A&M hits the road to face No. 1 Alabama on Saturday (2:30 p.m., CBS).
A summary of Coach Sumlin's press conference is posted below.
KEVIN SUMLIN PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY
How valuable was last week for your team to rest and recharge.
Good situation for us. Guys approached it in right way. Plan whole year has been a little different than what we've done in past, without going into it. Guys were at point where they needed it. Came at right time. Got through two weeks prior. We go to South Carolina without 4 of best players and won, and then limping through and beating Tennessee when we were not at 100 percent. Came at right time for us. Able to utilize it and get ready for this week.
Overall how you feel about team from a health standpoint.
Good. Feel good.
Daeshon Hall has played well without Myles Garrett. How much does it help having both those guys.
Said it from last year starting with Arizona State when Daeshon was big enough at 250 and for the first time in his life was in weight room consistently for a year. That showed. A year ago I said best thing that happened to Myles Garrett was Daeshon Hall. When protection slid Daeshon was able to put himself on map in nationally-televised top-25 game. Got 3 or 4 sacks. People realized they may have to block both those guys. Gave him confidence going forward. It changed protection schemes. He was able to gather confidence from those experiences last year. When Myles went down we were able to move him around and do different things with him, stand him up. What we didn't get the first two years because he wasn't really to go physically we're getting our money's worth now. He's loving it. Playing as well as anyone on this team. These guys have increased their strength, understand the game and have become all-down players instead of just third-down players. Been a lot better than they have been in past.
What Myles Garrett means to team.
Myles one of premiere players in US. No doubt about that. He's a different guy. Look at him two weeks ago, first play in there he's disruptive. He was just going to play on third down. When he did he created turnovers, tackles for loss. In overtime he wouldn't come out of game. That's what says more about Myles Garrett than anything else. Gets hurt vs Arkansas. Pretty significant injury. Went back in game. Wanted to finish game. Left those guys here, know we got criticism for that. Because of type of injuries we had, South Carolina is furthest in-conference travel we have. Long flights there and back, and another 3 hours standing around. That's 8 hours doing nothing to get those injuries better. Best thing we could do was give them chance to get healthy. Those guys understood that and our team understood that. That helped Myles. For him to go back in (Tennessee) game with that injury and play and be effective, and then come in game when he admitted he was 65-70%, then look at me in overtime and say 'No, I'm playing'. It was important for him to win the game with his teammates. As great a talent as he is, with everything he's got at stake professionally down the road, that shows our team what kind of teammate he is. Shows where this team is now...guys who are high-profile players doing everything possible to win games and be great teammates. Don't have to say a lot. Saying a lot by what they're doing. And that's how team has approached this year.
Benefit of having a quarterback who's beaten Alabama and not just thought about it, and how that affects your confidence level.
I dunno. Had one that beat them and we didn't beat them next time. Very few of them out there that have. Everyone trying to make storyline out of everything. Let's make the storyline this year. Has nothing to do with 2014. Has nothing to do with us winning, getting blown out, or playing close games. Storyline is two teams in 2016 who are two top-10 teams playing to try and win the West. That's where we are. I still haven't watched that game (2014 Sugar Bowl). Schemes are different. Hardly anyone on field is playing. Different coordinators. Just different. If you watch them this year, that's plenty for me to watch. Talented football team. Well-coached. Schematically different than they are. Just a completely different set of circumstances. For us Trevor has had a year where he's gotten better every week. Gotten to know him little bit more. Being on field one thing, but this is a completely different game.
Speed and athleticism of Alabama defensive line compared to past few years.
Last year I thought I couldn't even keep up with the number of guys in game. 7, 8, 9 guys rolling through the deal. I don't know what they do over there, with the NFL Draft I was hoping half of them would leave but they stayed. And they are playing at high level. Do great job. Nick has done fabulous job of not only recruiting but developing what they're looking for in their guys. And the educational piece. At SEC meeting he was really concerned with educational piece (re: NFL Draft) and where guys are in draft process. I learned lot from that. That's helped us here. Ability in college football to play yourself into higher draft spot. That's become important to guys. Their front is ridiculous. Best way I can put it. As goad as there is in football. What makes it different is rotation of those guys. They just keep coming. Over course last few years you think they'd fall off a little bit up front but haven't at all.
Bama offense under Lane Kiffin, how does it differ than others in past.
He's had this one. Changed a year ago. Didn't change this year. Changed when Lane got there. Just have to watch the game last week and see what a difference in backfield sets, shotgun, not really a fullback, h-back type mentality. Jalen (Hurts) has done great job this year. Someone asked me about him 5 weeks ago, I wasn't surprised at all. Known him and his dad long time. Jalen is young man that very few things get to him. Demeanor always been really solid. Exceptional athlete. Very, very smart. Dad is a coach. Dad been hard on him as coach before, so that's nothing new to him playing in the big time. For lot of people has been pleasant surprise, but to me not a surprise. Surrounded by lot of great players. Able to operate their system in many different ways. Been operating well. Lane has done great job of putting him in positions I think for him to be successful. Lot like Noel has done here. Look at numbers it's kind of scary, the QB numbers. They're almost identical. Lot of the concepts are very similar.
Is it interesting to you that Saban is a little more receptive to that type of system.
Think you guys are late to game. That's been going on for 3 years. Ability to score points is at a premium in college football. Playing defense is paramount, but there will come a time that you have to score points to win the game. There are no more ties. I'm not speaking for Coach Saban, but obviously the've been able to put up points. Also about the skill set of players, what they're doing offensively fits their quarterback as well as anything they could do.
Alabama has already set school record with non-offensive touchdowns. Good explanation on how they're so good at it? Pressure? DBs gambling and jumping routes?
You just went through them. Only thing missing is they have great players. Remember Fitzpatrick is a 10.5 100-meter guy. Lot of them are two-way players in high school and frustrated they only get to play defense. They are letting world know about it. Play very organized. Once they get hands on it they set up a wall, guys are sprinting to set up to block people. Like anything else once you have success it becomes contagious. Guys work at and take pride in it. Combination of all those things. Not just one thing. But it's certainly not luck.
Last year was it the weirdest thing you've seen, 3 pick-sixes?
Never been involved in that. Hopefully never will again.
Mystique that comes with Bama. Concerned at all guys will be pressing in game like that? What do you say to keep them calm and not overwhelmed by enormity of what's at stake?
Let's just start here. Were high stakes first game of year. Sat here two weeks ago and everyone said this is biggest game in Kyle Field in long time. Game that basically people said we had to win. Every week that we play it becomes a big game. This team has done a great job of blocking out the noise and going on about it and trying to be one game better. We haven't played best football yet. Comes time where maybe you go into situations and you just play. That's where are right now. Doing that every week this year. Our guys are in good place. Healthy. Got to watch some football last week. Based on what I see in practice I'm not real concerned about whatever you were talking about, enormity. That's not a football word. I don't even know what that means (laughing).
Reaction to being 17-point underdog and is it easy to use as motivation.
Haven't been motivated by that all year. Someone said to me nobody gives you a chance. I said good thing nobody isn't playing.
Said last week you didn't know what you'd learn from the Tennessee/Alabama game. What did you get out of that game.
Since Tennessee had less guys play against Bama than in our game it became even more challenging. Alabama played great. As fine a performance as there is. Nothing you can take away from that performance. It was dominant, from a defensive standpoint, an offensive standpoint. That's where it is. I don't know what you can take from it. What we gotta do is go there and play. What we've done so far has been good enough to win every game. As I've said in those situations before, we don't have to be the best team this year. We have to be the best team Saturday. That's it. It's nothing more than that. Whatever that is, that's what we've been working on for last week.
JOHN CHAVIS PRESS CONFERENCE
NOEL MAZZONE PRESS CONFERENCE