Football Holds Week 3 Press Conference

Jimbo Fisher, Carson Green, Ainias Smith and Demarvin Leal visited with the media on Monday as the Aggies held their third press conference of the season inside Kyle Field.

Video and notes from the sessions will be posted below.

Notes from Coach Fisher's press conference:

(opening statement) Disappointed obviously in outcome, but also in things we did both sides. Had opportunities to maintain and stay in game, matched scores early. Moved ball on offense. First half had missed field goal and drooped ball and could have scored four times and kept it to one-possession game. Have to capitalize on those opportunities. Can't have that. Had critical turnover for a pick six. Defense played run real well but we gave up big plays in passing game. Two of them on 3rd and 8/9 and one of them on 2nd and 22. Special teams, had missed field goal. Cover ball well. Kicked ball out of end zone. Only punted twice in game. Didn't let Waddle have any chances in that regard. Got to continue to get better. Got to understand how to capitalize on opportunities and when game gets like that have to match scores. All the little details and every little thing matters. Disappointed, thought we could have done that, and players disappointed too. But not discouraged. Getting ready to play a very good Florida team. Have to correct mistakes, keep young guys and older guys going and get better and get ready to play a very good game this week.
(TE Kyle Pitts as a matchup problem) So unique. Tight end, but a wideout, because can block and do other things. Has such vertical skills. Makes so many contested catches. Not only him getting open but when he's covered he's still not covered. Trask does really good job of throwing to covered guys where they can get it but no one else can. But Pitts is such a unique talent. Our tight ends run really well but this guy runs like a wideout. Has such good skills. So many ways he can get the ball. Gotta know where he's at at all times. Extremely hard matchup. He maybe has more versatility than any guys I've had because of pure size and burst speed. And we've had some good ones. You can contest him off the ball but they will split him out and roll him. Have to know where he is at all times. Have to mix and match. We've definitely had conversations. Are there ways they're using him that we can use our guy? Always learning.
(#1 factor limiting big plays down field when you have the ball) We had 10 big plays, but it's just getting ball out on rhythm. Hit Ainias on a few deep balls. Gotta squeeze and give the QB a little more room on deep balls. Technique things that are very easily correctible. As far as moving and getting down field, we wanted to take the shots. Will continue to do that. Wanted to do that and will continue to do that. Way we were mixing and matching last week, the intermediate plays were successful so we did that. Kellen's decision making, not putting ball at risk, had one poor throw on corner route, but other than that was really good. Had lot of yards after catch underneath.
(Differences between this year's Alabama game and previous ones) We expected to win the game. Physical up front, our d-line has gotten very good. Our skill guys on offense run much better. Size coming in. Young backs are really good players. We ran the football well. Didn't have sack in the game, had some pressure but before we were getting pushed around and knocked around. Able to sustain drives. Should have scored 4 out of 7 times in first half. Defensively have to get big plays taken care of up front. But think we're making tons of progress. And lot of players making those contributions are young football players.
(Where you thought you'd be in year three) At end of 3 years will see where we are and evaluate what we do. Still feel like we have a great recruiting class coming in. Love young players. Older players have gotten better. Progress is there. But until you win them all you're never satisfied. Till you win every one of them. Have to get there. Learn to play those critical plays in critical moments. Need to get that taken care of very quickly. Not satisfied with anything that's going on until you win them all. That's our goal and that's why we're here and we'll work relentlessly until we do that.
(Young talent) Love our young players. Trying to develop those guys and get more on field. Not trying to get older guys off but building depth. Really good players. Hopefully one day they'll make a lot of money but win a lot of games around here and get a great degree first.
(Kellen's performance and putting Haynes King in) Kelen had good numbers. One critical mistake on that throw. Gotta get that. Was the right decision, had pressure, trying to make throw early, but needs to miss more outside. Decision was good, but throw can't be left inside. For most part decision making on day was really good. When you've got football in hand as QB there's always more you can do because you have that control. Haynes, we wanted to get him on the field and get him playing. Not disappointed in Zach, both right there getting reps everyday, but Haynes hadn't played so thought it was an opportunity there. They left their 1s in the game. Alabama never subbed their normal group of guys the whole game, offensively and defensively. Very good opportunity to get him some time and see how he reacted and what he did. I thought he did excellent job. He came off to me after the pick and said 'I left it inside. I shouldnt have done that'. We should have given him lot more room too. Have to help him with that route. Two-pronged deal there when that ball is released. That's his mentality. If it ain't right he'll be the first one to say so. Hardest one on himself.
(with two more air attacks ahead, how to fix secondary) Sometimes how you look at it is the schemes may be different even though they have success in different ways. Have to evaluate films and see. Matchups become big in sports. Way they matched up, we tried to take Waddle away then all of a sudden you get the other ones. Then they can pick and choose and the QB made good decisions. I'm sure they'll try some things Alabama did. We'll look at the matchups and see if different coverages, different scenarios work.
(Are the beating deep mistakes correctable in a week) Yeah. One was on double coverage, guys got to squeeze more from the outside in. Have to help squeeze that pocket and not drive as hard. One was in man coverage, Myles had him pressed well, but feet got tangled up and he tripped. Cant have that happen. Can get it fixed. Gotta work tails off to get there.
(Option success) Ran that play really well, if it's right time and right look. Something not always there all the time. Pick and choose when you can find it.
(Erick Young's status) Week to week thing. Too early in week to be able to tell anything.
(Grayson Reed's status) Hurt lower body. Will be season-ending injury unfortunately. Very disappointing.
(More 20-plus yard throws) That's the plan. Actually had about 11 called in the game. Threw it about 4-7 times, depending on coverage. In first 25-30 throws, we had like 10 or 11 called. But because of how they covered, allowed us to play underneath. Will continue to work down the field. Not just being able to run fast, its the technique you run the route with too.
(Demas) Demond keeps developing. Doing well. Learning in practice each and every day. Will be excellent player. Continues to grow. Very happy with his development and we hope to get him in there more and more
(Burning timeouts) Was young skill guys just missing signals. That simple. Nothing more than that.
(Impact of the veterans opting out) Anytime you lose really good football player it's really hard. If they got injured, same thing. With things that's going on today, that happens. Love to have them, really good players, we still love them and wish them the best, but love to have them here no doubt about that.
(Can you run ball better this week) Was pleased with running game early. Thought we ran well against them and kept good mix, but then score got out and we had to keep going. Was not disappointed in run game. Linemen blocked pretty well. Had 3-4 balls where had chance to really come out of there if we could just get one more inch on block. Running game coming. Have to keep good balance. DC is great guy. Known him long time. Blintzes and mixes packages, can't get one dimensional against him. Also helps us control the ball too.
(can offense get to 38-40 points a game) We can. Right there in the opportunities. That's what we're pointing at, in the details. Missed a field goal. Had to go for it on downs once or twice. Yards are there. Have to have attention to detail. Both games should have been 38-42 point totals. Just have to finish drives and do it.
(anything schematically to help offense get to next level) They know what to do, that's not it. Have to do it at critical times. Got to do it consistently over and over. As mental toughness and maturity grows, hopefully execution will grow. Same plays we let down, we hit in the game for big ones. Just have to go out there and do it.
(How to narrow gap to Alabama) Keep working hard and recruiting hard. Developing culture. Keep recruiting very well. Have to get numbers of classes back to back. First class very good class, but second and third have been excellent classes. On track for another one in my opinion. I can see it on field when we play them, know it doesn't always seem like that on the scoreboard. But can sense it just from ability of how we move the football, different things in game. Got to create more things on defense with the fronts and things we're doing. Listen, they're always gonna be there. Have to play them each and every year. Have to continue to recruit well and develop players.