Texas A&M coaches and players met the media on Tuesday as part of the Aggies' weekly football press conference inside the Kyle Field Media Center.
A&M continues SEC play when they face No. 17 Arkansas in the Southwest Classic on Saturday night (8 p.m., ESPN).
A summary of Coach Sumlin's comments are posted below.
Get better on 3rd down.
Practice. Have to execute. Little things here and there make third down percentage better. Auburn shown ability to be pretty good defensive team too. We have to be better offensively. Third-down percentage has a lot to do with down and distance and what those look like. Way we look at it, 4-6 yards is medium and nowadays 3rd and 3 is not a short down. 2 or less is short. 8-plus is long yardage. Different route structures, different play selection. Percentage can go up on third and short the shorter the distances are. More than just third down alone. Has to do with a lot of different things. We need to be better there. Also we're making lot of first downs. Recognize where we are. I said after game we have lot to work on. Try to get better every week. Address our problems, not necessarily looking at what everyone else is doing but look within. Third-down conversion and red zone weren't very good last week. Practice is only way you can fix. Threw some balls a little bit high. Miscues. One time had a back go wrong way. Those are high-pressure situations particularly on road. Usually that's the loudest down. Got to be more comfortable in that situation. That was great experience for our guys. More than just plays, it's players, it's everybody. Only way to get better is practice.
How does improvement of defense affect decision-making on offense.
Said after game affected maybe some play selection, maybe (makes it) a field-position game particularly with way our specialists have played. Braden Mann kicking ball out of end zone. Shane Tripucka solid year in punting. Coverage good. Daniel Lacamera has kept getting better. When defense is solid as it has been you can manage game little bit differently. Every game won't be like that. But certainly was different look for us last week.
Christian Kirk takes hit, gets up and keeps playing.
He's a football player. More upset than anything. Didn't like laying on ground at all. He's a great kid. Works hard at it. Appreciates good football. No complaint from our end. Good football play. Clean hit. He understands that. Lots of hidden yardage that he saved us over last couple weeks in ball not hitting ground on punts, instead of letting ball hit ground and go 20 more yards. Keeping us above 25- or 30-yard line is big deal. He did great job. Speedy did too. Guys are growing up. Not saying they won't make mistakes, but saying mentality little bit different. They've played football and been a lot of different places. Decision making process has been pretty good up to this point out of those guys. Christian loves to play game. Loves Saturday. Respects how game is played. Plays that way all the time.
Fixing trend of taking foot off pedal late.
Practice. More practice. We're working on it. Haven't played perfect game. Played pretty good at different times, but haven't played perfect game. Would be more concerned if we'd played perfect game at this point. Ability to improve is there. Shaan Washington played 87 plays. Honestly when they put (QB John) Franklin in there he's at different speed than anyone on field. That had lot to do with yards made. When he came in that was different offense and different guy running at different speed. And majority of yards came from that. Not making excuses, but that had lot to do with it. We were in different defense too. At that point time was more important than yardage.
Trayveon Williams' emergence.
You guys saw him in spring. He's fast. Takes great pride in what he does. Covered ball up couple times to try to go get first down. Definitely's got home run speed. Said we will need all these running backs in this league. Keith (Ford) was okay early. James White in critical part of the game, 3rd quarter when we had to get control of game, his were critical carries of 4-6 yards that moved the pile. He has to be able to do that for us. When he went in game it was kind of an unsung deal. Couple critical carries in that quarter to keep clock moving and keep us rolling down field. Trayveon has got a lot of talent. Got real speed. Got good hands. Will continue to get better as develops. Will need James White, Keith Ford, Kendall Bussey and Kwame Etwi too. All those guys are playing pretty good right now.
Jermaine Eluemunor - first impressions.
Was highly recruited, almost by every team we're playing actually. One of top JC players in country even though he was from London. Had to wait to do home visit until whole family got back to New Jersey. Knew we had a chance because wanted sister to be back from London and everyone back. Didn't think he would want all those people there if he wasn't going to come to school here. At one time was committed to Arkansas, to UCLA, to all kind of places. He had his pick of where to go to school. Came here. Because of where he was from he didn't really get the nuances of football. Hadn't played that much. He and Avery (Gennesy) probably top two JUCO tackles in country and we redshirted them. Developed them. He's found home at right tackle. Tackles last week for most part did great job against a really really solid front in SEC. Whole offensive line did. He's certainly talented and as one pro source told me #72 doesn't make it look hard. Very athletic for a 330-pound guy. Really just getting going. Need him to continue to get better every week.
Did Trevor losing his job and going through last year make him a better quarterback?
Not that alone. Easier to talk to guy like Trevor who's 23, who's been through highest highs and then, to lose your job to another really good player is one thing. But how you handle it is another thing. Can say it's coaches' fault or Baker's fault or conspiracy or whatever. But in Trevor's case and kind of person he is he looked in mirror and said I need to do some things, I can be better. Credit to Lincoln Riley and Bob (Stoops) that 1 they let him out of there and 2 be able to have conversations that made him real good in those situations. We have made effort to try and eliminate bad football. Won't always be the case. He wants to be great. This second opportunity for him. He knows that. He filled void for us not just as quarterback but as a guy who'd played the position in big games and understood it. So when you walk into Auburn that's not a shock. Be able to handle crowd noise and other things and change plays. We filled void or him too. Second chance to show what he can do on big stage. Lot of people don't get that chance. He's happy about it and we happy about it. Perfect? No. But he's been tremendous teammate, great leader for football team. Not easy to do coming in January. Working at it to be best quarterback he can be. Way he approaches it right now with open mind and way he's able to communicate gives him opportunity to eliminate some of the football that created situation that lost him his job.
Arkansas picked up lot of momentum at end of last year and have they picked up where they left off.
I don't really care about last season, I don't think Bret does either. Lot of momentum based on what they're doing this year. Good football team. Coaches voted a number of those players preseason all-SEC. (Dan) Skipper has been there forever, playing tackle now, blocking kicks. Very physical line. Drew Morgan another preseason all-SEC at wide receiver. That's just on offense. Two running backs you know what they want to do. Jeremy Sprinkle one of top tight ends in league. Defensively it's kind of interesting. See same guys every year since we been here. (Brooks) Ellis playing linebacker, another all-league player. (Deatrich) Wise is rushing passer just like always. Veteran football team. Been in well coached system and one Bret has believed in. Built it from ground up with philosophy that he believes is winning formula, just like it was at Wisconsin. Just like anything else when you win that breeds confidence. This team is veteran and well-coached and has philosophy that is working. Two teams with a lot of momentum playing in a great venue Saturday night. Will be a fun ball game.
Ever get sense some guys that block Myles might get little leeway and does he ever express frustration.
He doesn't talk about that. Doesn't complain about anything. We've sent our concerns in to the proper authorities, i'll put it that way.
Bret made point to recruit DFW area pretty well and Texas pretty well. When it comes to game likes this how important is it to win those games.
Don't know that one game affects recruiting like that. Never believed that. Used to come to state fair every year (with old team)--fifth game of year every year. May have affected one guy but it was the other games that affected recruiting more than that one game. Has something to do with that game but in general a neutral-site game doesn't bring anything about what your campus atmosphere is about. Games this early, it's been my experience you have 7 more games to play. Other 11 games of season probably carry more weight than just that one football game.
Past two games have gone overtime. Something there between teams that makes it exciting game? Maybe your relationship with Bret?
Got lot of respect for Bret and way he came up through coaching ranks, kind of similar to me. Wasn't a great, great player. Will be mad I said that. Same trees, similar people we've known, Bob Stoops, my relationship with guys at K-State. Got a job at young age at Wisconsin. Won championships. Came into our league with a philosophy that really people early probably were concerned about. He really believes in what he's doing and has built a top-20 program now. Got lot of respect for how they do things. Do we want it to be as exciting as it has been? Probably not unless we win and then it can be exciting as it wants to be. Great atmosphere. Lot of our guys grow up in this state. One of best venues in the world. When teams are like this, two top-20 teams are gonna play, can be really loud in there. Biggest thing I had to learn in this game was not watch jumbotron whole time. Great place to play. Our guys like to play there. Lot at stake but as I said before, no matter what happens Saturday lot of football to be played. Our guys have approached every week with same demeanor of trying to be one week better and winning this game. Like where our team's at. Like their demeanor and their approach. This week won't be any different.
A&M continues SEC play when they face No. 17 Arkansas in the Southwest Classic on Saturday night (8 p.m., ESPN).
A summary of Coach Sumlin's comments are posted below.
KEVIN SUMLIN PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Get better on 3rd down.
Practice. Have to execute. Little things here and there make third down percentage better. Auburn shown ability to be pretty good defensive team too. We have to be better offensively. Third-down percentage has a lot to do with down and distance and what those look like. Way we look at it, 4-6 yards is medium and nowadays 3rd and 3 is not a short down. 2 or less is short. 8-plus is long yardage. Different route structures, different play selection. Percentage can go up on third and short the shorter the distances are. More than just third down alone. Has to do with a lot of different things. We need to be better there. Also we're making lot of first downs. Recognize where we are. I said after game we have lot to work on. Try to get better every week. Address our problems, not necessarily looking at what everyone else is doing but look within. Third-down conversion and red zone weren't very good last week. Practice is only way you can fix. Threw some balls a little bit high. Miscues. One time had a back go wrong way. Those are high-pressure situations particularly on road. Usually that's the loudest down. Got to be more comfortable in that situation. That was great experience for our guys. More than just plays, it's players, it's everybody. Only way to get better is practice.
How does improvement of defense affect decision-making on offense.
Said after game affected maybe some play selection, maybe (makes it) a field-position game particularly with way our specialists have played. Braden Mann kicking ball out of end zone. Shane Tripucka solid year in punting. Coverage good. Daniel Lacamera has kept getting better. When defense is solid as it has been you can manage game little bit differently. Every game won't be like that. But certainly was different look for us last week.
Christian Kirk takes hit, gets up and keeps playing.
He's a football player. More upset than anything. Didn't like laying on ground at all. He's a great kid. Works hard at it. Appreciates good football. No complaint from our end. Good football play. Clean hit. He understands that. Lots of hidden yardage that he saved us over last couple weeks in ball not hitting ground on punts, instead of letting ball hit ground and go 20 more yards. Keeping us above 25- or 30-yard line is big deal. He did great job. Speedy did too. Guys are growing up. Not saying they won't make mistakes, but saying mentality little bit different. They've played football and been a lot of different places. Decision making process has been pretty good up to this point out of those guys. Christian loves to play game. Loves Saturday. Respects how game is played. Plays that way all the time.
Fixing trend of taking foot off pedal late.
Practice. More practice. We're working on it. Haven't played perfect game. Played pretty good at different times, but haven't played perfect game. Would be more concerned if we'd played perfect game at this point. Ability to improve is there. Shaan Washington played 87 plays. Honestly when they put (QB John) Franklin in there he's at different speed than anyone on field. That had lot to do with yards made. When he came in that was different offense and different guy running at different speed. And majority of yards came from that. Not making excuses, but that had lot to do with it. We were in different defense too. At that point time was more important than yardage.
Trayveon Williams' emergence.
You guys saw him in spring. He's fast. Takes great pride in what he does. Covered ball up couple times to try to go get first down. Definitely's got home run speed. Said we will need all these running backs in this league. Keith (Ford) was okay early. James White in critical part of the game, 3rd quarter when we had to get control of game, his were critical carries of 4-6 yards that moved the pile. He has to be able to do that for us. When he went in game it was kind of an unsung deal. Couple critical carries in that quarter to keep clock moving and keep us rolling down field. Trayveon has got a lot of talent. Got real speed. Got good hands. Will continue to get better as develops. Will need James White, Keith Ford, Kendall Bussey and Kwame Etwi too. All those guys are playing pretty good right now.
Jermaine Eluemunor - first impressions.
Was highly recruited, almost by every team we're playing actually. One of top JC players in country even though he was from London. Had to wait to do home visit until whole family got back to New Jersey. Knew we had a chance because wanted sister to be back from London and everyone back. Didn't think he would want all those people there if he wasn't going to come to school here. At one time was committed to Arkansas, to UCLA, to all kind of places. He had his pick of where to go to school. Came here. Because of where he was from he didn't really get the nuances of football. Hadn't played that much. He and Avery (Gennesy) probably top two JUCO tackles in country and we redshirted them. Developed them. He's found home at right tackle. Tackles last week for most part did great job against a really really solid front in SEC. Whole offensive line did. He's certainly talented and as one pro source told me #72 doesn't make it look hard. Very athletic for a 330-pound guy. Really just getting going. Need him to continue to get better every week.
Did Trevor losing his job and going through last year make him a better quarterback?
Not that alone. Easier to talk to guy like Trevor who's 23, who's been through highest highs and then, to lose your job to another really good player is one thing. But how you handle it is another thing. Can say it's coaches' fault or Baker's fault or conspiracy or whatever. But in Trevor's case and kind of person he is he looked in mirror and said I need to do some things, I can be better. Credit to Lincoln Riley and Bob (Stoops) that 1 they let him out of there and 2 be able to have conversations that made him real good in those situations. We have made effort to try and eliminate bad football. Won't always be the case. He wants to be great. This second opportunity for him. He knows that. He filled void for us not just as quarterback but as a guy who'd played the position in big games and understood it. So when you walk into Auburn that's not a shock. Be able to handle crowd noise and other things and change plays. We filled void or him too. Second chance to show what he can do on big stage. Lot of people don't get that chance. He's happy about it and we happy about it. Perfect? No. But he's been tremendous teammate, great leader for football team. Not easy to do coming in January. Working at it to be best quarterback he can be. Way he approaches it right now with open mind and way he's able to communicate gives him opportunity to eliminate some of the football that created situation that lost him his job.
Arkansas picked up lot of momentum at end of last year and have they picked up where they left off.
I don't really care about last season, I don't think Bret does either. Lot of momentum based on what they're doing this year. Good football team. Coaches voted a number of those players preseason all-SEC. (Dan) Skipper has been there forever, playing tackle now, blocking kicks. Very physical line. Drew Morgan another preseason all-SEC at wide receiver. That's just on offense. Two running backs you know what they want to do. Jeremy Sprinkle one of top tight ends in league. Defensively it's kind of interesting. See same guys every year since we been here. (Brooks) Ellis playing linebacker, another all-league player. (Deatrich) Wise is rushing passer just like always. Veteran football team. Been in well coached system and one Bret has believed in. Built it from ground up with philosophy that he believes is winning formula, just like it was at Wisconsin. Just like anything else when you win that breeds confidence. This team is veteran and well-coached and has philosophy that is working. Two teams with a lot of momentum playing in a great venue Saturday night. Will be a fun ball game.
Ever get sense some guys that block Myles might get little leeway and does he ever express frustration.
He doesn't talk about that. Doesn't complain about anything. We've sent our concerns in to the proper authorities, i'll put it that way.
Bret made point to recruit DFW area pretty well and Texas pretty well. When it comes to game likes this how important is it to win those games.
Don't know that one game affects recruiting like that. Never believed that. Used to come to state fair every year (with old team)--fifth game of year every year. May have affected one guy but it was the other games that affected recruiting more than that one game. Has something to do with that game but in general a neutral-site game doesn't bring anything about what your campus atmosphere is about. Games this early, it's been my experience you have 7 more games to play. Other 11 games of season probably carry more weight than just that one football game.
Past two games have gone overtime. Something there between teams that makes it exciting game? Maybe your relationship with Bret?
Got lot of respect for Bret and way he came up through coaching ranks, kind of similar to me. Wasn't a great, great player. Will be mad I said that. Same trees, similar people we've known, Bob Stoops, my relationship with guys at K-State. Got a job at young age at Wisconsin. Won championships. Came into our league with a philosophy that really people early probably were concerned about. He really believes in what he's doing and has built a top-20 program now. Got lot of respect for how they do things. Do we want it to be as exciting as it has been? Probably not unless we win and then it can be exciting as it wants to be. Great atmosphere. Lot of our guys grow up in this state. One of best venues in the world. When teams are like this, two top-20 teams are gonna play, can be really loud in there. Biggest thing I had to learn in this game was not watch jumbotron whole time. Great place to play. Our guys like to play there. Lot at stake but as I said before, no matter what happens Saturday lot of football to be played. Our guys have approached every week with same demeanor of trying to be one week better and winning this game. Like where our team's at. Like their demeanor and their approach. This week won't be any different.