The Aggies met with the media on Monday to look ahead to Saturday's SEC matchup against Arkansas.Â
The Aggies and Razorbacks meet at AT&T Stadium at 11 AMÂ on Saturday.Â
Coach Fisher | 9.23.19
After evaluating the film, Auburn is a very good football team. I thought our kids played hard. We need to play better. And like I say, we are definitely not happy with the outcomes we're getting and we're at. We're making some mistakes at critical times and issues. We've got to be more consistent on how we execute and do the things we do. But the thing about the mistakes, they are all very correctable. And the things we do, how we do it, we have to do a better job as a staff of coaching these guys and getting the techniques. A lot of the things are very technical in the things we're doing. We need to get better, more consistent on how we do it. And then they got to go out and execute and do those things. At the same time, it's close, but you're only as close as your urgency takes you. What I mean by that is the urgency to make sure we dot the i's cross t's because if you watch the film and the things we did it was sometimes when a route was there, maybe that's the time we got a little pressure or if the pressure came off, the route just didn't come open the time or the run. There's an angle there. If the tight end didn't push it much, if the tackle didn't push much or the back misses the angle. It's just very technical little things we have to really hone in on. Defensively, we got to do a little bit better job. We got outflanked a couple times, gave up some leverage plays. They got a critical drive in the end in some situations they did. Then the kicking game, uncharacteristic, missed a couple kicks, but we got to get better. Those things are things we hadn't been doing in that regard. We've got to keep working, practicing to execute better. We gotta do a better job of coaching them, and like I said, I think our kids played hard. The game was very physical, it was a battle and it was back and forth. At times, we had chances to make some plays in the second quarter there. We didn't get some things on the offense and then we got offense going, we couldn't get that critical stop on defense that gave them that long drive. You have to learn to play to each other as a team game to play those situations. But we have to get back, get back to practice today and correct these mistakes and get ready to play Arkansas and get better each and every week and get on this schedule. But we still can have a very good football team. We do have a very good football team. We just have to execute better with what we're doing and how we're doing it.
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Coach, when you lose a game and you lose a couple games early, how much do you rely on the player to player leadership and guys leading each other and who stood out in that regard?
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JF: You definitely have to, I mean, because that's the group. You have to learn to bond together. I mean, because, like I say, frustration can set in. Anything can set in. That's part of sports. There's good and there's bad. There's the group inside on offense. It's Aus. It's Kellen, a couple of those lineman, Green and Big Dan up front in that regard. Prator does a good job as far as keeping guys together. Defensively, one. Buddy Johnson is really evolving into a very, very good leader. He is playing very well, doing some really good things and, you know, becoming that guy and understanding. Carper does a great job in that regard. Some of those other guys. So I mean, you know, there's a good group. Mann, Braden is your punter, now those guys have tremendous respect for him when he speaks and they really listen to him. They have a lot of respect for what he does and how he does it, cause they know how hard he works. There's a good core group of those guys who understand that and understand where we have to get. Go, work and play ball.
Zero touchdowns in your first six quarters against Clemson and Auburn. How do you bottle that  urgency you have in the fourth quarter?
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I think you've got to relax and make the plays. There's opportunities and there's plays to be made. Whether it's a missed throw, a drop, a missed block, you just got to execute, and sometimes I mean this. Sometimes you try too hard. You press yourself into perfection and you can't. You got a perfect yourself into executing and just trust it. Trust your eyes and play, and that's something you gotta work through. And there's no doubt, because we had drives. You look down right here. We drove. We had a 12-play drive. The first drive ends up in the field goal. Missed a third down. Missed a field goal. Then we missed the third in inches. We don't push down on the thing, then we drive down and get a field goal and we're in there. If we execute the third down play, if we come in and get to crack right away instead of wait. It's a three step deal. He takes three more steps. His guy goes with him. The back's around the corner. It's not there. We didn't get those steps in. Ah, then we come back and but we hit the big play. We're down to score again, broke down to the 30 and had the guy that called the double motion, which, you know, I'm just waiting to get a ruling back on that. Then we missed a field goal. Then we come out, fumble, get a stop, then we score the last three times we had the ball. We move the football, but you gotta learn to finish drives. You gotta learn to focus and just let the plays play. Play the plays, trust what you do in practice and go and be better at executing in those critical moments. That's what I say. You got to make those critical moments, and I say when I call match scores.
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I'm saying when they score, if you come back and get momentum in the game coming back and how you match things so and get stops at that time. For instance, in the Clemson game we go up 3-0. All right, then Clemson drives down and gets seven the very next drive. Then we come back and we're driving again and Kellen gets hit, have about nine yard gain. We have a turnover. When we come back this drive, they get a touchdown. We're moving back down. Guy catches on the shoe lace. We don't get a block on third down and a catch. Just learning to match to compare and compete in games and how you do it. We're close. Just a matter of getting over that hump. We got to keep coaching them and get them to do it better.
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Piggybacking off that just a little bit in the fact that you guys were able to score 17 points in the fourth quarter. I mean, was there was there a change of philosophy at that point? Was it moving a little quicker?
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We got a tempo. Well, what happened was again. It got to be rhythm. Sports in general can get in a rhythm. We had a good rhythm in the first couple drives and then we get a silly penalty. We didn't get those penalties and we got into it rhythm there and got confidence and got playing fast and quit thinking about things and got playing. We got that rhythm to score three straight drives with a ball. You're exactly right. Should have been three straight touchdowns. I mean, we have a penalty on the one yard line on that drive and had to kick a field goal.
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Does it surprise you at all that at this point this season that Nick Starkel has already worked his way back up to the top of the depth chart. And what is it gonna be like playing an old player?
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No. I mean, Nick's a very good player. I mean, I've always said that Nick's a very good player, a great young man. I don't know much about their quarterback situation, but doesn't surprise me. He's a very talented guy that could play a lot of places in this country and, like I said was a very good player here. So no it doesn't. It's happened. I've had to play guys in that before, and it is not weird, just a part of today's world. You get used to it.
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How do you plan to increase Ainias Smith's touches?
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We'll get him more reps and knowledge of what he's doing and how he's doing it in positions he's doing it out of. Just keep him practicing and incorporating him into that from a knowledge standpoint. He's a smart young man.
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Did you foresee any of the offensive issues, or have you been surprised at the way things have worked out?
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We are because we're very close. We've practiced well, had good scrimmages against our defense and done things. We just gotta learn to finish drives and that, you know, as a status point we have to get better at. I'm never surprised at anything, but also I wouldn't be surprised if we were playing well and can turn it around very quickly. Just have to finish and get to those points and play well.
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So how do you get more on your running game? Were you making the same mistakes against Clemson and Auburn, or are they different mistakes?
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They're not tactical mistakes. They're not missed assignments. We had a couple against Clemson on missed declarations that we work to the wrong people, but these weren't. A couple times we physically got beat. They had a couple really good guys up front that really stuffed and played to run. Other times it was whether it was a tight end mashed and stayed connected. Sometimes it's the back missing the cut sometimes. It's reps and getting these young backs going back again. And because they hadn't had a lot of playing time when Jashaun had taken a lot of reps and getting them incorporated in what we do and getting our linemen to consistently try to get more push, get more holes in what we're doing, and we played a very good front to at the end of the day. That front there, like I said before, is one of the best fronts we'll play, if not the most physical front will play. So it's got to keep doing what we do, do it better and get more refined at what we do. And you know, if we have to tweak and turn a formation or a scheme or something like that by each individual team we play, we'll do that.
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I know we talked a lot about the old days and all those things, but how disappointing is that when you have a guy like Prince who very well could have, you're shallow at the position, where he could have gotten some carries coming up, but he chooses to leave the program and enter the portal?
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Well listen, everybody has to make a choice for their own reasons. And I have no ill wills. I mean, that's their choice. But we loved him. Thought he was gonna be a really good player. Still think he could be a really good player.
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On the run game, how realistic is it to maybe look at the quarterback run, maybe augmenting what you have right now?
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It is, it's a part of it. I mean, it'll always be a part of what we do and Kellen's very capable of doing that and handling it. And that's part of things that we will evaluate and look at, no doubt.
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On your running game, didn't take a little while to develop against Texas State and Lamar and was that just because those guys hadn't had enough reps?
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No, Lamar, we hit it pretty quick. Texas State, it did a little bit. They changed the scheme on us a little bit and what they did in the first two or three series. They had changed schematically what they did and how they supported things and got on a different front. We got it communicated on the sideline and then started getting because it changed the angles of how we did things in the first game.
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Do you feel like your team is getting better right now?
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Yeah, I do. I think we are getting better. I think we're learning how to play these situations. I think each of these will be learning experiences and I think they're playing very hard. And like I said, we've played two really good football teams that we had chances, opportunities to make plays on and we have to get better that. But they're working to get better and I think we have gotten better in some areas.
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How do you keep guys from getting discouraged about what the result was?
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Don't become result oriented. You gotta be process oriented. That's part of our program. Whether you all believe that or not, it does get frustrating and I understand for fans and everybody else. But as players, we have to understand why the results are there. As a coach you do and as a player you do. You can't get caught up in results. You have to get caught up in the practice, the process of doing it right so that it translates to the field. And I know that sounds crazy, but that's what we preach and breathe every day. It's what I've always preached and breathed every day. Every good coach, program that I've been a part of, that's exactly what we do. We stay within that own little bowl of understanding what we can control and that's how we practice and how we play and what we can get better at technically, mentally, psychologically. All those different things.
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What do you think about your sub packages on defense, the job Hansford is giving you in there and Carper in the back?
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They're mixing in doing some really good jobs, allowing us to match things. Hansford being a really good guy, whether he's inside, bringing pressure outside. He's a very athletic guy that can run in space and create pass rush and disruption. And he can cover. I mean, he was an ex-offensive player, so he has good ball skills and can run. He's a very good balance body control guy who's very strong and can accelerate and run, so I think as he continues the knowledge of what he's doing, he can be a really good player. And Carper is the ultimate, because he knows what everybody's doing, how to do it, make the checks, the things he does. And he always has himself in that right position to make plays.
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The games against Arkansas the last few years, for whatever reason, have been pretty close. How much do you think a dominating performance on Saturday would do for the psyche of the team?
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We just want a very consistent performance. We want a dominating performance in how we execute. Listen. That's an SEC football team that's 2-2, and this is a rivalry game, and they have good players and they're on scholarship and we're on scholarship and these two good teams that will play and participate and go. And if we dominate, that's great. We've got to play well. Our goal is to play well in the game. That's what we have to do.
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Is a point of emphasis to clean up clock management issues, like in the third quarter, here you are playing catch up ball and you have a delay of game, you have a false start?
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Well false starts, that's just hearing. The delay of game was early in the third. We weren't in a no huddle situation there. It was making a check. They switched defenses and he didn't see the clock. That's gotta get cleaned up. I could have used a time out, but at that time, the time out was more valuable than the five yards. And we could. But we had one delay of game in the game, that's true. The false starts came, we had one on the goal line, we had one on the play right after the delay, our young tight end jumped on a call. And then we had one, actually a false start on a punt. We didn't line up. Had two in a row right there. All those, they're self-inflicted wounds. All pre-snap penalties. There's no excuse for a pre-snap penalty. You have to do that and get it cleaned up. And like I say, jumping some times comes from being anxious and want to do something too much. You've got to keep your poise. You've got to set in your stance or whatever you've got, and make your play. We've gotta clean that up without a doubt. You can't have pre-snap penalties.
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I know every year there's lots of debate and talk about the merits of going up in playing in Arlington. Having done it now, what's your take on the game playing it there as opposed to playing home at home?
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I love playing here, but I think it's a great thing. I'm not against it, I really am not. I think that's a great venue to play in. You're in a tremendous venue. You're in an area where a lot of our players come from. It's great for their families that have access to be able to come there, and for recruiting. It's easier for recruits to get to a game. They can come up there and see us. Sometimes learning to play in neutral site venues is good for your program because of the different scenarios that will occur hopefully in your future.
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No doubt the quarterback gets a lot of the praise, gets a lot of the blame. Kellen's in the spotlight. When you can't run it, you're behind, a lot's on his shoulders, just your thoughts on how he handles it all. He seems to be the one that's like just give it to me, Coach. I'll handle it all.
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No, he does, he doesn't shy away, and I thought down the stretch he made a lot of plays that kept us in that game and give us a chance to win and really did some good things. Early in the game he had a couple opportunities that we, overthrew a ball here and there, and we jumped offsides. There's a couple balls, he had it, he's going to the right spot, that we have big plays on possible touchdowns that at that time, and it wasn't a miss or something, we just got out-physicaled and the pocket collapsed. I mean, you're playing a good team like that, it happens. So his decision making in the game, where he was going with a ball, for the most part, missed a couple reads. But when you throw the ball 50 times that's going to happen, especially with the flashes and with certain pressures you're under. We pass blocked well at times. He loves the competition. He'll be right there, and he's gonna be the first one out there working his tail off. He's getting better and better each and every week.
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Kind of going off that, Ausbon mentioned that Mond has grown as a vocal leader and how the team feeds off that. Do you think he's doing enough vocally to get to where this team wants to be?
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Well, I mean, listen. Each individual…we have an image of a quarterback because you see…Yes, he is very vocal. He doesn't yell and scream. He talks to guys privately and does a lot of that. He does it to his teammates. Some guys, you know who never spoke? Who hardly ever spoke? Never spoke in the locker room? Very rarely, ever did? Guy named Joe Montana. How good was he? The guys can vocally communicate behind the scenes, through plays, all that. Brady's a guy who speaks all the time. Peyton was a guy who speaks all the time. It's just who your personality is, but the key is, how do your teammates respect you? How do they respond to what you say, when you say, and through your actions of how you practice? So in that regard, Kellen is not an overly vocal guy, but he's much more vocal because he's much more comfortable in his skin doing his job now and knows what to do. And he can also help people. When you're talking about being vocal, to help a guy when you're a quarterback, your knowledge of everything that's going on on offense…it's not just that you're pumping him up, but you know what they're doing to you a lot? Is asking you questions. Hey do that. Well, how should I do this? Is that what you want? And I think he answers those questions very well now through the knowledge of what he has and what he's worked with. So it's making him become more vocal because he's much more comfortable with the whole role and situation.
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