Aggies Begin Arkansas Week with Monday Press Conference
Sep 20, 2021 | Football
Jimbo Fisher and the 7th-ranked Aggies began preparation for Saturday's SEC opener with No. 16 Arkansas by meeting the media at Monday's weekly press conference.
Joining Coach Fisher were Nik Constantinou, Leon O'Neal Jr. and Devon Achane. Video, audio and quotes will be available below. Video is also available for free inside the 12th Man Mobile app.
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Opening Statement: Jimbo Fisher
Again, proud of our team. Anytime you come out and get a 34-0 win, it's a good thing. Had a great shutout on defense, thought our defense was outstanding in the game, We were better, they played very hard, but what I was proud of is our evaluations, our leverage, our points. A lot of little details. I thought we did a great job defensively of containing and trying to own the play actions and not let somebody slip loose in all the different violations in which they can cause with their motions and shifts and formations. I thought we thought we did a great job. We were very strong up front. You know, the guys were dominant, tackled well. Covered well, did a great job on third down. Great to get Myles Jones back out there in the game. Got him playing again. McKinnley's back out there. So those guys are all getting some of the guys back in the groove and getting some playing time for everybody and getting better as a unit.
Offensively I thought we did some really good things. We started very fast, and we came out with two great drives. We scored four of our first six drives, and the one we didn't we had the ball on the 20 and gave up a negative play. The big thing I'm harping on, you go back and look and I was pushing the offensive line, pushing tight ends and pushing backs, us running the football better. It's four guys are right, one guys off. And it's a different guy at different times. And it's not it's not ability, not scheme...It's just technique thing, little things. And I got to say, these things are never as good as they seem. And never as bad as they seem. And most of the things you fix go back to what I always say, do ordinary things better than anybody else. And they're technical, they're fundamental. They're very easy in the scheme in which we do. And our guys know, we relay to them when they come off. We have to be more consistent. But we come out and scored for the first six drives, scored on two minute before the half, scored the first drive coming out in the second half...which we could get touchdowns on both of those. We got field goals, but those are points in which we try to emphasize and things we do. Got the running game going in the second half. Isaiah had some really nice runs. But we had a few too many negative plays that we don't normally have. And I think, I always say this, if you can eliminate of course turnovers, you don't have self-inflicted wounds and penalties, and you eliminate negative plays. Even a zero yard gain or a one yard gain keeps you on track and you can get back in pace. And we had a couple of those, which was one of the things that I was unhappy with that we can really fix.
But I thought Zach, in his first start, to come out there and start like he did, hot as he did, did a good job on third down, held a ball or two a couple of times trying to make a big play...but those are things that you've got to get in the saddle to play, to to go through those situations, but very proud of the way he managed the game, controlled the game. I thought Isaiah, Achane did a good job in the game. Wydermyer played solid. Our receivers, we had a couple of drops in some places, but some of our young guys came in and made big plays. And, you know, that's what's going to have to happen. We've got to keep continually growing in that group. And so we're getting better and we'll continue to get better and where we're going.
Special teams, I thought Nik was outstanding. I believe he was SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, all his punts inside the 20, an average of 49, I think he's doing a really nice job kicking the ball. And believe it or not, I think he can even play better. I mean, he's a very talented guy, but he's doing the right things and he's wired right. He does the right things for the right reasons. Works his tail off. We had a couple of movement penalties. They were saying some things up there on the line, making some of our young guys jump that, you know, that's all part of the game, man. You got to move past as hopefully the experience there will get past that. And unfortunately, Caden had two kicks and he missed, which he never does. We got to cover one them a little bit better than we did, but we had a bad snap from Choate, which is extremely rare, extremely rare. But it happened. And those are the things we've got to get cleaned up.
So the good thing is, we won a good game, but we still got a lot of room to improve, which is important. And I think that's how good teams do it. Each week you got to keep grinding and find in little increments and improve on things you do and and to get better, because if you don't, you don't continue to grow, you just wilt on vine, as my dad said. And you know, you can't. You got to continue to do it. So we're nowhere pleased with everything we're doing. But at the same time, we're headed in the right direction and got the right guys in the right place and just got to keep playing good and we'll get there.
We're continuing to grow and get better, and we better because I think we're facing one of the few teams...the team we're playing right now has a very experienced team. They don't have a young team. This group has a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth year guys on their team, and they're playing probably as well as anybody in the country. When you talk about they're running the football, Arkansas is right now, extremely well.
Quarterback Jefferson is making throws, hitting big, long throws. I mean, chunk throws, but then all of a sudden he can take off and run and beat you with his legs. He's hard to get on the ground. The receivers, Burks and that whole crew, Warren, Thompson and all those guys for them...I recruited Warren when I was at Florida State. Big athletic guys. Burks is phenomenal. Tailbacks can really run, powerful. Tailback was leading the league, I believe, 100 something yards a game if I'm not mistaken, playing great.
Defensively, experienced. Both linebackers inside, they seem like they've been there eight years. And I've only been here for they've been here a long time. You know, those guys are all over the place. Bumper Pool. Catalon, I think, is one of the best safeties in the country. I think he's phenomenal how he plays and what he does. The corners, up front guys are strong. They go three down front, four down front. Kicking game, their freshman kickers made all of his kicks. They're punting the ball well, returning the ball well.They're playing really good football. And we will have to play a great game to to be in the game right there and have a chance to win it. And we know that. So we've got to have a great week of preparation to go play. So we'll keep moving on.
Press Conference Quotes: Nik Constantinou
On Coach Fisher's reaction to the team's performance against New Mexico ...
"I think, yeah, we have a standard and that standard is very high placed by Coach Fisher. So, you know, it's always going to be a challenge to reach that. But we have to and it starts with practice. So we're going to start today, make sure all the fundamentals are done in practice and take it day by day so we can perform to our standard on the weekend."
On his approach to punting in AT&T stadium…
"I think it's going to be the same as any other game. Just focus on fundamentals and do what you do each and every week. I mean, it's going to be a different environment because of the scoreboard, as I as I've heard, but I mean, it doesn't change what the result has to be. So, that’s going to be the focus for this week.”
Press Conference Quotes: Leon O’Neal
On how the defense has played up to this point...
"I think we care about the process more than the results. I think if you go in and think about the results, you try to do more than what you are supposed to do, which is do your job to do a job and do it fast. You know, we as a whole have done that. But I think there's a lot of spots we can still build and get better at."
On the response to Coach Fisher's critique of how the team played against New Mexico...
"From what I know is these guys in the locker room know we've got to go harder. You know what kind of time it is, it's SEC time. Time to put everything together and if coach say's we're not doing enough, then we're going to dig deeper and try to do more."
Press Conference Quotes: Devon Achane
On playing at AT&T stadium...
"It's actually funny that you ask that because when I was in high school, I played there twice in the state championship. And the quarterback, like he's extremely close to me. We went to the same high school, so we both lost. And we make a joke, like one of us got to win here because, you know, we both played there twice. We both lost. So, it's like a little thing that we say, like a curse."
