Kevin Sumlin, coordinators Jake Spavital and Mark Snyder, and select players met with the media Tuesday at Texas A&M's weekly football press conference inside Kyle Field.
Audio and video clips will be available to the left. Quotes will be posted below.
“I thought last week was a great atmosphere to play in. Our team enjoys playing in AT&T Stadium. We enjoyed the outcome, actually. It was a great show of support. The whole Corps was there. It was a really electric atmosphere, particularly at the beginning and end of the game.
“What do you learn out of that? We didn't play well as a whole team, as well as we wanted to, but we played well enough to win. A lot was said about the young players on this team getting accolades but we wouldn't have won this game without the older players. Deshazor Everett had 16 or 17 tackles. Howard Matthews was making critical plays. Malcome Kennedy was coming in and out of the game making plays. We needed some older players to step up and there were some unsung heroes. Ivan Robinson doesn't get enough credit for playing 58 snaps in that game. The ability for us to be able to play the way we did, definitely in the fourth quarter, is a tribute to (strength) Coach (Larry) Jackson and his staff from a conditioning standpoint, but also the ability for us to rotate guys in there. You can't take away the ability for those guys to play 10, 15, 20 snaps a game and keep those front line guys roiled up and ready to go. We had a little more juice at the end (of the game) because of that.
“I think you grow as a team. I saw some wide-eyed looks from some of the younger guys for the first time. There were a number of young guys where that was a real learning experience for them.
“I'm glad we got through it, glad we won and we move on to the next challenge which is Mississippi State. This team is red hot right now with seven straight wins, (racking up) 500 yards a game this year. They are scoring a bunch of points. They've always been talented defensively, they have a big athletic defensive line. The secondary is very, very good. They are one of the tops in the league in tackles for loss. Their defensive coordinator Geoff Collins likes to play football on your side of the line of scrimmage. They're extremely aggressive. Dak Prescott is playing at a high level. In the last football game, to go into LSU and played the way they played, going up and down the field and score points, you could argue they are as hot as anybody. They'll be rested up and ready to go. We've got an 11:00 start so we'll jump up early in the morning, put our stuff on and go play some football.”
This was the first situation of adversity for Kenny (Hill)… what did you learn from his responding to that?
“You've heard me say before the quarterback gets too much credit when we win and all the blame when we lose. We had a bunch of dropped balls and a bunch of penalties. A lot of things contributed to us not starting fast besides the quarterback. He continued to play. We made plays at end that we either just missed, dropped, caught and fell down, or had a penalty—whatever—that we did in the first three quarters. That wasn't case for the last five minutes of the game. He's going to be him. His demeanor lends itself to not being too high and not being too low and his being able to execute in all environments. I wasn't a big fan of that early in his career but I think it really helps him and helps this team.”
Any benefit to playing back-to-back weeks against teams who like to run the ball?
“They're two completely different styles. You're looking at a different attack than really an Arkansas, a two tight-end, three tight-end, multiple formation, shift-motion situation. You've got a completely different attack. Spread attacks get lumped into the same group and that's not necessarily the case. There's no doubt these guys like to run the ball from this attack. The quarterback is part of the run game. You have to account for him. As soon as you do that with all the motions and everything that happens, if you're not rotating properly or fitting the right gap, the play-action pass is deadly. When you have a dual-threat quarterback playing at a high level like Dak is, that's the real issue. If you stop the run game and stop the quarterback run game, you can't cut one loose deep. That's how they've been able to score a lot of points. Kind of like us, they have 14 or so guys that have caught passes on the perimeter, a good tight end, a strong offensive line. They are a complete team. If we don't stop the run this week we have real problems, but we can't let the ball get over our heads either.”
You said after the game you were glad to get the win but you have to clean up the penalties. How do you clean that up during the week?
“We have officials who are there. We have things we do to try and reinforce what's right and what's wrong, just like a lot of things that happen during a game. That was a very strange game in we had one more penalty than them but they had more penalty yardage. Certainly that's something we've been working on. We had one guy who had three penalties himself in Cam Clear, who hasn't played since the first game. I think that has something to do with it. We address them individually and as a team, but that's something we've been working on and something we have to clean up.”
With all the youth on the team, how does a win like that in the way you got it help for the long-term development?
“Youth or not, a win like that becomes important around here. When you play in the SEC and you win a game in the SEC, whether you're young or old, a win is a win. Based on how we played, the older guys pulled us out of it. The young guys you didn't see have the impact they had maybe at South Carolina. They were a little bit overwhelmed. The intensity level of that game was pretty high. We talked yesterday as a team about that. It was a real learning experience for some of those young guys. I think our older guys because they had been through it were able to pull us out of it. The thing I thought was interesting was the communication on the sideline. From coaches to players, players to coaches, players to players…there wasn't a sense of panic. There was real communication instead of yelling, screaming, bickering and finger pointing. As a coach, you never know how a team will react until you're in those situations. That takes a level of maturity. At halftime I walked in with something I was going to say. When I got to the door Malcome was talking to everyone going in. He looked at me and said, 'I've got something I've got to say'. I listened to him and said that's better than anything I could say, so we went in and looked at adjustments for the second half. When you start to have that as a coach you start to feel a lot better about situations like that. Not just winning the game, but for the younger players seeing a guy like Malcome in that role…down the road they will say, 'Hey, that needs to be me'. That's where leadership and a culture can change.”
What happened to Brandon Williams and is he available this week?
“After the first series he was injured and we didn't put him back in. He is probable (for this week), which is better than probably probable.”
How do you evaluate your linebackers after Saturday?
“Jordan (Mastrogiovanni) is still coming off that ankle. We saw him make some plays, he didn't really shoot it as much as he has been in the past. You can really see the difference Shaan Washington makes for us. He is explosive. He can make plays other guys can't. I think Donnie Baggs has really improved. From where he was a year ago to where he is now, he's a different guy. Is he perfect? No. But he's a lot more aggressive, physical and trustworthy in what he's going to do. Justin Bass has really given us an opportunity because he kind of floats around as a missing piece. He doesn't get enough credit. One of the things we aren't talking about was the play-action pass tackle he made on third down (in overtime) to keep it at 4th and 2. That's Justin Bass. If he doesn't make that play, its first down and who knows what happens. Are we perfect? No. We miss AJ Hilliard. We can try and keep the other three guys fresh on the field. I think we're better. We're bigger and we're still a work in progress. Getting Shaan back has made a real difference for us.”
You've had many past battles with Dan Mullen, how has his program grown?
“Dan has done a fabulous job. This is number five (in a row) that we've played them, twice at Houston and now three times here. I have a lot of respect for him. He's come up in a path of success. Being with Urban (Meyer) a bunch has probably influenced him, you can see that offensively, where the influence is and his ability to put his own twist on things. Dak Prescott is the player he has been wanting, the complete dual-threat quarterback, to make this thing go. (They have totaled) over 500 yards every game this year. They're going up and down the field on everybody. The defense has had a bunch of guys drafted since they have been there and this defense is no different. This team is extremely athletic. They are red hot. He's done a great job. Coming from where they are, you look at their win percentage over time, he's one of the winningest coaches in Mississippi State history. That doesn't come from chance. That comes from hard work and comes from a plan. All you have to do is turn on the tape and you can see this team is as good as any we will play this year.”
Do you see a comparison defensively between this team and the 2012 defense?
“This team is a little bit different (than 2012). We've got so many guys playing. If you look back at that team…I think we played Louisiana Tech and had only 15 guys play defensively the whole night. This is a different team. We are playing a lot of guys. On that team the linebackers all were a little bit older and ready to handle things. We've got some young guys playing and the leadership is different from within, just because of the number of younger players out there trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. Every year you've got a different team. But I'd characterize this team as a lot different than 2012 because of the number of young guys playing. That probably puts more of an onus on the older guys.”