Football Weekly Press Conference: Arizona State
Sep 01, 2015 | Football
Coach Sumlin along with both coordinators and select players met the press on Tuesday as the Aggies talked Arizona State and this weekend's Advocare Texas Kickoff.
Click the link above to watch Coach Sumlin's press conference or the videos below to hear from Jake Spavital and John Chavis. Summaries of comments made are posted below.
Excited about season. Excellent camp. New energy from new players who arrived over summer and the 3 new coaches have really blended in well. From coaching standpoint there's a new energy from combination of new exciting players, and a team that finished with a bowl win last year, and those players coming into the season with own expectations. With a combination of new schemes and new ideas and new players this camp has been highly competitive. Guys are tired of running into each other. Ready to play somebody else.
Arizona State. Arizona State is a fine, fine football team. Coach Graham has done excellent job. Continues to win whenever he's been. Had good fortune of playing against each other every year in Conference USA. Game usually meant something for the division title. Has an excellent coaching staff. Shawn Slocum is coaching special teams. Jackie Shipp, who I worked with at OU, is coaching the d-line. Chris Ball (co-defensive coordinator) and I lived together during my first job at Washington State. Coach Graham very familiar with state of Texas. Coached high school here and coached collegiately. Will have a lot of pride coming back and playing in Houston. We've got a number of real good players from the Phoenix area. So there's a little bit more going on in this football game then just the surface. They're a top-20 football team and we have a chance to play on the national stage and in a facility like NRG Stadium, which has hosted a Super Bowl and is as fine of one as anywhere in the country.
Kyle Allen's response after being named starter. Has really done nice job. This season started for us December 31 of last year. Started for him when they gave him the MVP trophy (Liberty Bowl). Challenged him to become better leader and increase his knowledge of our offense and overall football IQ. He accepted that. Got a number of quality reps in spring. In summer Kyler Murray shows up and he got great competition. He accepted that. He likes where he is right now from a growth standpoint. Has been growing mentally but also physically. Up to 215 pounds now. All part of the process. He's come along just fine.
What you see from ASU's DJ Foster on tape. He's not hard to find on tape, that's the problem. This guy is electric, dynamic. Mike Norvell is a guy we have a lot respect for as an offensive coordinator. Guy will get the ball in good players' hands. Uses schemes that benefit players. This guy is a nightmare. Give it to him till his tongue hangs out. Not an issue of finding him. They will hand him ball or flip it to him or throw it to him. We just have to be aware. When you get him in space you have to make tackles. Going to take team defense and team pursuit. We have worked very hard on that. Chief has brought attitude of everyone getting to the ball. Have to be aggressive but have to be disciplined with our eyes. Creates some issues but our guys understand the challenge ahead. Arizona State has got really good team speed, always has, and a good scheme. Try to get to him as much as they can.
Similarities between Todd Graham now and at when you were at Houston. Lot of things. There's a defensive philosophy he's stuck with. Even at Tulsa it's always been a team that's created negative yard plays defensively to get you behind chains. One of top teams in country doing that last year. Always been electric and dynamic offensively. Scored lots of points. Played fast. Similarities are still there. Philosophical aggressiveness of their play has remained the same. That's why he's been successful.
Overall feel of the linebackers. Got a couple young guys who played well at end of last year. Josh Walker had flashes. Had real productive offseason. A.J. Hilliard, got to get him back going. Otaro Alaka the same way. Shaan Washington coming off shoulder surgery a year ago, had excellent camp. He's 230-something pounds. Long. rangy. He's the Shaan Washington we recruited. Those guys have done a great job. Three freshmen will play special teams in this game. Takes the stress and heat off them at the start. Look for all 3 to get time Saturday night there. Riley Garner will start on one. There's depth. There's a reason those guys are playing, not just to play 5 or 6 snaps a game. Playing because in game 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, when we start to get dinged up, we can play some younger guys who have game experience and that will help us down the road.
Taylor Bertolet. He's gifted. Kind of like me as a golfer a few years ago. Hit it a mile at the driving range. Idea is to hit it straight. Been a great kickoff guy, arguably one of best in country. Now we're moving from driving range to first tee again. Got some narrow fairways out there for him. We've gone to a goalpost at practice a little bit narrower than regular goalposts. Had a really good camp. So much of that is mental. Until those situations come up, you really don't know. 2 or 3 years later hope he's grown mentally. Daniel LaCamera is a young guy with a big future.
Offensive line and new pieces like Avery Gennesy. Avery Gennesy was one of top junior college offensive tackles in country. Able to land and redshirt him. Always been athletic. Took the year to get stronger and understand the scheme. He's come in and battled. Big thing that's helped him is playing against Myles Garrett every snap. Can be frustrating early. Gained some confidence. He and Germain Ifedi have really thrived in a competitive environment with Daeshon Hall and Myles rushing them. Some of the best teams I've been on practice was so competitive it was ridiculous. Made the transition to game speed a lot easier. Avery's seeing about as good a player as he can see every day. Ought to give him some confidence going into Saturday night. Mike Matthews understands what we are doing. Gives us juice in there. Joe Cheek--it's his time. Big enough. Leader. Rotate some guys in at left guard spot Saturday night. For most part got 3 returning starters cause Cheek played a lot last year. We've got guys that are very talented that we need to get out there and get battle tested.
History with Graham especially the '09 meeting (46-45 Houston win). Seemed like all those games took 4 or 5 hours. That was just a different game. We scored 10 points in a minute and a half. Actually went for two and didn't get it, and still won game somehow. I don't really know what happened at end, been so long ago. Always fun and electric games. Most did have an effect on the (Conference USA) West champion. He's been consistent and done nothing but had success. Anytime you turn on the tape you understand why.
Sam Moeller, a former walk-on who was voted team captain. He's a guy that has a chance to set a record, most games started as the 12th Man. Have been a lot of quality young men in this program be the 12th Man at some point or another. For a guy to be consistently that says a lot about him as a person. Says a lot as a football player and the respect that his teammates have for him. For him to be voted special teams captain that says a lot too. Got the whole team voting on that. Cuts across everything. People respect what he does. I respect how he's handled business. That's what brought him to where he is right now. Everyone's told him no all his life and all he does is run down and make plays. Block punts. Been involved in some big time plays. Has set the standard around here from since we've been here for what being the 12th Man is all about.
Similarities preparing for big game to start this year to preparing for last year vs South Carolina. Anytime you play an opener like this it's easier to get team's attention in the offseason. No doubt. These guys watch TV. They understand what is at stake. This is good football team we are playing. You're on national TV. Have to have your act together when you hit field. Easier to get their attention. That being said I think it's more than just first game we are talking about. Whatever happens in this game is not going to define us, win or lose. Just not. Didn't learn that from last year you didn't learn anything. Particularly in a non-conference game. Preparation this game is based on how we have done things in the past. We've been pretty good in first games. So how we approach won't change. Change for us will come down line and how we do things rest of the year. A lot of that is from the offseason. Mentally, physically stronger. Handling adversity. When things aren't going very well, the ability to handle those come to light. Didn't do good job of that last year. Our preparation for opening ballgames has been pretty solid historically. How we do things doesn't change. Big thing is how we handle adversity.
Myles Garrett voted team captain as sophomore, how rare is that. I used to be senior-led team guy. But when you've got young guy taking every snap like a quarterback you're basically saying as an organization you're trusting this guy with the ball every snap. No bigger trust than that. Told Kyle why can't you be a leader? By your role, you are a leader. When you have dynamic player like Myles you are kidding yourself if you don't think when he speaks team will listen. They'll look for him to make plays in critical times. Took restrictions off who can be a captain. Think you'd be shocked the number of young guys who got votes to be captain. We voted 2 offense, 2 defense and 2 special teams. Number of votes spread out but obviously consensus was our team thinks he's a leader. That's important to me. If they think he's a leader, whether you talk or not, you're a leader. As a young player step outside yourself and become that guy. He's capable of that. Made strides.
Christian Kirk. Huge game for him. True freshman. Expectations. Keep handling business. It's hard for freshman. Pretty big game for our quarterback too, with where he's from. Can't get caught up in all that. Big thing is we are playing a top-20 opponent in a neutral site on national TV. How you handle that as a freshman probably a little bit different than Kyle. Don't think he's ever been in NRG Stadium with roof closed. Pretty loud in there. That would be the big difference for him. Those young guys I tell them all the time the first time I stepped on field as freshman I didn't know what was going on. Things happen so fast. Quicker we get him in the flow and calmed down the better he will be. Talent and physically he's ready to go to play at this level. Got to keep him focused and get him the ball early.
Eagerness to see defense coached by John Chavis. I'm eager to see the whole team. Number of players had some success at end of last year. They're looking to play. Got some new schemes offensively and defensively. Defensively, yeah we're excited to see that. Offensively we're excited too. Got young players excited to play. Right now they understand exactly who they are and maybe last year they didn't. Found out last year the hard way what big time college football is like in the middle of the season. Came into this season where they understand what it takes now to play at this level consistently. Quite frankly I think they've got a chip on their shoulder based on what people are saying about them. Have an opportunity to say something about that on national-TV stage against a top-20 team. That's what I'm excited about.
Expectations of Christian Kirk in Game 1. Don't want to put too high expectations on him being a freshman. The maturity and poise he's shown is pretty impressive right now. Came along so fast because he got here in spring and went up against a John Chavis scheme. If he approaches it the way he's been I think good things will happen.
Todd Graham. Worked for him in '08. Know how multiple he'll be. He'll bring something we haven't seen yet. Got to be ready to go up against anything. With experience of Mike Matthews at center, who has seen a lot of football, I feel comfortable about that. Addition of Coach Christensen and what he brings the run game and offensive line I think you'll see drastic improvement in those areas.
Compare and contrast these two head coaches. Both are winners that's for sure. Always had high-powered offenses. If you look in past when going up against each other they have been shootouts. Lot of fun to watch. Have lot of respect for both of them. When it boils down to it this profession is about winning. Both win.
Both have tendencies to hire younger assistants. Have a system. Right now offensive coordinator at Arizona State is Mike Norvell who I GA'd with. Roughly same age as me. Just something about being comfortable and having trust in people who work around you. Both lean on that. They are very loyal to people who have been good to them.
Growth of Kyle Allen's maturity on and off field. Off the field you can tell. When you watch the replay of the West Virginia bowl game you see how much weight and strength he has put on. Had great offseason from a physical standpoint. Very pleased with his poise and just where he's at. Lot of it is familiarity with the offense and how he doesn't look sideways at me anymore when I give him signal from sidelines. Understands what I'm trying to accomplish. Game is really starting to slow down for him.
Kyler Murray plans, a package for him or do you redshirt him. Got to play at least two quarterbacks is what ends up happening. Obviously Kyle was named starter. Thing about how we've handled quarterback situation in past, we like to announce starter two weeks early to see how everyone reacts to it. Kyler is very dynamic kid. Will keep evaluating him this week. Know what he's capable of doing but want to see the maturity and see how he handles some high-stress situations we'll put him in. Who knows what will happen. We've sat down all three quarterbacks and told them where they are. All the QBs have a chance to play based on how they approach game week and if they can continuously strive to get better.
Donovan Wilson's development. Come a long ways. Terry Joseph has done great job with the entire back end. Pleased with the progress he's made. Obviously we'll find out more in game but certainly like where he is right now.
Most anticipating thing you're looking forward to this weekend. Total process. Playing the game. Had a physical fall practice. Tired of hitting each other. Want to compete with someone else. Got a good feel of where we are. Find out a lot about our football team Saturday night.
Adjustments you had to make to your system with the players you had here. Not very many at all to be honest. Don't have everything in yet. Continue to grow. Have athletes to run this system. Not backing down about our two ends. Real excited about those guys. Excited about the guys at corner. Got pieces we need no question about that. Just getting experience in this system.
What Arizona State does that makes them more successful than others. Not necessarily anything different. They run the football and want to run the football. Want to get it on the perimeter. Lot of formations. Athletic enough on line to get out on perimeter and block. Got quarterback we had opportunity to see in about 4 games last year who's very talented young man. See a team a lot are picking to win the league out there. Very explosive offense. Scores lots of points. Will have challenge but looking forward to it.
Excitement about linebackers. Have work to do. Getting there. Feel very good to be honest. Concern is experience. They are getting on the job training. Time for them to step up and get ready to play big boy football. That's what will happen Saturday.
DJ Foster and key to bottling him up. They've got a lot of offensive weapons. He's certainly a guy they use in a lot of situations. Receiver. Running back. Can't see them not handing him the ball some. Very effective last year. Got to play their offense and be ready. He's one of the factors. They've got other weapons as well.
Development of corners and Brandon Williams. Brandon very talented but brought extra leadership. He's brought to that to a different level. Made the whole room get better. Different system. Play a lot more press man than you've seen. Guys have good length. Can run. Can turn. Brandon is one of those guys.
Your excitement level. Going to be outstanding. Way I feel about coaching. Going to do it as long as someone will have me and as long as I feel those butterflies. I have them. It's game week. I'm ready to go play. Fired up.
Excited but very focused at same time. Know the task at hand. Every game is important. This is most important because it's the first one.
Being the guy at running back. What any running back in football would ask for. Ready for this. Been preparing for this my whole career. Don't feel any pressure at all.
Feeling pretty good. Pretty confident in our defense. Better team philosophy. Everyone is buying in to what Coach Sumlin and Coach Chavis are saying. Looking pretty good right now. Have a lot of returners on defense. Know what it takes to put in the work and play fast. Trying to do more than we did last year. A lot of guys learned a lot from playing young last year. Expect to come out faster than we did last year.
Season opener. What we work for day in and day out. All the meetings, practices, hitting each other gets tedious and tiring. Going against another team, especially a real good one like Arizona State, playing in Houston…NRG Stadium is going to be a crazy atmosphere. Really looking forward to that.
Expectations for self in 2015. Have very high expectations. Look at players around me, we have a ton of good receivers. Running backs are playing at very high level. New run game is killing it. Have all the pieces around me to have a successful year personally but I think the offense is going to have a great one too.
First game vs ASU. Special one for me. A lot of people say A&M has a lot of rivals in the SEC. I didn't grow up in the south, I grew up in Arizona. So this is a rivalry game for me.
Expectations for self. Be a dominant force. A guy people expect to always do the job and do it to his full ability.
Playing ASU in Houston. Right in my backyard. 10 minutes from where I grew up. Terrific. Can't imagine a better way to start the year.
Click the link above to watch Coach Sumlin's press conference or the videos below to hear from Jake Spavital and John Chavis. Summaries of comments made are posted below.
KEVIN SUMLIN PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Excited about season. Excellent camp. New energy from new players who arrived over summer and the 3 new coaches have really blended in well. From coaching standpoint there's a new energy from combination of new exciting players, and a team that finished with a bowl win last year, and those players coming into the season with own expectations. With a combination of new schemes and new ideas and new players this camp has been highly competitive. Guys are tired of running into each other. Ready to play somebody else.
Arizona State. Arizona State is a fine, fine football team. Coach Graham has done excellent job. Continues to win whenever he's been. Had good fortune of playing against each other every year in Conference USA. Game usually meant something for the division title. Has an excellent coaching staff. Shawn Slocum is coaching special teams. Jackie Shipp, who I worked with at OU, is coaching the d-line. Chris Ball (co-defensive coordinator) and I lived together during my first job at Washington State. Coach Graham very familiar with state of Texas. Coached high school here and coached collegiately. Will have a lot of pride coming back and playing in Houston. We've got a number of real good players from the Phoenix area. So there's a little bit more going on in this football game then just the surface. They're a top-20 football team and we have a chance to play on the national stage and in a facility like NRG Stadium, which has hosted a Super Bowl and is as fine of one as anywhere in the country.
Kyle Allen's response after being named starter. Has really done nice job. This season started for us December 31 of last year. Started for him when they gave him the MVP trophy (Liberty Bowl). Challenged him to become better leader and increase his knowledge of our offense and overall football IQ. He accepted that. Got a number of quality reps in spring. In summer Kyler Murray shows up and he got great competition. He accepted that. He likes where he is right now from a growth standpoint. Has been growing mentally but also physically. Up to 215 pounds now. All part of the process. He's come along just fine.
What you see from ASU's DJ Foster on tape. He's not hard to find on tape, that's the problem. This guy is electric, dynamic. Mike Norvell is a guy we have a lot respect for as an offensive coordinator. Guy will get the ball in good players' hands. Uses schemes that benefit players. This guy is a nightmare. Give it to him till his tongue hangs out. Not an issue of finding him. They will hand him ball or flip it to him or throw it to him. We just have to be aware. When you get him in space you have to make tackles. Going to take team defense and team pursuit. We have worked very hard on that. Chief has brought attitude of everyone getting to the ball. Have to be aggressive but have to be disciplined with our eyes. Creates some issues but our guys understand the challenge ahead. Arizona State has got really good team speed, always has, and a good scheme. Try to get to him as much as they can.
Similarities between Todd Graham now and at when you were at Houston. Lot of things. There's a defensive philosophy he's stuck with. Even at Tulsa it's always been a team that's created negative yard plays defensively to get you behind chains. One of top teams in country doing that last year. Always been electric and dynamic offensively. Scored lots of points. Played fast. Similarities are still there. Philosophical aggressiveness of their play has remained the same. That's why he's been successful.
Overall feel of the linebackers. Got a couple young guys who played well at end of last year. Josh Walker had flashes. Had real productive offseason. A.J. Hilliard, got to get him back going. Otaro Alaka the same way. Shaan Washington coming off shoulder surgery a year ago, had excellent camp. He's 230-something pounds. Long. rangy. He's the Shaan Washington we recruited. Those guys have done a great job. Three freshmen will play special teams in this game. Takes the stress and heat off them at the start. Look for all 3 to get time Saturday night there. Riley Garner will start on one. There's depth. There's a reason those guys are playing, not just to play 5 or 6 snaps a game. Playing because in game 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, when we start to get dinged up, we can play some younger guys who have game experience and that will help us down the road.
Taylor Bertolet. He's gifted. Kind of like me as a golfer a few years ago. Hit it a mile at the driving range. Idea is to hit it straight. Been a great kickoff guy, arguably one of best in country. Now we're moving from driving range to first tee again. Got some narrow fairways out there for him. We've gone to a goalpost at practice a little bit narrower than regular goalposts. Had a really good camp. So much of that is mental. Until those situations come up, you really don't know. 2 or 3 years later hope he's grown mentally. Daniel LaCamera is a young guy with a big future.
Offensive line and new pieces like Avery Gennesy. Avery Gennesy was one of top junior college offensive tackles in country. Able to land and redshirt him. Always been athletic. Took the year to get stronger and understand the scheme. He's come in and battled. Big thing that's helped him is playing against Myles Garrett every snap. Can be frustrating early. Gained some confidence. He and Germain Ifedi have really thrived in a competitive environment with Daeshon Hall and Myles rushing them. Some of the best teams I've been on practice was so competitive it was ridiculous. Made the transition to game speed a lot easier. Avery's seeing about as good a player as he can see every day. Ought to give him some confidence going into Saturday night. Mike Matthews understands what we are doing. Gives us juice in there. Joe Cheek--it's his time. Big enough. Leader. Rotate some guys in at left guard spot Saturday night. For most part got 3 returning starters cause Cheek played a lot last year. We've got guys that are very talented that we need to get out there and get battle tested.
History with Graham especially the '09 meeting (46-45 Houston win). Seemed like all those games took 4 or 5 hours. That was just a different game. We scored 10 points in a minute and a half. Actually went for two and didn't get it, and still won game somehow. I don't really know what happened at end, been so long ago. Always fun and electric games. Most did have an effect on the (Conference USA) West champion. He's been consistent and done nothing but had success. Anytime you turn on the tape you understand why.
Sam Moeller, a former walk-on who was voted team captain. He's a guy that has a chance to set a record, most games started as the 12th Man. Have been a lot of quality young men in this program be the 12th Man at some point or another. For a guy to be consistently that says a lot about him as a person. Says a lot as a football player and the respect that his teammates have for him. For him to be voted special teams captain that says a lot too. Got the whole team voting on that. Cuts across everything. People respect what he does. I respect how he's handled business. That's what brought him to where he is right now. Everyone's told him no all his life and all he does is run down and make plays. Block punts. Been involved in some big time plays. Has set the standard around here from since we've been here for what being the 12th Man is all about.
Similarities preparing for big game to start this year to preparing for last year vs South Carolina. Anytime you play an opener like this it's easier to get team's attention in the offseason. No doubt. These guys watch TV. They understand what is at stake. This is good football team we are playing. You're on national TV. Have to have your act together when you hit field. Easier to get their attention. That being said I think it's more than just first game we are talking about. Whatever happens in this game is not going to define us, win or lose. Just not. Didn't learn that from last year you didn't learn anything. Particularly in a non-conference game. Preparation this game is based on how we have done things in the past. We've been pretty good in first games. So how we approach won't change. Change for us will come down line and how we do things rest of the year. A lot of that is from the offseason. Mentally, physically stronger. Handling adversity. When things aren't going very well, the ability to handle those come to light. Didn't do good job of that last year. Our preparation for opening ballgames has been pretty solid historically. How we do things doesn't change. Big thing is how we handle adversity.
Myles Garrett voted team captain as sophomore, how rare is that. I used to be senior-led team guy. But when you've got young guy taking every snap like a quarterback you're basically saying as an organization you're trusting this guy with the ball every snap. No bigger trust than that. Told Kyle why can't you be a leader? By your role, you are a leader. When you have dynamic player like Myles you are kidding yourself if you don't think when he speaks team will listen. They'll look for him to make plays in critical times. Took restrictions off who can be a captain. Think you'd be shocked the number of young guys who got votes to be captain. We voted 2 offense, 2 defense and 2 special teams. Number of votes spread out but obviously consensus was our team thinks he's a leader. That's important to me. If they think he's a leader, whether you talk or not, you're a leader. As a young player step outside yourself and become that guy. He's capable of that. Made strides.
Christian Kirk. Huge game for him. True freshman. Expectations. Keep handling business. It's hard for freshman. Pretty big game for our quarterback too, with where he's from. Can't get caught up in all that. Big thing is we are playing a top-20 opponent in a neutral site on national TV. How you handle that as a freshman probably a little bit different than Kyle. Don't think he's ever been in NRG Stadium with roof closed. Pretty loud in there. That would be the big difference for him. Those young guys I tell them all the time the first time I stepped on field as freshman I didn't know what was going on. Things happen so fast. Quicker we get him in the flow and calmed down the better he will be. Talent and physically he's ready to go to play at this level. Got to keep him focused and get him the ball early.
Eagerness to see defense coached by John Chavis. I'm eager to see the whole team. Number of players had some success at end of last year. They're looking to play. Got some new schemes offensively and defensively. Defensively, yeah we're excited to see that. Offensively we're excited too. Got young players excited to play. Right now they understand exactly who they are and maybe last year they didn't. Found out last year the hard way what big time college football is like in the middle of the season. Came into this season where they understand what it takes now to play at this level consistently. Quite frankly I think they've got a chip on their shoulder based on what people are saying about them. Have an opportunity to say something about that on national-TV stage against a top-20 team. That's what I'm excited about.
JAKE SPAVITAL PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Expectations of Christian Kirk in Game 1. Don't want to put too high expectations on him being a freshman. The maturity and poise he's shown is pretty impressive right now. Came along so fast because he got here in spring and went up against a John Chavis scheme. If he approaches it the way he's been I think good things will happen.
Todd Graham. Worked for him in '08. Know how multiple he'll be. He'll bring something we haven't seen yet. Got to be ready to go up against anything. With experience of Mike Matthews at center, who has seen a lot of football, I feel comfortable about that. Addition of Coach Christensen and what he brings the run game and offensive line I think you'll see drastic improvement in those areas.
Compare and contrast these two head coaches. Both are winners that's for sure. Always had high-powered offenses. If you look in past when going up against each other they have been shootouts. Lot of fun to watch. Have lot of respect for both of them. When it boils down to it this profession is about winning. Both win.
Both have tendencies to hire younger assistants. Have a system. Right now offensive coordinator at Arizona State is Mike Norvell who I GA'd with. Roughly same age as me. Just something about being comfortable and having trust in people who work around you. Both lean on that. They are very loyal to people who have been good to them.
Growth of Kyle Allen's maturity on and off field. Off the field you can tell. When you watch the replay of the West Virginia bowl game you see how much weight and strength he has put on. Had great offseason from a physical standpoint. Very pleased with his poise and just where he's at. Lot of it is familiarity with the offense and how he doesn't look sideways at me anymore when I give him signal from sidelines. Understands what I'm trying to accomplish. Game is really starting to slow down for him.
Kyler Murray plans, a package for him or do you redshirt him. Got to play at least two quarterbacks is what ends up happening. Obviously Kyle was named starter. Thing about how we've handled quarterback situation in past, we like to announce starter two weeks early to see how everyone reacts to it. Kyler is very dynamic kid. Will keep evaluating him this week. Know what he's capable of doing but want to see the maturity and see how he handles some high-stress situations we'll put him in. Who knows what will happen. We've sat down all three quarterbacks and told them where they are. All the QBs have a chance to play based on how they approach game week and if they can continuously strive to get better.
JOHN CHAVIS PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Donovan Wilson's development. Come a long ways. Terry Joseph has done great job with the entire back end. Pleased with the progress he's made. Obviously we'll find out more in game but certainly like where he is right now.
Most anticipating thing you're looking forward to this weekend. Total process. Playing the game. Had a physical fall practice. Tired of hitting each other. Want to compete with someone else. Got a good feel of where we are. Find out a lot about our football team Saturday night.
Adjustments you had to make to your system with the players you had here. Not very many at all to be honest. Don't have everything in yet. Continue to grow. Have athletes to run this system. Not backing down about our two ends. Real excited about those guys. Excited about the guys at corner. Got pieces we need no question about that. Just getting experience in this system.
What Arizona State does that makes them more successful than others. Not necessarily anything different. They run the football and want to run the football. Want to get it on the perimeter. Lot of formations. Athletic enough on line to get out on perimeter and block. Got quarterback we had opportunity to see in about 4 games last year who's very talented young man. See a team a lot are picking to win the league out there. Very explosive offense. Scores lots of points. Will have challenge but looking forward to it.
Excitement about linebackers. Have work to do. Getting there. Feel very good to be honest. Concern is experience. They are getting on the job training. Time for them to step up and get ready to play big boy football. That's what will happen Saturday.
DJ Foster and key to bottling him up. They've got a lot of offensive weapons. He's certainly a guy they use in a lot of situations. Receiver. Running back. Can't see them not handing him the ball some. Very effective last year. Got to play their offense and be ready. He's one of the factors. They've got other weapons as well.
Development of corners and Brandon Williams. Brandon very talented but brought extra leadership. He's brought to that to a different level. Made the whole room get better. Different system. Play a lot more press man than you've seen. Guys have good length. Can run. Can turn. Brandon is one of those guys.
Your excitement level. Going to be outstanding. Way I feel about coaching. Going to do it as long as someone will have me and as long as I feel those butterflies. I have them. It's game week. I'm ready to go play. Fired up.
SELECT PLAYER COMMENTS
TRA CARSON
Excited but very focused at same time. Know the task at hand. Every game is important. This is most important because it's the first one.
Being the guy at running back. What any running back in football would ask for. Ready for this. Been preparing for this my whole career. Don't feel any pressure at all.
AJ HILLIARD
Feeling pretty good. Pretty confident in our defense. Better team philosophy. Everyone is buying in to what Coach Sumlin and Coach Chavis are saying. Looking pretty good right now. Have a lot of returners on defense. Know what it takes to put in the work and play fast. Trying to do more than we did last year. A lot of guys learned a lot from playing young last year. Expect to come out faster than we did last year.
Season opener. What we work for day in and day out. All the meetings, practices, hitting each other gets tedious and tiring. Going against another team, especially a real good one like Arizona State, playing in Houston…NRG Stadium is going to be a crazy atmosphere. Really looking forward to that.
KYLE ALLEN
Expectations for self in 2015. Have very high expectations. Look at players around me, we have a ton of good receivers. Running backs are playing at very high level. New run game is killing it. Have all the pieces around me to have a successful year personally but I think the offense is going to have a great one too.
First game vs ASU. Special one for me. A lot of people say A&M has a lot of rivals in the SEC. I didn't grow up in the south, I grew up in Arizona. So this is a rivalry game for me.
GERMAIN IFEDI
Expectations for self. Be a dominant force. A guy people expect to always do the job and do it to his full ability.
Playing ASU in Houston. Right in my backyard. 10 minutes from where I grew up. Terrific. Can't imagine a better way to start the year.
Players Mentioned
LB
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PLK
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LB
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DL
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OL
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LB
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OL
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WR
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PK/P
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OL
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DB
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DB/RB
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/ FootballTexas Postgame: Taurean York
Friday, November 28
Texas Postgame: Marcel Reed
Friday, November 28
Texas Postgame: Mike Elko
Friday, November 28
Behind the Mic: Texas
Friday, November 28
