press Conference: Mississippi State
Sep 29, 2015 | Football
Kevin Sumlin, coordinators Jake Spavital and John Chavis and select players met the press on Tuesday inside the Kyle Field Media Center during the weekly football press conference.
Audio files are available through the story links and also available to listen on demand by subscribing to our free podcast.
A summary of Coach Sumlin's remarks is posted below.
Trend of freshmen making impact so soon. Not an across the board statement. Certain guys are very talented and able to make that transition. New rules have really helped college football and the student-athlete. Fact we're able to pay for summer school subsequent to young man entering in fall. One big thing that has helped from maturation standpoint. Second big rule change was ability for coaches to meet with players about football-related things for up to two hours a week in the summer time. Now you have a young man here lifting for two 4-week periods (June and July). QBs running 7 on 7s with the defense three nights a week. Meeting with coaches three days a week. That will speed up the learning curve in a hurry as opposed to a guy coming in August and seeing playbook for the first time. For Kyler Murray and a bunch of these young guys, when we started practice we'd been through installation twice offensively. Only thing we hadn't done was go out and work with them as coaches.
Could you have envisioned the impact of Christian Kirk. I always envision everyone we recruit doing that. We'd like everyone we sign to be that way. A lot of dynamic players out there. A lot of guys making impacts across the country. Fortunately we've signed our share of them. Will continue to recruit that way. It says that the best players get to play here, whether they've been here 5 years or 5 days. He's playing well. Caught a break, Speedy Noil is nicked up a bit. When he gets back he will take a little bit off Christian's plate. What I've found is it's awful hard for a freshman to play at that level for a complete year. Got to have some of these other guy step into those roles. We have guys that can do it. Got to get the other guys going. Ricky Seals-Jones has been solid. Hasn't had the numbers people think he should have but playing as well as he's ever played (blocking, leadership, etc). Josh Reynolds has gotten going. Got to bring the other guys along and that's where Speedy and Damion Ratley and Jeremy Tabuyo are. Jeremy's had a great year. So we've got enough weapons that can help (Kirk) out. He will start seeing different coverages and things. After about game four or five, people figure out it's not a fluke. He's got some real talent. Defenses will change.
Ran only 48 plays vs Arkansas, but still able to win…how relevant is time of possession to you. For what we do, not very relevant at all. What's relevant to us is 3rd down conversions. If you're not converting third downs offensively it doesn't matter how much you have the ball. Also, third down conversions defensively. Idea is they work together. And, turnover margin. We won the game because we won the turnover margin 2-0 and were efficient on the few plays we had. Hard to walk in at halftime and be frustrated when you only have 16 plays and you're winning the game. In those situations what I think you see from other people and maybe from the crowd is, 'Hey, we've got to do something. We've got to score'. In actuality that's not the case. Score of game didn't dictate that. Score was a close football game. Lots of times in those situations people panic and get outside themselves. Actually in that type of game in every possession you have to at least flip the field. We won because of turnover ratio. Arkansas played exactly the kind of game they wanted to play. That part of it is where the maturity of your team has to come in. Instead of pressing and panicking and having to get something done, like scoring a touchdown every possession, moving the football and giving them long fields and scoring points is important. Do we have to get better in the red zone? Yes. Is a point of emphasis. But holding on to the ball and doing something with the few possessions we had was a big deal.
The similarities in schedule and results from 2014 to this year. Disagree. Don't think this year's schedule is anything like last year. Maybe the (Arkansas) game was like that. Last year we were one of the few teams to go 8 straight weeks in a row. This year we drew a bye after this week. Think this season is completely different. I don't draw any similarities to it. Think people are making a mistake (doing that). To a certain extent there's a little bit to this game, two teams that might be feeling the same way about life. This team we're playing is a really good team. I'm amazed. Spent 5 or 6 weeks at #1 last year. Return the best quarterback in the league. And they're picked last in our division. I don't see that. They've lost one game, they missed a field goal. They kept Auburn out of the end zone in 4 trips to the red zone last week. Got their top tacklers back on defense too. That team is not getting the type of respect they should be getting. They're coming in here to prove something. Got two very similar teams playing Saturday night. Gonna be a heck of a game.
Kyle Allen's 4th quarter performances against Arizona State and Arkansas. He's been really good. Been calm. Look in his eye is real good. A lot different than last year at this time when he wasn't playing at all. Quite frankly I think when he left the Arkansas game last year he was thinking about going somewhere else to play. Has come a long ways. Can he get better? You bet. Working on a lot of things. Confidence is a big deal. Understands the system better. Thought his ball security was a lot better Saturday…just little things. Smart in what he is trying to do. He should get better, it's just the progression of things. Think he understands personnel a lot more. Saw that in the fourth quarter and making right decisions. All comes with growth of quarterback.
Offensive line performance Saturday. Think we did some good things. Whenever we got in a situation where we had to drop back and they could pin their ears back and rush, that created issues for us. Thought we were able to handle things schematically. Thought did a great job on third down with screens. Our biggest issue was penalties. We had long fields and the 3rd down situations I thought we handled schematically as coaches better. Screen game was good during those situations. Been able to do some things running the ball-wise. What I did see was they played man to man and loaded the box more than they'd done previous weeks. Played more two high safety looks. When you get that you get an extra guy in there. Won't be able to block them all, have to run on them. Tra was able to do that. Because they were playing man to man you saw what happened later in game. All works together. Something we've taken a step forward with as a team. Will that work every week? I don't know. But do know this, schematically it changed their defensive look. And ultimately we were able to do some things offensively we probably couldn't have done against some two high safety looks.
Problems Dak Prescott presents. Same he presents to everyone's defense. He's 220-230. Gets bigger every time I see him. Patient back there. Run a power read, he'll just look, (and go)…just hope he doesn't come popping out of there. Tough guy to tackle. Strong. Is a leader. Biggest compliment you can ever give a guy sis would you want a guy on your team. Class act. Great guy to be around. When on the field just exudes confidence. Team feeds off that. Won't be intimidated. Been on big stages. And he's a good player. Everything will run through him offensively. Excellent skill on outside to compliment that. Big, big receivers that can go get it. Power running game. Got weapons. Schematically they do great job. Dan Mullen has always been that kind of guy, that will give his players opportunity to be successful. Will be a big challenge for us.
Put Kyler in in middle of series, what that does to defense in hopes to catch them off balance. Don't know, was hoping it would catch them off balance. You never know. Ability to put him in and do some things with him is advantageous to us. Ability for him to be in that environment is advantageous to him. As he gets more comfortable there's more things he can do. Cost them a timeout one time. Are things he brings to table that help our football team during the game. Also creates a preparation situation for the other team. As he continues to grow, more he's going to get, more of the whole package he's able to handle in those type of situations.
Otaro Alaka's status. No comment.
James White's status. No comment.
Physicality of team you just faced and how you came out of it. We'll see. Being honest with you. We don't do much on Mondays. Sundays we don't practice. Will know more today. Full pads today and tomorrow. I know this, our guys were bouncing around yesterday. Very attentive. Very excited to be back home. Going to be a great atmosphere. Few tickets left maybe. 6:30 game, two top 25 teams. Right in the wheelhouse for the 12th Man. Our guys will be excited to play.
Audio files are available through the story links and also available to listen on demand by subscribing to our free podcast.
A summary of Coach Sumlin's remarks is posted below.
KEVIN SUMLIN PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Trend of freshmen making impact so soon. Not an across the board statement. Certain guys are very talented and able to make that transition. New rules have really helped college football and the student-athlete. Fact we're able to pay for summer school subsequent to young man entering in fall. One big thing that has helped from maturation standpoint. Second big rule change was ability for coaches to meet with players about football-related things for up to two hours a week in the summer time. Now you have a young man here lifting for two 4-week periods (June and July). QBs running 7 on 7s with the defense three nights a week. Meeting with coaches three days a week. That will speed up the learning curve in a hurry as opposed to a guy coming in August and seeing playbook for the first time. For Kyler Murray and a bunch of these young guys, when we started practice we'd been through installation twice offensively. Only thing we hadn't done was go out and work with them as coaches.
Could you have envisioned the impact of Christian Kirk. I always envision everyone we recruit doing that. We'd like everyone we sign to be that way. A lot of dynamic players out there. A lot of guys making impacts across the country. Fortunately we've signed our share of them. Will continue to recruit that way. It says that the best players get to play here, whether they've been here 5 years or 5 days. He's playing well. Caught a break, Speedy Noil is nicked up a bit. When he gets back he will take a little bit off Christian's plate. What I've found is it's awful hard for a freshman to play at that level for a complete year. Got to have some of these other guy step into those roles. We have guys that can do it. Got to get the other guys going. Ricky Seals-Jones has been solid. Hasn't had the numbers people think he should have but playing as well as he's ever played (blocking, leadership, etc). Josh Reynolds has gotten going. Got to bring the other guys along and that's where Speedy and Damion Ratley and Jeremy Tabuyo are. Jeremy's had a great year. So we've got enough weapons that can help (Kirk) out. He will start seeing different coverages and things. After about game four or five, people figure out it's not a fluke. He's got some real talent. Defenses will change.
Ran only 48 plays vs Arkansas, but still able to win…how relevant is time of possession to you. For what we do, not very relevant at all. What's relevant to us is 3rd down conversions. If you're not converting third downs offensively it doesn't matter how much you have the ball. Also, third down conversions defensively. Idea is they work together. And, turnover margin. We won the game because we won the turnover margin 2-0 and were efficient on the few plays we had. Hard to walk in at halftime and be frustrated when you only have 16 plays and you're winning the game. In those situations what I think you see from other people and maybe from the crowd is, 'Hey, we've got to do something. We've got to score'. In actuality that's not the case. Score of game didn't dictate that. Score was a close football game. Lots of times in those situations people panic and get outside themselves. Actually in that type of game in every possession you have to at least flip the field. We won because of turnover ratio. Arkansas played exactly the kind of game they wanted to play. That part of it is where the maturity of your team has to come in. Instead of pressing and panicking and having to get something done, like scoring a touchdown every possession, moving the football and giving them long fields and scoring points is important. Do we have to get better in the red zone? Yes. Is a point of emphasis. But holding on to the ball and doing something with the few possessions we had was a big deal.
The similarities in schedule and results from 2014 to this year. Disagree. Don't think this year's schedule is anything like last year. Maybe the (Arkansas) game was like that. Last year we were one of the few teams to go 8 straight weeks in a row. This year we drew a bye after this week. Think this season is completely different. I don't draw any similarities to it. Think people are making a mistake (doing that). To a certain extent there's a little bit to this game, two teams that might be feeling the same way about life. This team we're playing is a really good team. I'm amazed. Spent 5 or 6 weeks at #1 last year. Return the best quarterback in the league. And they're picked last in our division. I don't see that. They've lost one game, they missed a field goal. They kept Auburn out of the end zone in 4 trips to the red zone last week. Got their top tacklers back on defense too. That team is not getting the type of respect they should be getting. They're coming in here to prove something. Got two very similar teams playing Saturday night. Gonna be a heck of a game.
Kyle Allen's 4th quarter performances against Arizona State and Arkansas. He's been really good. Been calm. Look in his eye is real good. A lot different than last year at this time when he wasn't playing at all. Quite frankly I think when he left the Arkansas game last year he was thinking about going somewhere else to play. Has come a long ways. Can he get better? You bet. Working on a lot of things. Confidence is a big deal. Understands the system better. Thought his ball security was a lot better Saturday…just little things. Smart in what he is trying to do. He should get better, it's just the progression of things. Think he understands personnel a lot more. Saw that in the fourth quarter and making right decisions. All comes with growth of quarterback.
Offensive line performance Saturday. Think we did some good things. Whenever we got in a situation where we had to drop back and they could pin their ears back and rush, that created issues for us. Thought we were able to handle things schematically. Thought did a great job on third down with screens. Our biggest issue was penalties. We had long fields and the 3rd down situations I thought we handled schematically as coaches better. Screen game was good during those situations. Been able to do some things running the ball-wise. What I did see was they played man to man and loaded the box more than they'd done previous weeks. Played more two high safety looks. When you get that you get an extra guy in there. Won't be able to block them all, have to run on them. Tra was able to do that. Because they were playing man to man you saw what happened later in game. All works together. Something we've taken a step forward with as a team. Will that work every week? I don't know. But do know this, schematically it changed their defensive look. And ultimately we were able to do some things offensively we probably couldn't have done against some two high safety looks.
Problems Dak Prescott presents. Same he presents to everyone's defense. He's 220-230. Gets bigger every time I see him. Patient back there. Run a power read, he'll just look, (and go)…just hope he doesn't come popping out of there. Tough guy to tackle. Strong. Is a leader. Biggest compliment you can ever give a guy sis would you want a guy on your team. Class act. Great guy to be around. When on the field just exudes confidence. Team feeds off that. Won't be intimidated. Been on big stages. And he's a good player. Everything will run through him offensively. Excellent skill on outside to compliment that. Big, big receivers that can go get it. Power running game. Got weapons. Schematically they do great job. Dan Mullen has always been that kind of guy, that will give his players opportunity to be successful. Will be a big challenge for us.
Put Kyler in in middle of series, what that does to defense in hopes to catch them off balance. Don't know, was hoping it would catch them off balance. You never know. Ability to put him in and do some things with him is advantageous to us. Ability for him to be in that environment is advantageous to him. As he gets more comfortable there's more things he can do. Cost them a timeout one time. Are things he brings to table that help our football team during the game. Also creates a preparation situation for the other team. As he continues to grow, more he's going to get, more of the whole package he's able to handle in those type of situations.
Otaro Alaka's status. No comment.
James White's status. No comment.
Physicality of team you just faced and how you came out of it. We'll see. Being honest with you. We don't do much on Mondays. Sundays we don't practice. Will know more today. Full pads today and tomorrow. I know this, our guys were bouncing around yesterday. Very attentive. Very excited to be back home. Going to be a great atmosphere. Few tickets left maybe. 6:30 game, two top 25 teams. Right in the wheelhouse for the 12th Man. Our guys will be excited to play.
Players Mentioned
LB
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WR
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/ FootballWR
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RB
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