Texas A&M Football
“We do have some momentum right now and I think for the most part everybody understands that. Our fans get it. It looks like recruits get that too.”
“Those guys are out there, we flipped the switch now from college coaches to mentors and are actually starting to recruit young guys to be Aggies. Whether they play football or not, their experiences when they come here is a big deal. I think that’s the reason we’ve got a bunch of returning campers this year.
“After this camp’s over, two weeks out there in that sun, I think it’s going to hit 100 tomorrow. Just looking at the coaches, I think they’re ready for a couple of weeks vacation right now. They’re a little worn out.”
“Some people understand it, some people don’t; we don’t have the ability to go out and coach the players or deal with them much in the summer. Our strength and conditioning program is a big deal. How they develop, and developing leadership within our team, our players have to run the other workouts. If they want to do 7-on-7, if they want to do drills, those guys do that. That’s where your leadership really develops for your next year.”
“Like I said before, he’s still himself. He’s made some mistakes, and he knows that, but that’s part of growing up. Like I’ve said before, we’ve got a support process that’s in place for him and his family. I know that ever since summer school started, he’s been back hard at work and he’s happy to be back with his teammates.”
“As a staff, as a team, we’ve got to maintain our own standards, no matter what anybody else thinks. For our fans, it’s great for them to be at this level of excitement.”
“A lot of people talk about wanting to meet Johnny, or they want to talk to me, but there’s a whole lot of other people here that make this thing work, and that’s what nights like tonight are for, when we’re close at home and we’ve got a lot of people here for everybody else to talk to.”
“Being a former player here, and a former NFL player, he understands the difference between just lifting weights and being able to transition that to football. As he said, there’s nothing more important to him right now. Football and being a strength and conditioning coach went from being a job to being personal when he came to Texas A&M. When he was here, they lost four games in the four years he was here.
“He’s got instant credibility with our players. He understands Texas A&M, but he also understands how to train athletes, and I think the players understand that he’s doing everything in their best interest. And, like I said when I got here, you can’t argue with his results.”
Sumlin meets media prior to Brazos County Coach's Night
On what he thinks is resonating most with recruits about Texas A&M right now…
“I think we’ve got a lot of momentum based on a lot of different things. People ask me all the time, ‘Is there one thing that you can point to that’s helped?’ I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. The move to the SEC has strengthened our brand, strengthened our footprint nationally. I think that having some success in year one has helped us, and certainly style of play. All those things add up, so it’s not really one thing, there’s a lot of things.“We do have some momentum right now and I think for the most part everybody understands that. Our fans get it. It looks like recruits get that too.”
On his stance on UCLA offering a seventh-grader…
“We’re not there yet (laughing). A lot of things happen. Shoot, I’ve got four kids. It’s kind of hard for me to go that far. Everybody’s got their evaluation process, and we’re not at that level yet. I don’t see that changing very much. It’s the way things have gotten. Right or wrong, everybody has their philosophy and they’re trying to get better. I don’t think we’re headed down that path to seventh- and eighth-graders yet. I don’t think that’s going to be the case.”On how much excitement he and his coaching staff have this time of year…
“This is actually not the excitement time of the year for us. Coaches get in this business — football season is the excitement time, with recruiting and everything else — this time of year we've got 450 young guys out there right now in the heat, the young Aggies-to-be that are having a ball. They’re here for the next three days and the overnight camp. Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ll have between 1500-2000 young men that have come on this campus, some of them for the first time, and that’s important.“Those guys are out there, we flipped the switch now from college coaches to mentors and are actually starting to recruit young guys to be Aggies. Whether they play football or not, their experiences when they come here is a big deal. I think that’s the reason we’ve got a bunch of returning campers this year.
“After this camp’s over, two weeks out there in that sun, I think it’s going to hit 100 tomorrow. Just looking at the coaches, I think they’re ready for a couple of weeks vacation right now. They’re a little worn out.”
On wondering how the players are working out on their own...
“That’s what you hire people to do. (Strength and conditioning coach) Larry Jackson handles that and it’s been our routine for years now. Larry, as I said before, right now this is his football team. Every coach, every person here has a job to do. Larry takes over this team for the next two months and he gives us back a product that’s always a little bit better than what we saw in May, the last time we were able to work with them.“Some people understand it, some people don’t; we don’t have the ability to go out and coach the players or deal with them much in the summer. Our strength and conditioning program is a big deal. How they develop, and developing leadership within our team, our players have to run the other workouts. If they want to do 7-on-7, if they want to do drills, those guys do that. That’s where your leadership really develops for your next year.”
On what he learned from the attention paid to Johnny Manziel this offseason…
“I don’t know that I’ve learned anything. I’ve seen it just like everybody else. I think being around other guys in the past has helped me, but there’s never been anything like this before. Being around Adrian Peterson, or Jason White, or Sam Bradford, or Case Keenum, or on and on and on, Drew Brees ... people like that, that’s a part of the deal. When you’re a nationally recognized person, whether you’re young, a freshman, or an older guy, there are some things that come with that.“Like I said before, he’s still himself. He’s made some mistakes, and he knows that, but that’s part of growing up. Like I’ve said before, we’ve got a support process that’s in place for him and his family. I know that ever since summer school started, he’s been back hard at work and he’s happy to be back with his teammates.”
On the excitement level of the fans…
“They should be excited. They were excited last year. It’s nothing that we want to discourage. What we want to do is keep our fans' excitement level high. As a football team, it’s our job to hit the reset button and move on to next year. Our fans and you guys can keep talking about what we’re supposed to do; if we had that attitude that some people had last year, then we probably wouldn’t have been any good at all.“As a staff, as a team, we’ve got to maintain our own standards, no matter what anybody else thinks. For our fans, it’s great for them to be at this level of excitement.”
On how much fun an event like a coach's night is…
“Well, it’s always fun. We’ll be around the state, all over the place. We started off over in Austin a couple of weeks ago. Being here at home, it’ll be fun, there will be a lot of people here. A lot of our assistant coaches who aren’t able to make all these other trips, it’s a great night for them and for fans, former students, current students to be able to be around and talk to all our coaches and that’s good for everybody.“A lot of people talk about wanting to meet Johnny, or they want to talk to me, but there’s a whole lot of other people here that make this thing work, and that’s what nights like tonight are for, when we’re close at home and we’ve got a lot of people here for everybody else to talk to.”
On why Larry Jackson has so much success…
“I’ve known Larry forever — we were assistants here. A job came open at Oklahoma when Mike Stoops went to Arizona and took one of the strength coaches. I told Bob (Stoops), ‘We’ve got to hire this guy.’ We’ve been together ever since. He understands what we’re trying to do. He understands the direction of the program. He sets the tone, the toughness, that mentality.“Being a former player here, and a former NFL player, he understands the difference between just lifting weights and being able to transition that to football. As he said, there’s nothing more important to him right now. Football and being a strength and conditioning coach went from being a job to being personal when he came to Texas A&M. When he was here, they lost four games in the four years he was here.
“He’s got instant credibility with our players. He understands Texas A&M, but he also understands how to train athletes, and I think the players understand that he’s doing everything in their best interest. And, like I said when I got here, you can’t argue with his results.”
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