Head coach Kevin Sumlin and coordinators Jake Spavital and Mark Snyder met with the media on Tuesday at the Aggies' weekly press conference inside Kyle Field. Quotes are below.
After Saturday, what changes have you made or are there some in the works?
“I think anytime you're in a situation like this…yesterday from a schedule standpoint our off week changes a little bit. We met and conditioned as a team on Monday. Today the players will have off. We will practice Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday morning, and lift Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That's a little bit of change from bye weeks that we've had in the past. This week is about working on us. To answer your question I don't think there's anything that's off the table, any position, in evaluating where we are right now. Something like what happened Saturday is an eye opener, and should be an eye opener, not just to coaches and fans but to players too. We're evaluating that situation. We've got coaches out recruiting today. They'll be back in the office tomorrow and we'll be practicing Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'll have more info probably next week at the press conference.”
From a staff standpoint, have you considered changes on that end?
“No. There's nobody who's working harder at coaching, technique, game-planning, all that stuff, than our guys in this building. No, that has not been the case. We have a lot of football left to play. We have four guaranteed games and we're playing for the opportunity for five. That's a lot of football, particularly with a lot of young guys. We've got to get the right pieces to the puzzle on the field and do a better job. I've said that. Don't get that confused, that starts with me. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. It's not one player. It's not one coach. It's not one thing, when you have a situation that happened like Saturday. So ultimately I have to evaluate (everything) and make sure we're giving our team the best chance to win, whatever we do. That starts with me. Now, we've done that before and we've been pretty good, so there's nothing to lead me to believe that we won't get back out of this thing and get back to where we were.”
When you start zeroing-in on things positionally, why is the offensive line not getting things done?
“I don't know, I think we're seeing some new schemes. I'm seeing some things we hadn't seen before, coming off really a similar game plan from earlier in the year. When you put something on tape, I say it a bunch of times, you're either sending an invitation or sending a message. I think we invited some similar schemes that we had some problems with, with line stunts and movement and blocking movement and twists. That has been kind of the M.O. right now. We started to get on the perimeter, and we couldn't get on the perimeter quite frankly because we weren't as physical as we were at the beginning of year and have been since we've been here. On the perimeter. That's a double-edged sword right there. Everything works hand in hand. There's not a one-group problem when you have a game that happens the way it happened out there the other day. Our message to the team is that this program football-wise is founded on three things: play hard, play smart, and be physical. Of which, the last couple of weeks that has not been the case and has directly contributed to us losing. Our challenge is to get back to those three things and be the program that we were when we started the season and have been since we've been here. And we'll do that.”
What over the next couple of weeks will determine whether you go with Kenny (Hill) or Kyle (Allen) at the quarterback position?
“You know, I don't know. There's a lot of things that happen in practices, and we have a bunch of practices. We have a week of preparation. We have three (practices) this week, with meeting time. We've got plenty of time and plenty of reps that will determine not just…there's a lot of evaluation going on, to be honest with you. To get back to those three things I talked about, the message yesterday was basically hey, there are a lot of things open. You can get beat 59-0 with anybody on the field. So the guys who are going to play to the standard that we set and have been, particularly early in the season and the last couple of years, I think we've gotten away from that. And it's our job is to get back to that. And if that's good enough to win or lose, you can live with that. But you can't live with not having those three principles. And we're not going to live with that.”
How do you go about as a coaching staff making sure they get back to those principles?
“The same way we began (this season) and the same way we begin every season. In my evaluation, we've got a lot of young players that we were getting ready to try and get on the field and we may have not taken care of those things as much as getting guys ready to play, and teaching them schemes and football, on the white board and everything else…instead of playing the game the way we want it to be played around here. That's what this week is about. If we don't get anything done this week it's going to be that.”
Can you pinpoint at what point the team stopped playing the way you wanted them to play?
“It's amplified by the fact that the three teams we played are really good. Not just okay. That's reflected by the ratings. Saturday was a situation where it's obvious. I don't know…it's hard to say. Just because you lose doesn't mean you didn't play hard. Or just because you lose doesn't always mean your plan wasn't good. Sometimes people are better than you, and you can live with that. But how you lose becomes important to me. How we've lost the last three weeks hasn't been our M.O. around here, if we lose. Like I said, you get back to those three principles. And if we're doing those things…the funny part is, most of the time we're doing those things, we win. And if we do lose—it's hard to stomach anytime you lose—but you can live with it and move on.”
Do you feel like there's some mental toughness missing on this team?
“I just ID'd three things, and you can put anything in those categories. Is it mental toughness? Maybe. Is it physical toughness? Maybe. Whenever you lose like that you can look and say just about anything—blocking, tackling, whatever—it can be a lot of those things. But I think you have to be careful to generalize about certain things, particularly when it comes to a football game. Sometimes certain situations will create a generalization. I'm careful not to do that but I do think it's important to be honest in our evaluation of what we're doing, what we're asking players to do and how they're doing it. That's going to have to improve.”
You mentioned the other day this was uncharted territory for you…have you sought out any advice from your coaching brethren?
“I've had a couple of phone calls. I haven't returned them yet, I've had my own meetings. Yesterday was really the first time the team has been back and we had a chance to meet as a team. Going forward, there's a couple of guys that I talk to that have called me right off the bat. They understand it. You know, there are a couple of people out there I'll talk to about it. But the first thing we have to do is not worry about the opponent right now. This week, we're playing us. We're evaluating us across the board. Nothing is off the table. That kind of attitude, those standards, what is acceptable and what's not acceptable, that starts with me. That's what this week is about and we'll set out to get that corrected tomorrow at practice.”
How much faith do you have right now in Jake (Spavital)?
“I have a lot of faith in Jake. You sit there and look at what we attempted to do and tried to do…you know, we met as team yesterday, and really for the first time in a long time in my career, we had the whole team sitting, coaches and players, watching it the way I watch it. From kickoff to end. Offensively, defensively, special teams, the game flowed. Guys got to actually see the other guys play. Believe it or not the offensive guys never really get to see the defensive guys during a game unless they catch a touchdown or interception or something. That's the reasoning behind the effort tape and that's the reasoning behind (this is) what's really going on and why we're trying to do certain things. Because I think a lot of times people get caught up just what the play is and what the reasoning is behind a play. I think a lot of effort and work was put into that plan. The execution of that plan, that's different. What we have to do is go back and say is it scheme? Is it personnel? Is it matchup, scheme and personnel? Are we communicating it the right way and are we getting things done the right way? Obviously we're not. How do you fix that? That's our job. To start the year that was not a problem and has not been a problem. We have to get back to the little things that create attitude of – we've got to move quicker. We have to be more assertive in all phases. To do that, a practice has got to change.”
Along those lines, how much faith do you have in Coach Snyder to ultimately get it done for you?
“That's where we are right now too. Obviously there are a lot of people, based on the last two questions, that don't have any of confidence in them, but I think our team does. Whenever you start questioning anybody, I would say this. Just like everything that I've talked about, our talk is inside the building. Players play and coaches coach. There's enough evidence on tape that we've got to make sure our players are playing at the level they need to play through the scheme on both sides. We've got plenty of football to go. And because of that, you've got four games left playing for a fifth, that's a lot of young guys playing a lot of snaps. Nobody is working harder at putting the right product on the field or the right scheme on the field than our coaching staff right now.”
When you got here the major question was can Kevin Sumlin's air-raid offense succeed in the SEC? Then you had a lot of success over the last two years. After the last few games do you say maybe you have to make some more significant changes?
“You could say that. I think we probably played with a tight end more than we ever have last week. So there's nothing to gain from that knowledge, since we used the tight end and we got shut out. It's not what you do, it's how you do it. And you've heard me say it a bunch. Whether you are a spread team, a spread gun run team or an option team, it all comes down to how you do things, not what you do. Right now we're not doing it very well, for the reasons I talked about a few minutes ago. I think the misnomer about our offense coming into the league was that it was a finesse offense. I saw a group of guys the first couple of years and the first part of this season play with real toughness on the perimeter, block people, and block people inside. I haven't seen that. So it gets back to the attitude I am talking about. Whatever you do, you're playing football. Whether you're in 1-back (formation), 3-backs, three tight ends, whatever, at a certain point you have to be a physical football team. What's been lost in the last couple of weeks, besides games, and what has to return? And it would be different if that attitude and those things, those principles were not in this team to start the year. Those are adjustments, things, observations that I have made and those are things I've got to fix. The good news is I've seen it. It was there at the beginning of the year. So it's not like we're looking at a team that started off the year that way and it's not in there. It's in there. We gotta get it out.”
Saw Alonzo Williams got banged up. How's he doing?
“He's pretty banged up. He is not one of the guys I'm talking about, I'll put it that way. He and Ivan (Robinson)…Ivan probably should not have played in that game. Looking at the video, we should have gotten him off the field. Because he went from trying to be who he was to almost being a liability at the end, not being able to move. My conversation with Ivan was, I'm so proud of him, but there comes a time where toughness becomes not being very smart and hurting the team. Here's a guy we were hoping to get 10 to 15 plays a game out of, he plays 58 snaps against Arkansas and on and on and on. It's taken its toll. The last three or four weeks of him playing three technique in the SEC took its toll on him. He needs this week, he and Alonzo. When you've got both those guys out there who hold the point for us beat up and nicked up, that was a real problem for us Saturday. It gets back to what I said. We've got other players. We've got young players who have to be able to go in there. Part of the issue is the rotation, to be able to trust some these guys to rotate in in big games and not be overwhelmed. That attitude that I was talking about earlier needs to go across the board, not just to a couple, three guys who have played football. But some guys on the team who have talent but have not been very tough. But they're talented.”