Aggies Meet Media at Weekly Luncheon
Aug 25, 2008 | Football
August 25, 2008
COLLEGE STATION, Texas- Head Coach Mike Sherman and selected players met with members of the press on Monday at the first weekly football media luncheon of the season on the Texas A&M campus.
Click the MP3 links on the right to listen.
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TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL
Head Coach Mike Sherman
Monday Media Luncheon Comments vs. Arkansas State
Monday, Aug. 25, 2008
THE QUESTION: Give us a synopsis of what you expect from Arkansas State.
COACH SHERMAN: They’re not going to be intimidated coming into Kyle Field. They’ve had opportunities every year to play the top teams in the country, and to play in front of a lot of great crowds at Tennessee or going to Austin and playing games and playing well. So that part of it won’t happen. They’ll be ready to play. They’re very well coached. I was watching the game they had against North Texas which was at home. They have a very good record at home. In that game they were down and came back to win the ball game. The quarterback, Corey Leonard is a talented kid can throw it can run it. He can really burn with you that option game they have, but can also throw the ball deep to his receivers. He has a good group of receivers to throw the ball to. The running back, Reggie Arnold, is about 5’9”, 225 pounds. He is a real squatty body guy. He is an excellent runner. I think he averaged 6.5 yards a carry. I think that was second in the country. They have a left tackle, (Matt) Mandich, who will be an NFL player, so they’ve been running that scheme for a while, and they are very good at it. They’re going to come after you. Defensively, they are primarily a four man front team. They play some overs and unders. They have two good defensive ends, a linebacker named Owens, who plays hard and well. They are replacing their secondary, but at the same time they have a lot of guys who have played in games back there. I expect it will be a hard fought game. From punting standpoint. They average about 41.7 yards per punt. Their kicker, I think, set a school record 15 field goals last year. They’re pretty well balanced. Their return game is also very good. I think Jones averages about 11 yards plus, and (Brandon) Thompkins averages 21 on kick off returns. So they are a very well balanced football team. They are very well coached. Coach (Steve) Roberts does a good job.
THE QUESTION: After the scrimmage the other day, you said that you hoped to have your all your fullbacks ready this week. Do you still anticipate that?
COACH SHERMAN: I don’t know. Jorvorskie (Lane) has been held out of any major conditioning due to the neck and head injury. He’s going to do some conditioning today and we’ll play it by ear. But he hasn’t been cleared to do a whole heck after lot. So I have some concern right there. Nick LaMantia is coming off of an ankle injury and he ran around yesterday but is still a little ginger on that ankle. So no, I don’t feel like we’re a hundred percent at that position just yet.
THE QUESTION: Was Jorvorskie diagnosed with a concussion?
COACH SHERMAN: He had the stinger in the shoulder and the neck injury. At the same time he had a head injury. Now whether we actually labeled it that way, I don’t know. We are so sensitive how we label them obviously. Concussion, I can’t honestly tell you that, but he had some headaches.
THE QUESTION: Coach how has the team been responding to these new clock changes that are coming through? Is the offense more adjusted to the prostyle approach to game clock and play clock?
COACH SHERMAN: We practice with it every day but that doesn’t mean it’s going to go that way in the game. Because a lot of things happen, decisions are made on the play, the play has to be sent in, and the play has to be called, get to the line of scrimmage, and beat the clock. At times I think we’re pretty good with it. Other times we’re right on the numbers. We practice it as much as we possibly can. This week, we have put more emphasis on it and all of our scrimmages. We’ve been over the time a couple of different times, which concerns me. But everything happens faster in the game anyway so hopefully we can coach it up this week and really get good at it, but it is a little different for these guys.
THE QUESTION: Has your experience in the NFL helped this process come along?
COACH SHERMAN: Well, that helps, but at the same time we’re not talking directly to the quarterback (like in the NFL) which alleviates a lot of time. When you can talk to them directly like we can in the NFL, it’s easier because the time is not as much a factor because you’re telling him the play, Here we have to signal it in and that takes time. So it’s a challenge. Without having direct communication to the quarterback it’s a little bit of a challenge. And just because I have familiarity with the NFL, I wouldn’t say it gives us any edge simply because the play is communicated differently in college than it is in the pros.
THE QUESTION: Do you think college football should go that direction?
COACH SHERMAN: Well, I would sleep a lot better on Friday night I know that. My life would be easier if they did. It would be great if they could do that. It would make an easier game, There would be less stress on the quarterbacks to have to learn a system and be able to call the play. They take the pressure off of the million dollar quarterbacks in the NFL. It would be nice if we took it off these kids. Once you do it, it’s an expense that affects everybody that plays division one football. I’m sure that plays a part in it.
THE QUESTION: I would like to go back for just a second. If Jorvorskie and Nick can’t go, who starts there? And does that limit anything you planned to as far as running the ball?
COACH SHERMAN: I’m pretty sure Nick can go. He was ginger yesterday but I think he’ll be okay to go. (Anthony) Vela has done a very nice job for us in Nick and Jorvorskie’s absence. I have a lot of confidence in him.
THE QUESTION: How have you been dealing with the youth on the Offensive line?
COACH SHERMAN: I have a few more gray hairs than when I started. That is one way of dealing with it. The other way is that we have been coaching the heck out of them. Jim Turner has done a phenomenal job with them. I think they’re making progress. It is going to take game experience to get to the level that we need to get and we’ll find more about this group once we get into the ball game. They’re a good group collectively. They work well together. They communicate together. They have a good chemistry amongst themselves which I attribute to coaches developing that. As I’ve said many times, it’s a work in progress.
THE QUESTION: Has anybody stepped out in your mind or stood out?
COACH SHERMAN: No, not necessarily. No one’s that far ahead of anybody else. As I’ve said in the past, that group is mentioned more collectively than individually anyway. How well do those five guys play together.
THE QUESTION: How big of a concern is depth on the offensive line?
COACH SHERMAN: It’s a major concern. I always like to have at least eight players, the five starters, swing tackle, swing guard, and a center to back up. And you want to find eight, and I think we’ll be able to find those eight; but anything beyond that...at this point we have a lot of youth there obviously with those freshmen coming in.
THE QUESTION: Could you talk about your receiving corps. How they’ve come together?
COACH SHERMAN: I think we’re making progress there. I think (Howard) Morrow has jumped out and done a nice job, having been injured last year and missed a lot of the season and then coming back this year in pretty good shape. He made some nice catches in the end of the game scenario, pulled a big play down at the end. That was the end of the half and a heck of a play. And he’s made some nice catches for us in the camp. (Jeff) Fuller has made some catches, made a great one in the scrimmage the other night. And as for the other guys, to answer your question, I think we’re getting better. We have a long way to go. We’re still not there yet, but we’re getting better.
THE QUESTION: Other than maybe some overall experience, could you ask for any more out of the set of tailbacks you have? Could you kind of go over those guys a little?
COACH SHERMAN: I’m always looking for competition in a group, and that group has as much competition as the quarterbacks if not more so. There is a lot of quality depth right there which is important for us, particularly earlier in the season. Coming out of the blocks, guys are going to get tired. It’s going to be 95 degrees at kick off this Saturday so we’re going to need every single one of those guys. I think they’re developed. Their foot work on the running game was a little bit in question when we first started. We have specific foot work for our running game and they have become better pass receivers. I thought they weren’t running great routes and now they are getting much better. We need to continue to work on our pass blocking when they bring pressure stepping up and collecting the linebackers, the safeties, and staying square in the hole and attacking the defense. I think we’re making progress there. So there’s things we’re doing well, and things we need to work on.
THE QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about Stephen McGee and kind of what’s impressed you most with him in this time you’ve had with him?
COACH SHERMAN: I think what impressed me the most was when I called him in my office and told him that it’s open competition at the quarterback position, and in all fairness to the rest of the quarterbacks I need to do that and in fairness to him because I hadn’t seen him necessarily be a quarterback in this system. He embraced that and understood that, didn’t pout about it. Obviously he was concerned but he was competing every single day to win that job and had confidence that he would. At the same time without me ever telling him he was anywhere close to being the starter. At no time did I lead him to believe that. So the way he handled that showed me his character.
THE QUESTION: Yeah. How much longer before you told him did you realize this was going to be the guy who would lead your offense this year?
COACH SHERMAN: I tried to keep it wide open. In fairness to the other quarterbacks, Jerrod (Johnson) has tremendous talent, (Ryan) Tannehill has talent and I wanted to be pretty objective to it. I didn’t want the fact that Stephen played last year to influence my decision. I wanted to give it to the quarterback that functioned best in this offense. All three quarterbacks are great leaders. Jerrod Johnson is a phenomenal leader, Tannehill is a leader as a young kid. They’re all equal in that area. It came down to managing the game-like situations that we have and making the best decisions.
THE QUESTION: What about his skill set? A lot has been made over the last couple of years about him being a running quarterback. What do you see his skill set at?
COACH SHERMAN: Throw more maybe but hopefully, but not a lot. If we are throwing a lot, we are probably not winning the football game. And the question is what skills do I see he has? You know for a guy who hasn’t dropped back from center a whole lot in his career he has a good drop point, has a good release. I think he’s accurate. He sees the field very well. When you ask him what happened, some quarterbacks, not very good ones, they don’t have great recall. You need to have recall as a quarterback. You need to have a mental picture of what you just saw and be able to communicate that picture and use that reference point for future plays in the offense. So he has great recall. He is a very very intelligent young man.
THE QUESTION: We’ve heard a lot about McGee and Johnson being on the field at the same time is that something that’s going to happen week one and what brought that about.
COACH SHERMAN: They are competitive kids. I wanted them to add to the depth that we have at the receiver position. We’ll keep working with them and obviously playing receiver is a heck of a lot different than quarterback. We will keep working with them there and they’re going to add to the depth that have position.
THE QUESTION: On the defensive side of the ball can you talk about Cyril (Obiozor)? Has he stepped up as one of the leaders over there?
COACH SHERMAN: Those three seniors -- Cyril, (Michael) Bennett and (Amos) Gbunblee take a leadership role on our team, (Cyril) i still figuring out his way as a defensive end in our system and hopefully when he gets to be comfortable there, he will exert himself a little bit more. We are still waiting for that to happen.
THE QUESTION: You made some switches in the defensive backfield in the off season. How did those pan out, and how do you sum up your secondary at this point?
COACH SHERMAN: Danny Gorrer has been injured quite a bit in camp and coming off major knee surgery and the atrophy that affects that type of development when you come back to the field is pretty intense. He’s working his way back. When he’s out there he’s a very very good corner. I think Jordan Pugh has probably been the most consistent player because he’s been out there just about every single day. He has just done a nice job for us at the other corner position. Jordan Peterson, having moved from corner to safety, seems more of a natural fit right there. He has excellent range because of the fact he is such a fast player and I think that position suits him, particularly coming off that surgery. So I think they’re in the right position. Hopefully in a position to make plays that best suit their ability.
THE QUESTION: Talk about some of the freshmen that have come in, and what kind of impact do you expect them to make?
COACH SHERMAN: Parents always ask me if I am planning on redshirting their son and they asked me that same question. I never get into that because I want them to all come in and expect to play and prepare that way. When you crown someone a redshirt early in the process, it’s just human nature to try to just have a low expectation of the season and I don’t want that to happen. So there will be a fair amount of young men that will contribute this season and as you’ve watched them practice Jeff Fuller has been out there with the ones and twos working. Brian Thomas has been playing some left guard for us with the ones and with the twos. I had Eddie Brown on defense and had him play some with the twos and also will be on our kick off return team possibly too. We have a number of guys who have blended in. Trent Hunter from Katy,
Texas, will be in the mix and the two deep and also probably be a core special teams player as well. (Kyle) Mangum from Brenham, before he got hurt was really doing some nice things and I thought I could possibly see him on the special teams as a core playe. There’s a number of freshmen, and others that I haven’t mentioned that will contribute this year.
THE QUESTION: Coach, do you see a difference in the players when they reported yesterday for the start of game week versus what you saw when they left here on Friday?
COACH SHERMAN: I don’t know if I saw a difference in them whereas they might have seen one in me when I talked to them about ?'this is game week. Man, this is what it’s all about, this is fun. You know, two a days are over, off season is over, and we’re ready to go. This is why you play football and if you can’t get excited in game week then you’re in the wrong business.’ So I didn’t give them a chance to show me what they had as much as I wanted to explain what this was all about, how excited they should be. But I did sense a little bit of an air. It is probably never going to be what I want it to be, but it still is Monday and tomorrow really is the start of game week so in all fairness to them you know when you come back on Tuesday for practice that really is when you start doing your scouting report and everything. I found in my history, if you do it too soon they peak too early in the week so we hold off until actual game week and they’re working on Arkansas State they didn’t even know it at the time on Friday and yesterday. The official game week starts tomorrow so we’ll see how they respond to that and I’m assuming favorably.
THE QUESTION: What coaches will be in the press box during the games? How are you going to work that?
COACH SHERMAN: Well, Nolan Cromwell offensively will be in the press box for the offense, and be in communication with me and Tom Rossley on the sideline. Defensively, we haven’t totally finalized that side of it, but Joe Kines will be on the field. One of our defensive back coaches will be up, probably Van Malone will be up in the box in communication with Joe Kines.
THE QUESTION: Could you tell us about your nerves this week? Have you thought about your nerves this being the first game of the season but game one for you at A&M. What it’ll be like Saturday night?
COACH SHERMAN: I haven’t placed myself that far ahead yet. Doing work now. Come Wednesday or Thursday it’ll start to hit me a little bit, but you know it’s fun. I mean, it’s why we do this and, you know, you lay it out on the line out there and hope your preparation beats their preparation. Hope your coaching beats their coaching your players beat their players. I will say this: (Arkansas State) is a very well coached football team in all phases offense, defense, and special teams. This is a good challenge for us.
THE QUESTION: How satisfied are you with the way training camp has gone and the position you feel the team is in right now to approach the season?
COACH SHERMAN: You are asking me a tough question. I am never really satisfied. Every day I go by I wish we did better. So to say satisfied, I don’t know if I’m satisfied but I feel like we’ve put them in as many situations as we possibly could. They’ve been exposed from a football standpoint to a lot of different things that could come up in the ball game and as a coach I think that’s your responsibility to prepare them. When it’s kicked off out there it’s a players’ game and the players have to play to their level that they need to play and it’s a huge responsibility on them to show up on Saturday and no reason they shouldn’t play their hearts out, but I think we’ve prepared them pretty well to this point and exposed them to many things that will happen this season.
THE QUESTION: For the players that have been here the last two or three seasons, what do you think has been the biggest difference for them going through your training?
COACH SHERMAN: I don’t know. I didn’t go through anything before, and I’m of a belief that you know everybody has different philosophies, and that doesn’t make mine any better than somebody else’s. Just mine. I’m not one to criticize anybody. There are different ways to do things. And I just do things my way. All I know is my way. So I don’t know how they react to that.
THE QUESTION: What’s the best part about coming back to Aggieland?
COACH SHERMAN: Buppies. (laughter)
THE QUESTION: What’s this an ad?
COACH SHERMAN: No. I tell you, obviously it goes without saying, I think the best part of coming back to Texas A&M when I take that field and you know all those Aggies gather together and are excited about their football team and just the faith and belief that they have in its success is something that I always remember. Whenever we took that field in the past, we never doubted that we had full support from everybody in those stands and I think that’s what I remember most, and look forward to the most.
THE QUESTION: Do you know who the place kicker’s going to be?
COACH SHERMAN: We are going to go through the week. I think you have to go through the week and watch them do it, the pressure situations as much as we can create. I think we have an idea, but I’m going to wait until a couple of days. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. I want them to keep working.
