Jimbo Fisher and select players met the media Monday at the Aggies' weekly press conference at Kyle Field.
I'd like to start the day off just remembering the 12 Aggies that passed away 20 years ago today in the Bonfire. It was a tremendous tragedy that happened to this family and everyone involved. You know, the great traditions and history of A&M, it's amazing, this morning there were over 1,000 people at the Bonfire Memorial, which is a tremendous tribute and typical of the A&M family, remembering all the people that passed in that. Condolences to their families, that's for sure.
Watching the game film from South Carolina, very proud of our team. We knew going in it was going to be a very physical football game. South Carolina plays a very physical brand of football. Knew we were going to have to run the football and try to keep continuing to run the football, be able to set some things up so their front couldn't become one-dimensional. And, had to stop the run on the other side. And we were able to do both of those things for the most part. Their defensive front was very good. There's a lot of really good draft picks on that group, a physical front. Our offensive line did a really good job. Our backs, our tight ends, are getting better. Receivers did a great job blocking down the field and we were able to keep running the football. Sometimes had success, sometimes didn't, but we were able to keep pounding away and got some play actions out of it. Some nice plays that complemented it. Did a really nice job playing a physical football game. Defensively, same way, stopping the run and being able to win the down and distance battles on first down and early downs, which got you in longer downs, which enabled us to get better pressure. We didn't always get a lot of sacks in the game, but the key to me is not just sacks it's how you affect the quarterback. Do you make him move off his spot? Do you make him get batted balls? Does he have to throw balls before he wants to throw them? And if you can get a clean shot on him, get a clean shot, things like that, really. I thought during the game the attrition of it was very good. So both fronts, in my opinion, did a really, really good job. Like I said, that's a good football team, well-coached football team and a very tough football team, so I'm very proud of our guys in that aspect.
Defensively, I thought we did a really good job all night getting off the field on third down and conversions. Really, really played really well. Offensively I thought we ran it well, moved it extremely well. We ran it for 330, threw it for 220. Had good yardage. Wish we could've finished a couple drives in the red zone. There's a couple plays we could have made. But that's it. You play good teams in tight, contested areas, things like that are going to happen. But we kept sawing wood, kept pounding, took care of the football. We had the turnover at the end of the game, but we're taking care of the football which was very important. Keeping our defense off the field with a lot of first downs, times of possession, things like that. When the defense is doing a good job on first down it limits the opportunities and it's hard for a team to get in a rhythm offensively. We did that, and then were able to at the end, be able to run the football with physicality. Broke some big runs. Both backs did a good job blocking for each other, our tight ends, our offensive line, and we were able to put the game away and do the things we had to do. Special teams, a solid night. Had a really good return. I thought Ainias was really good in the punt return game, unfortunately had two critical penalties that broke two good returns out to midfield. We had to start back at our 10. We've got to get that fixed, Didn't like we missed the field goal unfortunately. Seth has been pretty good. But we can't have that. We've got to get that. But he kept going, hit three, came back and hit some really nice kicks in the game, did a good job. Braden was good, but he actually didn't have his typical night punting the football. But we were pretty good. We covered kicks very well. Our kickoffs were very good except the one at the end. We covered punts very well in that aspect. Again offensively, one of the things I was proud of was we scored a two-minute before the half. Were able to get a field goal, which was a long drive. Ate it up, got points down there. Didn't like how we started the second half. We came out and got a penalty and then had a dropped ball and had two or three things happen. We've got to get that cleaned up.
Still a lot of things to work on, but we're getting better and better, the young guys are playing with more consistency. We've got to keep pounding that to get more consistency out of them because we've got an extremely tough opponent coming up this weekend. Georgia's as sound an opponent as we will play and have played. I mean, they're solid, all three phases. Defensively they're outstanding. They've got to be 1, 2, 3 in the country on defense. Giving up 10 points per game, 260 yards a game, 75 yards rushing a game. Third-down percentage is in the low 30s. I mean, they affect you up front with multiple fronts, multiple packages, blitzes, coverages. They do a really, really good job. Got really good players, coached very well. As good a defense as we've played all year, without a doubt. By far. Offensively, as good an offensive line (as we've faced). They can run the football. Backs are outstanding. You talk about Swift, but 35, all those other guys, they're really good players. They use the play-action game very well. Jake's a tremendous quarterback, takes care of the football, make smart decisions, plays winning football, makes big plays when he has to, can run it, whatever he has to do. A really good player. They have big long guys at the receiver position, hard to match up in what you do there. And they're a very sound football team offensively and defensively, very good. They're scoring 32, giving up 10. That's pretty good. Kicker's outstanding, got great range, kicks it off, I think it's been 10 kicks returned all season on kickoff returns. Kicks them out. Punter is excellent. Great hang time. Gets the ball up. The return game has got excellent players. Listen. This is a big-time team. They're in the top four for a reason. They won the SEC East for a reason. And so we have to go out there on their field and will have to play one heck of a football game to have a chance to compete with them.
I know when Trayveon announced he was leaving and you're going into spring ball, you probably thought you'd have Corbin, Vernon Jackson, a lot of guys, but was two-back always something you thought you'd be doing this year?
Oh, yeah. I mean, we're always going to do that. I mean, it's going to be what we install on day one. We're always going to do that. And then you build from two back to one back, and how you take and replace the guy out in the blocking assignments. That's still your foundation. It still goes back to where everything starts from, and always will.
Coach, we hear about the 'freshman wall', guys in their first year that at some point to start to decline. But that hasn't been an issue with your guys. Why do you think that is?
Well, there were some times earlier in the year, I think it was there. I think there was a lot more early then you thought because you didn't see it. I mean, you recognize it with youth, but they were hitting it because they got really put in tough situations where they were starters, not in game 6 or 7 or 8, but in games 2 and 3 and 4. It was how to prepare, how to practice, the wear and tear on you mentally and psychologically of playing at that high level, and some of the teams which we were playing early in the season. That wear and tear, there was a wall there, but they just kept playing. They just kept playing. They learned through it and they fought through it. They've gotten better and hopefully we can play the last two games before we hit another wall. Then we can regroup for a bowl game. But, we've got to get through these last two games with that. I think they're learning and understanding the cause and effect of how we practice, what's required, how to do it. And when you do things right, you get good results.
How much fun is it for you with your offensive approach, that kind of what you're doing…what's old is new again, and defenses are having trouble preparing for that.
Well, I mean, it isn't it is still sound football. That still gives you chances, and you still could throw it. People don't realize when you get in split pro, that's as good a formation as there is to throw the football, when your backs can catch and your tight end is versatile and you have two receivers…that's as good a formation as there is to throw a football. People don't look at that. You can do all kind of stuff out that. So I mean, it all derives from that, and I think as long as you keep your roots and don't leave them too far, we can go the one back. We can go no huddle. We could do all the spread stuff, but having that as your base, where you teach from, gives you some times when you have to go back and pull it back out, it's good.
A couple of your guys talked about not letting the moment get bigger than really what it is. How do you go about making sure that they have that mentality of taking it one play at a time?
Well, here's the thing. I mean, how you practice, because here's what happens. No matter what you go to a situation, when you get to pressure situations and things start to happen, things are happening too fast, here's what happens to every human being in this world. Your habits come straight to the surface. What you do daily, what you think, what you believe. And you don't even realize it, because instinct kicks in, okay, and by making sure you practice right and create the right habits, so if those situations do occur, hopefully those habits come to light. You don't win because you want to. You win because you're trained to and how you train and how you practice. Because those things keep coming out. You can't not do what you do in practice because it's what you do daily, which is who you are, and so you make sure your practice habits and you process is right for when those situations come. And I think experience is the other thing. They've experienced some really tough situations we've been in and some teams we've played, so hopefully it'll help us down the stretch right here.
How impressed have you've been with Charles Oliver and that move from cornerback to nickel? Even Buddy Johnson said it was one of the toughest positions to play on the field.
It is really tough, because of the intelligence and the way things come at you and what your assignments are. And he's done a really good job of commanding that and played excellent football, gets six pass breakups in the game and what he did playing corner and going back and forth. It takes a very special guy to go back and forth.
I know a lot has been said about the schedule and how different the teams that you will play now at this end of the schedule. How unique is it with the two games you'll have left to be able to potentially affect the outcome of the playoff as much as you could?
Well, it is. But you know we want to affect the outcome of our own program and how we play and what we do and what we get out of that. I mean, we want to affect our program. How we're playing I hope that we've learned from the games earlier in the year of how to approach those games and understand the level of ball you have to play at consistently day in and day out. Those young guys, it's going to be nothing but a great learning experience here. But you know hopefully it's something we've learned, we've played well this last month, and we can keep November rolling and play well, play good football. It's important for our program. The playoffs are wonderful, but I'm worried about what's going on at A&M.
In this nickel, you go back to (Deshawn Capers-Smith) last year, and all the guys you've used that spot this year, they've all been successful in that. What is it about that nickel spot?
Well, and it depends on what kind of team you play. Mike's doing a really good job by the type of nickels you play based on what they do with the guy in the slot. Chatt's done a great job. Everybody we've put in there has done a great job, but also by their style of their talent, of what we're playing against, I think we've matched that up very well. I think it's indicative of the way the game is being played today. I think the game is such a game of match ups. You have to have such a multiplicity of talents at different positions to be able to move. That's why the old days of, "He's a corner. He's a safety, He's a nickel. He's an outside backer"…No. He better be a football player, so you can mix and match by personnels to be able to match the guys you need in the slot or the outside of what you got. I think that's a very indicative of how the game has changed today and you've got to be able to have the diversity on defense to match what they're doing.
On the split pro you were talking about, with two backs, how many times have y'all used that? Was it mainly in the fourth quarter on Saturday?
No, we used it earlier in the game sometimes. I mean, it was just mixed and matched in how we did things.
Because you were talking about that Saturday night, about how teams don't prepare for that and how it's a good look.
Well, you don't see it as much. There's no magical formula that, Okay, we're doing that, and they don't know what to do. They know what to do. It's just something you don't practice as much. It was like when teams were spread teams back in the day, everybody was more conventional football. You could simulate it, and you practiced it. But how much did you really, and could you do it? I think that makes a big difference and hopefully is something we do every day and something they only do part of the time. So hopefully we can execute better than that.
On the Georgia defense. I know that if they really like their safety, J. R. Reed…
Reed, LeCounte, I can give you a whole list of 'em.
How much do they like to blitz?
Oh, they'll pressure you, now. Kirby is an aggressive guy. He's a great football coach, I've been on staff with him, and he's been around Nick and those guys all that time. And he has his own way of doing things. But he learned from good people, and they will pressure you with backers, inside blitzes, double-edge, corners, and will backers, safeties on that side, front side, inside, twist blitzes. They'll bring it from all angles and they're very exotic on third down, too.
I'm curious, how much better do you feel like your team is than it was a month ago?
I think we've gotten better. I think you've seen the results. I think we're learning to embrace the physicality. The young guys are really learning to embrace the physicality in all the things we're doing. I think we're a much better football team, I do, but hopefully it'll show in these last two games. We'll find out.
And in terms of where team is at physically, endurance, talking about guys hitting walls, how much do you lean on data?
A ton. We were one of the first to use a GPS in the country. It sits on my desk. When I walk in the data of what goes on, speeds, loads, body movements, changes. That sits on my desk. It's the very first report I look at. We do it as a team collectively and each individual's broken down by this thing. We were one of the first ones maybe in all the country do it back when I became head coach in 2010. We've been doing that and been able to develop it and got our system for what we like and how we like, and can tell player loads and what to use them on when they use them, when to pull back in practice, when to speed up in whatever we do. And we use that extensively on different things in which we do.
In general how is your team in that?
Right now very strong. Our speeds are going up. Our times are going up. Our power's going up. Seems like we're hitting things on the rise.
Y'all have face some really good quarterbacks this year. How does Fromm stack up against them?
As good as anybody in the country. Listen, this guy, he understands…everybody says does this guy run? Does he throw? What's his numbers? What you better ask is does this guy understand how to win? That's the number one thing you ask of a quarterback. Just like our guy. You talk about our guy right now. You talk about selfless, can play, tough, leadership, guys love him, play for him, do everything in the world for him. They love him, man. And Fromm reminds me of that. I'll speak about Kellen in a minute. I'm so happy with him, it's ridiculous, what he's doing. Is everything totally perfect? It's never perfect. But the things he does and the way our team responds, it's incredible, the leadership and toughness he shows. That's why our team is playing that way. When the quarterback's tough, it does. That's indicative of Georgia. Fromm's the same type of guy. The guy's selfless. Makes all the throws, makes all the runs. All he does is make the right decisions, take care of the football, and they win games and move the football. To me, that's what a quarterback is. We get caught up in all these other things. Fromm is an excellent, excellent football player.
The way you guys played defensively against South Carolina, especially against the run, is that kind of the recipe for success against Georgia?
Well, yeah. I mean, listen. First and foremost, Georgia's going to run the football. Tremendous offensive line, tremendous backs, tight ends. That's their forte. That's their identity. You're never going to shut them down, but you have to be able to play it, and you have to match the physicality and toughness. It'll be a huge challenge for our defense.
Injury updates on Tyree Johnson and Elijah Blades?
Elijah will be day to day. Got banged up on his shoulder. Hopefully, Tyree will be back. We'll see. That's all day to day stuff.
This is the first time you guys are playing Georgia as members of the SEC. They don't come back on the schedule until 2024. Would you like to get to play some of these more cross-divisional games?
I mean, that's just the way the SEC schedule is. I know they're looking at some formats going forward, keep the three main and rotate five and all those things. And I think it is good for your players eventually to be able to play everybody in the conference. I really do believe that. I think that's good, and to say that you've played that team or been in that stadium and those things, it is good. But when you have conferences as big as you have now that's kind of the way it goes.
So y'all had the ball almost 42 minutes. What is the key to possessing the ball like that?
Patience and third down conversions. And that's what we fell short in the third quarter for two or three drives. When you start running the football and doing those things, you're getting a lot of third and threes, fours, fives. And when you convert those, man those become frustrating and you eat drives and you do things. But when you don't, you've got to have third-down conversions. You've got to be able to hit those third downs. We were 4-for-4 in short yardage, then we head some early in those early drives, we hit our third downs. Then later we hit our third down conversions, remember the big one to Ausbon that got things going, and then we took off the second half. But also when you're controlling the clock and you're doing it, when you run the football on 2nd-and-7 you've got to convert a lot of 2 to 5s, and you have to be very effective in your third-down conversions. If not, then you get to a quick three and out. Because if you're creating big plays, you're not going to keep the ball anyways. I'm talking about those long drives. We had, what, three or four drives that were 12, 13, 14, 15-play drives in the game. The key to that is consistency, eliminate negative plays, don't have penalties, and you've got to be able to convert usually 3rd and 2 to 5s, in that range.
Were you in Cincinnati when you heard about the Bonfire collapse? And what was your reaction at that time? Did you learn a little bit about A&M?
I did, just the tragedy of it. You just hate for kids who love their school, went out there, being a part of a great tradition, and the history, and just have something like that happen. It's like the highlight of the year, to go do that and have the Bonfire. It was just so sad. It really was. And you just hated the tragedy that happened for those kids.
A game like this, what are your thoughts on you versus him and kind of the chess match that goes on in a game like this. How much do you look forward to that?
Well, listen, we used to play noontime basketball, and I used to get him. So if we played that, I'd be okay. I'm getting older now. But no, he's a great coach. He's done a great job with that program, has recruited well, has coached well, and I mean they're so sound. When you look at film, just like last week, and I said it with South Carolina, I was happy we were able to make plays when they were doing it right. You always hear me say you play good football when the other team does it right and you're still able to make yards and block, you know you're getting better. There's no gimmies. You know, look a certain team's formation and maybe I would get these three things in this or this or this. You don't see that in Georgia film. Every guy's going to be covered. He's going to be contested tightly. The fronts are going to be right. The gaps are going to be filled. They're going to bring different looks. They're going to challenge you mentally, physically, psychologically in offense, defense, special teams. It's a very well-coached team, and it's going to be a huge challenge for our players. He does a tremendous job.
Do you feel your offense now is better at run blocking the pass blocking?
Ehh…I generally as an overall consensus think run blocking is easier in general than pass blocking. I really do, in certain situations when it gets right down to it. I say that overall, that's not always true, but for the most part. Especially with the d-linemen you're facing this league. Understand something, man. The guys you face in this league, and I've been in other leagues. Everybody's got 'em. And every matchup, across that board, you've got to make sure and hope…There's no weak links. No guy that you can say well I can just block him. You've got to hold your breath. But right now, we're probably, I would say, run blocking a little bit better. I would say that.
Head Coach Jimbo Fisher
I'd like to start the day off just remembering the 12 Aggies that passed away 20 years ago today in the Bonfire. It was a tremendous tragedy that happened to this family and everyone involved. You know, the great traditions and history of A&M, it's amazing, this morning there were over 1,000 people at the Bonfire Memorial, which is a tremendous tribute and typical of the A&M family, remembering all the people that passed in that. Condolences to their families, that's for sure.
Watching the game film from South Carolina, very proud of our team. We knew going in it was going to be a very physical football game. South Carolina plays a very physical brand of football. Knew we were going to have to run the football and try to keep continuing to run the football, be able to set some things up so their front couldn't become one-dimensional. And, had to stop the run on the other side. And we were able to do both of those things for the most part. Their defensive front was very good. There's a lot of really good draft picks on that group, a physical front. Our offensive line did a really good job. Our backs, our tight ends, are getting better. Receivers did a great job blocking down the field and we were able to keep running the football. Sometimes had success, sometimes didn't, but we were able to keep pounding away and got some play actions out of it. Some nice plays that complemented it. Did a really nice job playing a physical football game. Defensively, same way, stopping the run and being able to win the down and distance battles on first down and early downs, which got you in longer downs, which enabled us to get better pressure. We didn't always get a lot of sacks in the game, but the key to me is not just sacks it's how you affect the quarterback. Do you make him move off his spot? Do you make him get batted balls? Does he have to throw balls before he wants to throw them? And if you can get a clean shot on him, get a clean shot, things like that, really. I thought during the game the attrition of it was very good. So both fronts, in my opinion, did a really, really good job. Like I said, that's a good football team, well-coached football team and a very tough football team, so I'm very proud of our guys in that aspect.
Defensively, I thought we did a really good job all night getting off the field on third down and conversions. Really, really played really well. Offensively I thought we ran it well, moved it extremely well. We ran it for 330, threw it for 220. Had good yardage. Wish we could've finished a couple drives in the red zone. There's a couple plays we could have made. But that's it. You play good teams in tight, contested areas, things like that are going to happen. But we kept sawing wood, kept pounding, took care of the football. We had the turnover at the end of the game, but we're taking care of the football which was very important. Keeping our defense off the field with a lot of first downs, times of possession, things like that. When the defense is doing a good job on first down it limits the opportunities and it's hard for a team to get in a rhythm offensively. We did that, and then were able to at the end, be able to run the football with physicality. Broke some big runs. Both backs did a good job blocking for each other, our tight ends, our offensive line, and we were able to put the game away and do the things we had to do. Special teams, a solid night. Had a really good return. I thought Ainias was really good in the punt return game, unfortunately had two critical penalties that broke two good returns out to midfield. We had to start back at our 10. We've got to get that fixed, Didn't like we missed the field goal unfortunately. Seth has been pretty good. But we can't have that. We've got to get that. But he kept going, hit three, came back and hit some really nice kicks in the game, did a good job. Braden was good, but he actually didn't have his typical night punting the football. But we were pretty good. We covered kicks very well. Our kickoffs were very good except the one at the end. We covered punts very well in that aspect. Again offensively, one of the things I was proud of was we scored a two-minute before the half. Were able to get a field goal, which was a long drive. Ate it up, got points down there. Didn't like how we started the second half. We came out and got a penalty and then had a dropped ball and had two or three things happen. We've got to get that cleaned up.
Still a lot of things to work on, but we're getting better and better, the young guys are playing with more consistency. We've got to keep pounding that to get more consistency out of them because we've got an extremely tough opponent coming up this weekend. Georgia's as sound an opponent as we will play and have played. I mean, they're solid, all three phases. Defensively they're outstanding. They've got to be 1, 2, 3 in the country on defense. Giving up 10 points per game, 260 yards a game, 75 yards rushing a game. Third-down percentage is in the low 30s. I mean, they affect you up front with multiple fronts, multiple packages, blitzes, coverages. They do a really, really good job. Got really good players, coached very well. As good a defense as we've played all year, without a doubt. By far. Offensively, as good an offensive line (as we've faced). They can run the football. Backs are outstanding. You talk about Swift, but 35, all those other guys, they're really good players. They use the play-action game very well. Jake's a tremendous quarterback, takes care of the football, make smart decisions, plays winning football, makes big plays when he has to, can run it, whatever he has to do. A really good player. They have big long guys at the receiver position, hard to match up in what you do there. And they're a very sound football team offensively and defensively, very good. They're scoring 32, giving up 10. That's pretty good. Kicker's outstanding, got great range, kicks it off, I think it's been 10 kicks returned all season on kickoff returns. Kicks them out. Punter is excellent. Great hang time. Gets the ball up. The return game has got excellent players. Listen. This is a big-time team. They're in the top four for a reason. They won the SEC East for a reason. And so we have to go out there on their field and will have to play one heck of a football game to have a chance to compete with them.
I know when Trayveon announced he was leaving and you're going into spring ball, you probably thought you'd have Corbin, Vernon Jackson, a lot of guys, but was two-back always something you thought you'd be doing this year?
Oh, yeah. I mean, we're always going to do that. I mean, it's going to be what we install on day one. We're always going to do that. And then you build from two back to one back, and how you take and replace the guy out in the blocking assignments. That's still your foundation. It still goes back to where everything starts from, and always will.
Coach, we hear about the 'freshman wall', guys in their first year that at some point to start to decline. But that hasn't been an issue with your guys. Why do you think that is?
Well, there were some times earlier in the year, I think it was there. I think there was a lot more early then you thought because you didn't see it. I mean, you recognize it with youth, but they were hitting it because they got really put in tough situations where they were starters, not in game 6 or 7 or 8, but in games 2 and 3 and 4. It was how to prepare, how to practice, the wear and tear on you mentally and psychologically of playing at that high level, and some of the teams which we were playing early in the season. That wear and tear, there was a wall there, but they just kept playing. They just kept playing. They learned through it and they fought through it. They've gotten better and hopefully we can play the last two games before we hit another wall. Then we can regroup for a bowl game. But, we've got to get through these last two games with that. I think they're learning and understanding the cause and effect of how we practice, what's required, how to do it. And when you do things right, you get good results.
How much fun is it for you with your offensive approach, that kind of what you're doing…what's old is new again, and defenses are having trouble preparing for that.
Well, I mean, it isn't it is still sound football. That still gives you chances, and you still could throw it. People don't realize when you get in split pro, that's as good a formation as there is to throw the football, when your backs can catch and your tight end is versatile and you have two receivers…that's as good a formation as there is to throw a football. People don't look at that. You can do all kind of stuff out that. So I mean, it all derives from that, and I think as long as you keep your roots and don't leave them too far, we can go the one back. We can go no huddle. We could do all the spread stuff, but having that as your base, where you teach from, gives you some times when you have to go back and pull it back out, it's good.
A couple of your guys talked about not letting the moment get bigger than really what it is. How do you go about making sure that they have that mentality of taking it one play at a time?
Well, here's the thing. I mean, how you practice, because here's what happens. No matter what you go to a situation, when you get to pressure situations and things start to happen, things are happening too fast, here's what happens to every human being in this world. Your habits come straight to the surface. What you do daily, what you think, what you believe. And you don't even realize it, because instinct kicks in, okay, and by making sure you practice right and create the right habits, so if those situations do occur, hopefully those habits come to light. You don't win because you want to. You win because you're trained to and how you train and how you practice. Because those things keep coming out. You can't not do what you do in practice because it's what you do daily, which is who you are, and so you make sure your practice habits and you process is right for when those situations come. And I think experience is the other thing. They've experienced some really tough situations we've been in and some teams we've played, so hopefully it'll help us down the stretch right here.
How impressed have you've been with Charles Oliver and that move from cornerback to nickel? Even Buddy Johnson said it was one of the toughest positions to play on the field.
It is really tough, because of the intelligence and the way things come at you and what your assignments are. And he's done a really good job of commanding that and played excellent football, gets six pass breakups in the game and what he did playing corner and going back and forth. It takes a very special guy to go back and forth.
I know a lot has been said about the schedule and how different the teams that you will play now at this end of the schedule. How unique is it with the two games you'll have left to be able to potentially affect the outcome of the playoff as much as you could?
Well, it is. But you know we want to affect the outcome of our own program and how we play and what we do and what we get out of that. I mean, we want to affect our program. How we're playing I hope that we've learned from the games earlier in the year of how to approach those games and understand the level of ball you have to play at consistently day in and day out. Those young guys, it's going to be nothing but a great learning experience here. But you know hopefully it's something we've learned, we've played well this last month, and we can keep November rolling and play well, play good football. It's important for our program. The playoffs are wonderful, but I'm worried about what's going on at A&M.
In this nickel, you go back to (Deshawn Capers-Smith) last year, and all the guys you've used that spot this year, they've all been successful in that. What is it about that nickel spot?
Well, and it depends on what kind of team you play. Mike's doing a really good job by the type of nickels you play based on what they do with the guy in the slot. Chatt's done a great job. Everybody we've put in there has done a great job, but also by their style of their talent, of what we're playing against, I think we've matched that up very well. I think it's indicative of the way the game is being played today. I think the game is such a game of match ups. You have to have such a multiplicity of talents at different positions to be able to move. That's why the old days of, "He's a corner. He's a safety, He's a nickel. He's an outside backer"…No. He better be a football player, so you can mix and match by personnels to be able to match the guys you need in the slot or the outside of what you got. I think that's a very indicative of how the game has changed today and you've got to be able to have the diversity on defense to match what they're doing.
On the split pro you were talking about, with two backs, how many times have y'all used that? Was it mainly in the fourth quarter on Saturday?
No, we used it earlier in the game sometimes. I mean, it was just mixed and matched in how we did things.
Because you were talking about that Saturday night, about how teams don't prepare for that and how it's a good look.
Well, you don't see it as much. There's no magical formula that, Okay, we're doing that, and they don't know what to do. They know what to do. It's just something you don't practice as much. It was like when teams were spread teams back in the day, everybody was more conventional football. You could simulate it, and you practiced it. But how much did you really, and could you do it? I think that makes a big difference and hopefully is something we do every day and something they only do part of the time. So hopefully we can execute better than that.
On the Georgia defense. I know that if they really like their safety, J. R. Reed…
Reed, LeCounte, I can give you a whole list of 'em.
How much do they like to blitz?
Oh, they'll pressure you, now. Kirby is an aggressive guy. He's a great football coach, I've been on staff with him, and he's been around Nick and those guys all that time. And he has his own way of doing things. But he learned from good people, and they will pressure you with backers, inside blitzes, double-edge, corners, and will backers, safeties on that side, front side, inside, twist blitzes. They'll bring it from all angles and they're very exotic on third down, too.
I'm curious, how much better do you feel like your team is than it was a month ago?
I think we've gotten better. I think you've seen the results. I think we're learning to embrace the physicality. The young guys are really learning to embrace the physicality in all the things we're doing. I think we're a much better football team, I do, but hopefully it'll show in these last two games. We'll find out.
And in terms of where team is at physically, endurance, talking about guys hitting walls, how much do you lean on data?
A ton. We were one of the first to use a GPS in the country. It sits on my desk. When I walk in the data of what goes on, speeds, loads, body movements, changes. That sits on my desk. It's the very first report I look at. We do it as a team collectively and each individual's broken down by this thing. We were one of the first ones maybe in all the country do it back when I became head coach in 2010. We've been doing that and been able to develop it and got our system for what we like and how we like, and can tell player loads and what to use them on when they use them, when to pull back in practice, when to speed up in whatever we do. And we use that extensively on different things in which we do.
In general how is your team in that?
Right now very strong. Our speeds are going up. Our times are going up. Our power's going up. Seems like we're hitting things on the rise.
Y'all have face some really good quarterbacks this year. How does Fromm stack up against them?
As good as anybody in the country. Listen, this guy, he understands…everybody says does this guy run? Does he throw? What's his numbers? What you better ask is does this guy understand how to win? That's the number one thing you ask of a quarterback. Just like our guy. You talk about our guy right now. You talk about selfless, can play, tough, leadership, guys love him, play for him, do everything in the world for him. They love him, man. And Fromm reminds me of that. I'll speak about Kellen in a minute. I'm so happy with him, it's ridiculous, what he's doing. Is everything totally perfect? It's never perfect. But the things he does and the way our team responds, it's incredible, the leadership and toughness he shows. That's why our team is playing that way. When the quarterback's tough, it does. That's indicative of Georgia. Fromm's the same type of guy. The guy's selfless. Makes all the throws, makes all the runs. All he does is make the right decisions, take care of the football, and they win games and move the football. To me, that's what a quarterback is. We get caught up in all these other things. Fromm is an excellent, excellent football player.
The way you guys played defensively against South Carolina, especially against the run, is that kind of the recipe for success against Georgia?
Well, yeah. I mean, listen. First and foremost, Georgia's going to run the football. Tremendous offensive line, tremendous backs, tight ends. That's their forte. That's their identity. You're never going to shut them down, but you have to be able to play it, and you have to match the physicality and toughness. It'll be a huge challenge for our defense.
Injury updates on Tyree Johnson and Elijah Blades?
Elijah will be day to day. Got banged up on his shoulder. Hopefully, Tyree will be back. We'll see. That's all day to day stuff.
This is the first time you guys are playing Georgia as members of the SEC. They don't come back on the schedule until 2024. Would you like to get to play some of these more cross-divisional games?
I mean, that's just the way the SEC schedule is. I know they're looking at some formats going forward, keep the three main and rotate five and all those things. And I think it is good for your players eventually to be able to play everybody in the conference. I really do believe that. I think that's good, and to say that you've played that team or been in that stadium and those things, it is good. But when you have conferences as big as you have now that's kind of the way it goes.
So y'all had the ball almost 42 minutes. What is the key to possessing the ball like that?
Patience and third down conversions. And that's what we fell short in the third quarter for two or three drives. When you start running the football and doing those things, you're getting a lot of third and threes, fours, fives. And when you convert those, man those become frustrating and you eat drives and you do things. But when you don't, you've got to have third-down conversions. You've got to be able to hit those third downs. We were 4-for-4 in short yardage, then we head some early in those early drives, we hit our third downs. Then later we hit our third down conversions, remember the big one to Ausbon that got things going, and then we took off the second half. But also when you're controlling the clock and you're doing it, when you run the football on 2nd-and-7 you've got to convert a lot of 2 to 5s, and you have to be very effective in your third-down conversions. If not, then you get to a quick three and out. Because if you're creating big plays, you're not going to keep the ball anyways. I'm talking about those long drives. We had, what, three or four drives that were 12, 13, 14, 15-play drives in the game. The key to that is consistency, eliminate negative plays, don't have penalties, and you've got to be able to convert usually 3rd and 2 to 5s, in that range.
Were you in Cincinnati when you heard about the Bonfire collapse? And what was your reaction at that time? Did you learn a little bit about A&M?
I did, just the tragedy of it. You just hate for kids who love their school, went out there, being a part of a great tradition, and the history, and just have something like that happen. It's like the highlight of the year, to go do that and have the Bonfire. It was just so sad. It really was. And you just hated the tragedy that happened for those kids.
A game like this, what are your thoughts on you versus him and kind of the chess match that goes on in a game like this. How much do you look forward to that?
Well, listen, we used to play noontime basketball, and I used to get him. So if we played that, I'd be okay. I'm getting older now. But no, he's a great coach. He's done a great job with that program, has recruited well, has coached well, and I mean they're so sound. When you look at film, just like last week, and I said it with South Carolina, I was happy we were able to make plays when they were doing it right. You always hear me say you play good football when the other team does it right and you're still able to make yards and block, you know you're getting better. There's no gimmies. You know, look a certain team's formation and maybe I would get these three things in this or this or this. You don't see that in Georgia film. Every guy's going to be covered. He's going to be contested tightly. The fronts are going to be right. The gaps are going to be filled. They're going to bring different looks. They're going to challenge you mentally, physically, psychologically in offense, defense, special teams. It's a very well-coached team, and it's going to be a huge challenge for our players. He does a tremendous job.
Do you feel your offense now is better at run blocking the pass blocking?
Ehh…I generally as an overall consensus think run blocking is easier in general than pass blocking. I really do, in certain situations when it gets right down to it. I say that overall, that's not always true, but for the most part. Especially with the d-linemen you're facing this league. Understand something, man. The guys you face in this league, and I've been in other leagues. Everybody's got 'em. And every matchup, across that board, you've got to make sure and hope…There's no weak links. No guy that you can say well I can just block him. You've got to hold your breath. But right now, we're probably, I would say, run blocking a little bit better. I would say that.