Texas A&M held its weekly press conference on Monday to begin bye week, and coordinators Jay Bateman and Collin Klein joined Mike Elko to meet the media.
Elko, Bateman, Klein Meet Media to Begin Bye Week
Texas A&M held its weekly press conference on Monday to begin bye week, and coordinators Jay Bateman and Collin Klein joined Mike Elko to meet the media.
Quotables: Mike Elko
OPENING COMMENT:
All right. Thanks for coming out. Recapping the Missouri game, we'll start with our players of the week. Offensively, our offensive lineman the week again was Trey Zuhn. That seems to just be a reoccurring theme. I think Trey is playing at a really, really high level for us right now. And so I'm excited for that. Offensive player of the game was Connor Weigman. Obviously start to finish I thought he played exceptionally well, completing 82 percent of his passes. I was really happy for him. And obviously he led the offense. A secondary shout out to what Le'Veon Moss did, because when a back goes for 137 yards and 11 plus yards per carry and three touchdowns, you certainly don't want to not acknowledge him. I thought he had a really good day as well.
Defensively we had co-defensive lineman of the week, Albert Regis and Rodas Johnson. I thought that was Rodas Johnson's best game by far. I thought he was very disruptive and active in there. It was great to see him continuing to play a role for us. And then our player of the game was Nic Scourton. I thought he was exceptional. He made a bunch of big time plays, one-and-a-half sacks. I thought the play he made on the 3rd-and-1 on the quarterback really was kind of the momentum-ender to some degree and really kind of helped put that game completely out of reach.
Our special teams player of the week was Rylan Kennedy. We always want to point out these culture things. Rylan is another kid who's an extremely talented player. He's in his second year. He's caught in a little bit of a logjam so he probably isn't getting the reps that he wants to get. But he's taking his role and is impacting games and continues to get better every week and continues to force us to find ways to utilize him. We played him a little bit more this week as the game went on, and I just think you'll continue to see his role grow. He's a really promising young player and I'm just really happy with how he's handling the situation. No one's ever happy when they're not starting, but you can react in a lot of different ways. And he's positively impacting games really strongly for us. And then obviously Tyler White was the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, happy for him as well. He continues to be a weapon for us.
As you recap the game, you know, offensively I thought we started sharp. We scored on four straight possessions to start the game. That's five out of six times this year now that we've scored in the opening possession of the game. And so that's obviously something we want to continue. It was great to come out and start the second half the way we did with the long run to kind of continue to put that thing and create some separation. Hit a little bit of a lull finishing it out in the third quarter. I think that's probably the biggest area of improvement that we want to look at and get better at. Way too many penalties from that point on. And those are things that that we'll be able to harp on and clean up. Really happy with how Conner distributed the ball. Ten different players caught passes, I thought that was great. Made more explosive plays down the field. Noah had one. Jahdae had one. Terry Bussey had one. And then it was good to see Jabre Barber get a little bit more active and continue to see his role grow and enhance. And so I thought offensively we played a really, really good game.
Defensively, you know it was a really another positive step for us. I thought it was a really strong first half, holding them to 79 yards in the first half and zero conversions. I thought our D-line controlled the game again, limiting their ability to run the football and pressuring the quarterback. And then we came out and we got the three three and out. So it was like the second half from where we were against Florida when we got the big early lead and really kind of didn't play the third quarter exactly the way we wanted to. I thought we made a big step. We came out, scored on the first possession, got the three and out right away. And it really kind of kept the momentum that we had built in the first half. And then still a lot of things to learn from. Still a lot of things we've got to clean up, certainly some things in coverage that we need to tighten up and fix before they become bigger problems. But at the end of the day we held a very potent passing offense to 13-for-31 on the day for 186 yards. That'll win you a lot of football games.
Special teams wise, I think Tyler (White) and Randy Bond continue to be weapons for us. It's great to see them continue to perform at the level that they're performing at. Just all in all, our special teams are still a work in progress, continuing to get better each and every week.
So I'm happy with what we did. Happy with where we are. I think there's two games you always want to win...you always want to win when you play at 11 a.m., because you've got to live with that one all day, and you always want to win when you're going into a bye week, because you have to deal with that one for a whole week. And so to win at 11 a.m. going into a bye week at least gives you like five hours to celebrate a win. So that's good to see.
MIKE, AT THE MIDWAY POINT, HOW DO YOU EVALUATE WHERE YOU GUYS HAVE GROWN AND WHERE YOU NEED TO GO?
You know, I don't even know that you have time to do like big gathering of information like that. Year one is such a challenge because you never really know. You're going through so many things for the first time, and so it feels like you're constantly just pointing fingers and plugging holes until you go out against Notre Dame and you identify problems. You've got to work on trying to fix them and then more problems pop up because that's what happens naturally. You just try to continue to push this thing forward. I think from a big picture standpoint, the thing that I'm most happy with is we're starting to understand what a winning mentality looks like. The effort that it takes, the strain that it takes, the commitment every single day to a task, to focus, to do the things you've got to do to give yourself a chance to be successful on Saturday. I'm maybe more excited about some of the things that I see behind the scenes that are allowing some of the progress to show a little bit more on the field, and that's exciting. I think our kids are starting to maybe understand a little bit more what the winning edge actually is, to get the performance at the level they want it to be a little bit more consistently. And I think as long as we stay in that mindset and we continue to grow every day...to me, what happens is you put all this work in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday--I know this is coach speak--but when you do that the right way, then all of a sudden you show up again on Saturday and you're a little bit better than you were last Saturday. And I think that's what's happening right now. And I think the kids are starting to see that if they can stay in that mindset and stay in that rhythm, good things can happen.
HOW DO YOU STRUCTURE YOUR BYE WEEK?
Try to get some rest and try to recover. I think that's really important after a six in a row stretch, and certainly as we come down the stretch of five out of six SEC games, three of them on the road. We've got a big stretch coming at us. We gave the kids off Sunday. They lifted today, but we didn't practice. We'll come in tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. Those will be our work days. And then we'll give them off Friday, Saturday to kind of let them breathe again. You're trying to recover mentally, physically, all of that stuff. I think the focus this week will be ourselves. We're going to do some good work and basically turn it into kind of like fall camp, and just make sure that we have a good practice week where we're able to continue to stay sharp, stay in our game, stay in our rhythm, fix some of the things we feel like we need to work on and improve. And then come back Sunday and really start going to work on Mississippi State.
COLLIN KLEIN HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS IN THE RED ZONE RUNNING GAME AT KANSAS STATE. HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE THINGS STARTING TO TAKE HOLD HERE, AND HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE HIM THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON?
I think Collin's doing a really good job. I think our touchdown percentage in the red zone is really high. I'm going to be embarrassed a little bit to tell you, I don't even know exactly how good they were at Kansas State. But they look good on film with the film that I watched. But we're doing a really good job of finding creative ways to make sure we get into the end zone. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, we start our red zone plan on Monday. So we do it on Monday, we do it on Tuesday, we do it on Wednesday, we do it on Thursday. I think Collin has a real good feel for how to create things. And I think we do a really good job structurally of creating opportunities to get better in that area of the field because of how important it is. I looked at it this morning, I think we're over 70 something percent touchdowns in the red zone if I'm not mistaken. So if we can live in that world, we're going to be really successful.
YOU'VE SAID BEFORE, WITH YOUR DEFENSE IT TAKES TIME FOR FOR EVERYONE TO KIND OF GEL. HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE HOW YOU AND JAY BATEMAN ARE KIND OF MESHING WITH THE PLAY CALLING, HOW MUCH IS HE INVOLVED ON GAME DAYS WITH EVERYTHING?
Oh, it's Jay's game. Jay's calling the game. Jay's running the defense. Jay's the defensive coordinator. For everything that we do successfully on defense, Jay should get all of the credit for it. That's his show. He's the one running this thing. I think obviously I have some ideas that I can influx into what we do. I think there's a system and structure...I guess the biggest thing that I thought we did well when I ran defenses was the system and structure of how we ran it. And so that to me was the most important thing that was installed. And Jay and I sat down a lot early when I got here and kind of went through it all. So that's in place and, outside of that, Jay deserves all the credit for what we did Saturday and all the credit for everything we do. It's his show and he's running the defense.
Quotables: Jay Bateman
WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE SEEN FROM YOUR DEFENSE OVER THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON?
I think we've improved. I think they kind of have a better understanding of what we want to do. I think, especially in the run fit structure, early on there were some issues. Kind of got ironed out a little bit. And then I've been pretty pleased with how the back end has come together too. I think we've done a good job with those guys, piecing some new players back there. So I think we've made good progress the last few weeks.
NOW THAT YOU'RE SIX GAMES INTO THIS SYSTEM AND STRUCTURE WHAT DO YOU REALLY LIKE ABOUT IT IN THE WAY THAT IT FUNCTIONS?
I think we do a really, really good job of isolating, up front, the one-on-ones for the front four players and allowing them to play. So many times you get bogged down with they've got to do this, they've got to do that, in order to protect people. And I think it's a little bit more of an attacking mindset, a little bit more of like, when you're one-on-one with the front, we've got really good players. So when you do that, they create a lot of negative plays, they create a lot of zero plays. You don't handcuff them in the transition from run to pass, and I think that's been really good. And then, look, we rushed the passer on first and second down better Saturday than I think we have. And so I think now you start to see the coverage is holding up longer. And so you add those two things together it becomes a really good mix. I think we've got coverage answers. We've got about every coverage known to man. So every week we kind of narrow it down to what we think is appropriate for that week and allow the front to play. That's been pretty good for us.
WHAT WERE SOME THE BIGGEST REASONS FOR THE RUN DEFENSE ISSUES EARLY IN THE SEASON? AND THEN HOW HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN ABLE TO IMPROVE IT SO MUCH?
So I think Notre Dame we misfit three things. The long touchdown, the first one, we missed a tackle and it got out on the perimeter. So I think we've been able to take that and learn from it, some of the perimeter run support, not letting the ball get to...I talk all the time, don't let the ball get to the big field. Don't let the ball cross the nickel's face. Don't let the ball cross the corner's face. So I think that's been better. We misfit a few things at linebacker early on, and I feel like we're fitting the run better, a little bit better, at a linebacker. And I think our kids have a better understanding of how we want to take on certain blocks. And like I was saying earlier, I think the ability to let the front hunt, one-on-one. You create more negative plays that way. And so, I think all those things have factored in. I really felt like...after Notre Dame, I wasn't concerned about our run defense because I knew we had good players. I was more concerned like, hey, look, we've got to get these guys to execute every single play. When we've done that, it's been really good. And then we've been fortunate I think the last 3 or 4 weeks to get a little bit of an advantage on people and to kind of get after the run game a little bit earlier...where they kind of say, okay, wait, let's focus on throwing it a little bit more because it (the run game) hasn't been successful. So I think as we've kind of tightened down some of the run fits at linebacker, some of the perimeter run fits, it's allowed the D-line to be a little bit more of a factor.
WHAT'S IT LIKE COACHING DEFENSE AT KYLE FIELD?
Coaching defense at Kyle Field is pretty cool. I got a bunch of text messages Saturday after that game saying a lot of places you play...Coach Klein just walked in so I can take a little shot at him...all they care about is how many points you score, you know? And so I think this is one of those places where they like defense, right? They like guys flying around, you know? I know Coach Slocum's history with that is pretty well known. When you're in the press box, you don't realize how loud it is. My daughter and my wife tell me after every game, this place is loud. So yeah, the players I get to coach here on defense, how they come to work every day, how they work, and having a chance to coach those kids? It feels really good. It's humbling.
Quotables: Collin Klein
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THIS OFFENSE DEVELOP? WHAT DIFFERENCES DO YOU SEE FROM MAYBE WEEK ONE TO WHERE THEY ARE NOW AND DOES EVERYBODY SEEM MORE COMFORTABLE IN THIS SYSTEM?
Absolutely. I think it's a combination of a lot of factors. First of all, even just the first game, you know, it's getting in the rhythm of how we call it, how we operate it, how we sub, how we get in and out of tempo, in and out of huddle...all of those things are, although practiced very thoroughly, still hey, how do we implement those in the game in real time and get used to that flow? But I think probably the biggest thing collectively has been what our guys up front have been able to do, and how hard those guys have worked. What we've been able to do in establishing running the football up front has kind of stabilized everything and given us an attack mode, a level of physicality, that we've been able to play off in a lot of different areas. And I think that breeds consistency. I think it settles people in and has allowed us to make some bigger plays down the field in the passing game. So I'd say that's probably the biggest thing that we've really settled in and been able to do. But again, like I said, I really think we're a work in progress and have some of our best games and production ahead of us.
THIS IS A TEAM THAT STILL HAS A LOT OF ITS GOALS IN FRONT OF ITSELF...WHAT WAS IT ABOUT YOUR SENIOR YEAR AT K-STATE THAT YOU CAN PULL FROM AS YOU GUYS MAKE A PUSH THIS SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON?
I think it's truly a process-based mindset and realizing that we're still a work in progress. It's a day-to-day, little decisions stacked on little decisions, basis of who we are. And yeah, we've been able to stack some wins and some good weeks on top of each other here. But it doesn't take long...with an early game I got to see a couple games on Saturday...you let up for even one second and it doesn't matter who you play, it doesn't matter where you play them. You are in jeopardy. And so kind of having the mindset of, hey, we've got to come to work every single day. We've got to try to get better on the little things, fundamentally, schematically, and play as hard as we possibly can and learn how to even play harder than we think we can. We've got to do it together, and we've got to do it for the right reasons. And you know what? Let's line up and put that ball down and see what happens. And if we can not worry about any of that stuff, and truly focus and legitimately do it--and not just say it, do it--one step at a time, then great things happen.
WHAT'S YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON HOW CONNER HAS HANDLED CRITICISM AND JUST NOT BEING ABLE TO PLAY THE LAST FEW WEEKS?
You talk about a roller coaster of emotions for the team and both of those guys. And again, credit to them. Credit to Conner. I was very, very proud of his maturity, of his toughness, and being able to keep his feet on the ground and put his nose down and try to get himself healthy and block as much of that out as possible and keep the main thing the main thing--which is, again, as we talk of, team-first. Doing the best and becoming the best that you can possibly be. And credit both he and Marcel through these last couple of weeks, these different games, these different situations they've both been put in. They've done that. There was not a happier guy a couple of weeks ago for Marcel than Conner Weigman. And then after this last week, there wasn't a guy with a bigger smile on his face that gave Conner any bigger hug than Marcel Reed. And that was something that is extremely important to me.
And I tell those guys in our first meeting at camp every year. Hey, our mission is to provide the level of quarterback play for this team that allows us to win every game that we play. And it's going to take all of us. I don't know exactly what that's going to mean. I don't know exactly how that's going to go. And it's important that all of us are at our best, so when our number's called, we're able to answer the bell and block out all the dynamics, or what anyone thinks or says, or thinks they know about a situation, or thinks they don't--and keep the main thing the main thing. Credit both of those guys. We're not in the position we are in right now if both of those guys don't do that well.