A&M 20, UMass 3: Postgame Notes and Quotes

Postgame notes, quotes and press conference video from Texas A&M's 20-3 win over UMass at Kyle Field.

Team Notes

• The Aggies registered their first 200-yard rushing game of the season, finishing with 213 yards on the ground.  
• Texas A&M forced multiple fumbles in a game for the third time this season after junior DB Antonio Johnson and freshman LB Martrell Harris Jr. knocked the ball loose against the Minutemen.  
• The Aggies are 24-7 (.774 win percentage) at Kyle Field under head coach Jimbo Fisher. 
• The Aggies moved to 29-4 when scoring first and are a perfect 27-0 when leading after the first quarter under Coach Fisher. 
• A&M held UMass to 168 yards of total offense, including 73 in the second half.
• The Aggie defense limited the Minutemen to 3-of-16 on 3rd-down conversions and 0-of-2 on 4th-down conversions.
• Today’s captains against were OL Layden Robinson, DL McKinnley Jackson, DB Demani Richardson and DL Isaiah Raikes.

Individual Notes

• Freshman WR Noah Thomas had a career-best 40 yards on two receptions. He caught the second touchdown pass of his young career when he brought in a 22-yard pass in the second quarter. 
• Sophomore WR Moose Muhammad III hauled in a 45-yard pass in the first quarter for his longest career reception. He finished the game with 75 yards on three receptions.
• Freshman RB Le’Veon Moss recorded his first career TD rush with a 12-yard dash late in the game. He logged career highs with his 78 rushing yards and 12 carries. Moss recorded his longest career run, a 23-yard burst, on the first drive of the fourth quarter.
• Sophomore RB Amari Daniels had a career-long 26-yard rush early in the third quarter. He ended the day with 67 yards on a career-high 17 carries. 
• Freshman QB Conner Weigman had the best rushing day of his young career with 66 yards on eight carries. He recorded runs of 22, 29 and 32 yards in the second quarter. 
• Weigman finished the day completing 11-of-19 passes for 191 yards and one touchdown. He has opened his career with 114 attempts and 61 completions without throwing an interception.
• Freshman LB Martrell Harris Jr. recorded the first sack and forced fumble of his career, taking down the UMass QB and knocking the ball loose to start the fourth quarter.  
• Junior DB Antonio Johnson made it back-to-back games with a forced fumble when he punched the ball loose in the first quarter.
• Freshman DL Malick Sylla recorded five tackles, including 1.0 sack and a hurry, seeing increased snaps on defense against the Minutemen. 
• Freshman DL Albert Regis registered a career high with 1.5 tackles for loss. He equaled his career best with six tackles.

Jimbo Fisher Press Conference Quotes

COACH FISHER: Very happy for our seniors to be able to come out on Senior Day and get a win. Exciting time and sad time before the game when you got to go see them and talk to them. It's like one of the last two times we'll ever walk in that stadium. It's a rejoicing time, a lot of memories, but sad, too, because they've -- they love being here and I love having them.  Congratulations to them. 

Congratulations to our team. We won the game. Like I said, we haven't won in a six-game losing streak. No matter what you get, any win is a great win. And it's a really good win. 

I thought our defense was outstanding in the game. They did a great job of controlling field position, leveraging the ball. Had one drive down there, and actually we got a hand on that field goal that got through.

We kept them in field position. Our special teams did a real good job. Then we got the punts. We were catching those short punts and not letting them hit the ground and roll. Moose [Muhammad III] did a great job at that. Had a couple of nice returns. 

And offensively, we didn't move it. We kept them back. But three turnovers is, you know, pretty critical. Two drives we didn't finish. The first drive we had field goals on, and then we had three turnovers. Moving the ball really well. We had big plays, and we were moving it nice. Conditions, no matter what, you've got to hold onto the football. That's a disappointing thing on it. 

Thought Conner [Weigman] did a really nice job in the game. Did a great job with his legs, making decisions, making plays early in the game, win the field position. You can see he's athletic and can run. Was accurate with the ball. Made good throws. The balls were really wet. We got them dried up a little bit and did a better job. We didn't throw as much in the second half; but I thought he managed the game, did things really well for the game. Thought he made some really good decisions. 

Thought he had to Moose [Muhammad III] on a touchdown down there. You can bear hug, I guess. That's legal now. 

But hey, should have scored some more points. Didn't want to turn it other. Need to get the running game going a little bit earlier. But defense was outstanding, special teams was. Offense, we did the things we had too and the guys won the game. 

Q. Just wanted to ask you a little bit more on Conner [Weigman] running and that added dimension, and he really kind of kicked it into extra gear. 

COACH FISHER: Conner is a really good athlete. He really is. You don't say he's 4.5, but he's really athletic. He played shortstop and the things he did, the baseball player he is, the decisions, what he can do in the game. Boots, nakeds, sprint in the pocket, and then throwing the football, I mean, he can do all those things. 

I thought he did a really nice job in the game, making good decisions on that, getting what he could, getting down. Then dinking and dunking the ball when he was on the edges. Thought he played really well. Made a heck of a throw there at the end. That was a heck of a throw at the end. Touch pass, you can see the kind of talent he has in his hands. 

Q. What were some of the struggles in the running game with the running backs early? And what kind of changed to flip on the switch?

COACH FISHER: Well, listen, that's what Don [Brown] does.  Don puts nine guys in the box. We wanted to keep pounding until we get play actions. Don -- I've played him. That's what he did at Michigan, what he did at Boston College, what he did at Maryland. What he did everywhere. 

They put three, five, and nine on one side. Put the other safety down. You play action it, roll them out. And they put it down in there. And we knew it was going to be early. It always goes like that against them. 

Anytime I've ever played -- only time we jumped on them too hard was at the Orange Bowl at Michigan. We had some good runs early, and then you keep pounding away at it. 

That's what their defense is, tries to make you throw the football. And conditions early, we wanted to throw it a little bit more. But until we got the ball dry and him comfortable in the game, throwing it down the field as much as we could. Then the scrambles came in. That's what Don does. Their defense is designed like that.   

Q. Coach, you said that any win is a good win. Why as far as a program that aspires to win the SEC West would you be proud of a win over a lackluster team? 

COACH FISHER: It's on your schedule and our kids played their hearts out and they played tough and they did the things they had to do to win the game. Any win you have is a win, and I'm proud our kids for doing it.

Q. Does it bother you or concern you at all that probably your fan base is going to more discouraged by that than maybe some of the losses?

COACH FISHER: I'm not discouraged. Nobody is discouraged. That's where we are right now. We win a game and move on. 

Q. I know you're focused on what's happening on the field, but did you notice how thin the crowd got in the second half? And do you think the season is getting to the fan base?

COACH FISHER: No. I mean, I'm sure -- we're all disappointed, not where we want to be. But they will be packed out of here next week I think for the things that go on and we play LSU. I'm sure they'll be here. 

Q. Jimbo, the decision not to have Evan [Stewart] play today, was that just precautionary, or is he still in a protocol of some sort? 

COACH FISHER: I don't want to get into the details, but hopefully he'll be okay.

Q. How about Max Wright?

COACH FISHER: Max, I don't know, we'll see. They've got to judge that, again, however they feel it in there. Same thing.

Q. Devon [Achane] was warming up during the process. Was the weather a factor in him not playing?

COACH FISHER: It had nothing to do with the weather. He was trying to practice Thursday, and it just didn't feel quite right. When he came out there today, he said he wanted to try again and see what it felt like pregame and it didn't. There was no sense to press that. 

He's pushing to get back, trying to get back; and hopefully, he'll get back next week.

Q. No Devon [Achane] and no Evan [Stewart] but instead Noah Thomas and Le'Veon Moss step up as freshmen. What have you seen of their maturity, especially given -- 

COACH FISHER: Really good. You can see Le'Veon is explosive. He's going to be a really good player. Noah made good plays. I thought Amari Daniels ran the football very well. Those young guys are going to be really good players. Proud of those guys. 

Q. Coach, besides picking up the win, what do you think your team picks up from this ball game that they carry into the LSU game next week?

COACH FISHER: They won the game. Get back on a winning track, feeling that, going out there playing hard, playing in different conditions, what goes on. 

Anytime you play, you learn. Whatever happens, you get to share with your teammates, get to share in that stadium, got to play well. You always do. You understand how to win. You won again, that feeling again, and you go right back to practice. 

Q. Coach, what were some of the things y'all were considering in the first half the way that sequence played out? Kicking it a little early, 14 seconds.

COACH FISHER: Well, we had to call a time-out right there. It wasn't no sense to take a chance. You're backed up in the wet conditions and you only got ten yards. And if you get, it's going to be, what, six to eight seconds on the play? And go up and clock the ball. We were in a good situation there. 

Unfortunately, we didn't want to take the time-out. The ball slipped out of his hand. Hopefully, we'd had another shot there and thrown the ball and got down there.

But it was a 47-yard field goal. That's plenty in his range. If you get caught short, you don't even get to kick off. The next play has got to be at least 10 yards or get out of bounds. So there wasn't no chance to risk it right there. I didn't want to risk it with no time-outs left. 

Q. And then just from an offensive standpoint, I'm sure you guys are obviously trying to find your rhythm. Is it frustrating?

COACH FISHER: Turnovers. Turnovers and then in the second half, missed a couple of third downs.

Q. Was it frustrating at all not having ideal -- far from ideal conditions and --

COACH FISHER: Well, that's football.  That's what makes football so special. You never know what they are. Rain, you look at some teams across the country, they're playing in two foot of snow right now. Guys are playing in rain. That's what makes football so different than so many other sports. We don't cancel games.  You play them and you go. 

Q. Jimbo, just based off your time throughout coaching, what have you noticed after a long losing streak that a win can do for a program's morale?

COACH FISHER: Just remind you what it feels like, remind you what that is. Things are not far away. Everything goes back and forth based on how you practice and what you do and what you do on that day. It still feels good to go do that. That's what you're there for. That's the ultimate goal.

Layden Robinson Press Conference Quotes

Q. Layden, what was UMass doing early on that made it so hard to run against? And how did you guys adjust as the game went along? 

LAYDEN ROBINSON: They was just doing stuff that we expected them to do, that we practiced hard with Coach Dameyune [Craig] and his plan. What we were doing, we just wasn't getting movement on them in the first half. We were playing too lateral and not playing getting up the field. I mean, we fixed that in the second half. 

Q. Layden, how frustrating was it not to be able to put these guys away until pretty late?

LAYDEN ROBINSON: You know, it's always a little frustrating in the beginning part because you know what you have to do, and we just seen drives that we just gave up. And we didn't finish in the red-zone area. And we just had to figure out, how do we finish those drives? And that is frustrating.

We're going to figure out why we didn't finish those drives in film, and we're going to get that right going into this next week against LSU.

And the second half is just -- that's what we was supposed to be doing in the first half. 

Q. Layden, Jimbo [Fisher] says a win is a win. But for you internally and just as a team, how does it feel to get the monkey off your back after a six-game losing streak?

LAYDEN ROBINSON: It's always good to get a win. You don't take those for granted because they're hard to come by, especially in this league. So it's a blessing to get a win. We just didn't get the win the way we wanted to get the win. So we just got to figure that out.

Q. And you when have young players like Noah Thomas and Le'Veon Moss, potentially the future of this team, especially when you have veterans like Devon [Achane] and Evan [Stewart] who's been a factor, missing the game, how important is it for them to get as many reps as possible for next season?

LAYDEN ROBINSON: It's very important so they can get their confidence up. I know when I was a young guy in their shoes, I wanted to play to make sure to let myself know and my peers know that I'm able to play in this league and sustain in this league and I can be a factor for the team. So I think that's very important for them. And they did their jobs today, and they did great. 

Q. Layden, can you talk about the turnovers and just how disappointing that part of it is and how that kind of stymied your offense in being able to put up the points that you felt like you needed to today. 

LAYDEN ROBINSON: The turnovers are always hard because we turned the ball over down in the red zone. And that's some of the worst places you want -- you can't turn over the balls. You don't want to have turnovers, period, but especially in that area when you're about to score, because that takes the momentum down.

But we still capitalized and won the game after all those turnovers and all those bad drives that happened. So it would have been surprising what we could have done if we just didn't turn the ball over and we did finish those drives in the red zone.

Q. You guys normally have such great crowds here. Was it disappointing to the players to see how thin the crowd got, especially in the second half?

LAYDEN ROBINSON: No, not really, especially with the weather and environment and stuff like that. Some of the stuff like that is expected. 

But we really don't pay attention too much in the crowd. We have to play the game no matter if there's zero people in the stadium, if there's a thousand people in the stadium, if the stadium is fully packed. We have to do our job, and we have to play. That's not a factor in our play at all. 

Q. Layden, can you kind of talk about, I guess, what it's going to be like for this week? I know that you're going to close out the season against LSU, but just the excitement of being able to take on LSU and come for a night game at Kyle [Field] next Saturday. 

LAYDEN ROBINSON: It's always exciting to play a top opponent like LSU. You know, they're a great team. They come in here in our home stadium, and they're trying to beat on us. Our job is to just to do what we do best. Just come out here and fight to the very end and just have that sense of pride. 

We always play artfully, how we play with everybody, and that's what we have to continue to do. And you never know. We probably pull out and win this thing if we just do our job and just stick to our fundamentals and do what we came here to do.

Q. Layden, everyone has their own thought process of going into certain games after you break a losing streak. For you personally, do you view it as one more shot? Or do you view it as a straight 0-0 record with an opportunity to finish the year 1-0? 

LAYDEN ROBINSON: I just look at it as another opportunity. You know, just another opportunity to go out there and do something great with your teammates. Unfortunately, this is the last go-around for this team. But you can't focus on stuff like that. All you've got to do is go out there and play the game that you love and a game that God has blessed you to play and play at this great university. 

Edgerrin Cooper Press Conference Quotes

Q. Edge, it was a seven-point game at halftime. They ran the ball pretty well the first 30 minutes. What got said at halftime that turned you guys around?

EDGERRIN COOPER: Just making simple adjustments and just getting the guys together in the locker room. Like, we need to finish tackling more and just executing the game plan. They just -- they found a little way to exceed our defense, so we had to just make little adjustments to fix that. 

Q. I guess, first off, just the confidence I guess it gives you guys to be able to hold them just to a field goal and keep them out of the end zone today. 

EDGERRIN COOPER: I'm sorry, what was that? 

Q. I guess the confidence that today's game, by keeping them out of the end zone, you just held them to a field goal, what does that give you guys today? 

EDGERRIN COOPER: No, that's a bit part of our defense. If we feel like our team ends up in a situation to get in the red zone, holding them to a field goal is a big accomplishment for us. And it gives us a big boost. The next series, we won't even -- not even let a field goal happen. It just makes us compete with each other and execute. 

Q. And then if I could follow up, just how big it was for you guys to pick up a win today and being able to walk off Kyle Field with a kind of smile on your face. 

EDGERRIN COOPER: It finally feels good, slowly creeping out of the dark hole or whatever. But it's a start from right now. We take what we get and just move forward from now on. 

Q. Edgerrin, I know you said it finally feels good. What has the last six weeks felt like leading up to this to make it feel that good? 

EDGERRIN COOPER: I mean, it's been miserable, but we just didn't let that affect us. We just wanted to find out what it was and just keep grinding it out. And today, it finally paid off. 

Q. When you look around and see so many new faces because of injuries and what not, how surprised are you at how many guys are out and the guys that have had to step up in their place?

EDGERRIN COOPER: To be honest, I'm really not surprised. We have ballplayers all over. But it's just the fact of us coming together and playing as one and just doing what we need to do. 

Q. Hey, Edgerrin, do you remember kind of what the message was for you guys when they had that drive where they got the field goal into the red zone that kind of got some big chunk plays and you all were able to lock it down?

EDGERRIN COOPER: Yeah, [DJ] Durkin, he just got on to us, hey, we got to step it up another notch, we got to keep going. Got to step it up to another level and just -- the main thing with us is we just want to execute, just tackle, just do what he tells us to do and just go from there. 

Q. Edgerrin, can you talk about, I guess, the -- maybe the positiveness that this gives you going into the LSU game next week. 

EDGERRIN COOPER: It gives us a positive perspective. Next week, we really want it. We're going to come with a big different mindset, you know, just ready to go for it and make something happen. 

Q. Edgerrin, after a losing streak, people usually try to come up with a scenario what's next thing. Do they look at it as another opportunity to win or just starting the record fresh 0-0. How do you view it? 

EDGERRIN COOPER: 0-0. Everything that's in the past is in the past. And [Tyler] Santucci, he even lets linebackers know, you only control what you can control. And now just moving forward, that's the good thing about football, you've got another week to be able to prove what you need to prove. 

Q. And then, while the season is not over in that you won't be going to a bowl game, you do have an opportunity to ruin LSU's chances of potentially being in the conversation for the playoff. Do you enjoy the fact to know that you can play that spoiler role? 

EDGERRIN COOPER: That's a big thing that we're looking forward to. We're looking forward to make a stamp, to make this happen. 

Q. And for you as a native of Louisiana, does it mean just a little bit more to potentially ruin LSU's season?

EDGERRIN COOPER: I mean, I'm here with my teammates and ready to rock out.