Story Poster
Kevin Sumlin
Jake Spavital
Mark Snyder
Kenny Hill
Malcome Kennedy
Garrett Gramling
Jordan Mastrogiovanni
Justin Bass
Alonzo Williams
Conner McQueen
Sam Moeller
Texas A&M Football

Aggies look back at South Carolina, ahead to Lamar

September 2, 2014
30,736

Kevin Sumlin

"Before we get going I just want to say that we're missing a person here that, our thoughts and prayers go out to Laurie and 12th Man Foundation and you guys, members of the media, because of the passing of Homer Jacobs. He's going to be missed. He's missed now. I really don't have another statement; if you want to ask questions, just go ahead."

On the job the 12th Man Magazine does...
"(12th Man) As a publication and as a tool for former students, a way to publicize our athletics — not just football — it's not only an educational tool for our former students but it's also a recruiting tool because what it does is it gives identity to our student-athletes more than just a number. Background into where they're from, what our programs are about and people who work here."

On Kenny Hill's play...
"He's got a lot of things to work on. His eyes are too much all over the place, but he was able to get past it the other night. He took care of the ball except for a couple times, the ad-lib shovel pass, it was loud in the stadium so he couldn't hear exactly what I said, which was probably good. He threw a bad pass in the back of the end zone. Those are the things that can hurt you, particularly in the red zone.

"When you have a completion percentage like that, one ball knocked down and one sack, it says a lot about your offensive line and your running backs because the number of blitzes they brought after the first series was just about every other snap. The ability of the offensive line and running backs to handle it, and everybody being on the same page, receivers ... he played at a high level, but there had to be 10 other people.

"I also thought our offensive staff and Jake Spavital had a great plan to get him in an offensive-rhythm and make it quarterback-friendly — short throws, not taking the ball down the field until he got comfortable, and as we got across midfield he said that was the case. He's comfortable now. We've got a week of practice; we'll figure it out."

On Hill dealing with his sudden fame...
"He's been the same to me. Our practice schedule, we set up before. We didn't get back here until 1 or 2 in the morning, so we didn't practice Friday. (Notices it's raining outside) Guess we'll be indoors today. Anyway, players had Friday off, coaches came in in the afternoon, we practiced and watched the video on Saturday. We practiced and were out of here by 1 because school was coming up. We practiced yesterday, Labor Day. We hadn't had a bunch of conversations until Monday.

"The really good thing about it was we got back late Friday, everybody talked about it, then everybody was into the other games Saturday. He was probably like me and everybody else, we sat around and watched football Saturday. For a young guy, that deflected a lot of the attention instead of all of that happening at the same time. Everybody's going to have their opinion; if he plays the same way, people will draw whatever. But I don't think his demeanor has changed. He was upstairs watching video a few minutes ago on his own. That hasn't changed.

"Him traveling last year and being a part of those different environments helped, but his demeanor certainly helps because he's so calm. You don't want that out of your linebackers, but it probably helps him in a situation like that. Spav said he has zero nerves; that's about right."

On A.J. Hilliard's loss...
"That hurts. We recruited him hard but he had made his decision to go to TCU. Then he comes here, sits out, has a good offseason, looks great, can run around and play any position we need. It's a dislocation and he had a plate and two screws put in. It's a pretty serious deal. He'll get some recovery, but it'll hurt us.

"Tommy (Sanders) has played a lot of football here last year. He's got to step up and be a guy. We've got Justin Bass, who's played a number of positions for us. We'll have to lean more on him and Otaro Alaka, who'll be pressed into some duty. You don't want to move one guy and leave Donnie Baggs, who's playing well, exposed. Donnie is playing special teams too. Some of the teams we'll play here in the next three weeks will be more of a nickel situation than a three-linebacker situation because of their ability to spread the field. We'll see where we are. We've got to continue developing our nickel package.

"I thought we did a good job on Thursday of mixing up our three-down, four-down front. We didn't get a lot of sacks but we did get enough quarterback hits and moved the quarterback off the spot to make the quarterback work to be accurate. That's coming. If we can continue to get those guys going, it gives us some flexibility. To answer your question, these next three weeks are a different type of football. We've got to hold off for the possibility in the next few weeks of getting Shaan Washington back, because he was having a really, really fine fall camp. We'll see."

On new Kyle...
"It's different. You turn the speakers on and you can hear an echo where it used to be open. You're down lower, for us, from an entry standpoint, coming out of that tunnel in the south end zone is neat because we don't have to walk all the way around anymore. The grass has taken a lot in the last week. This rain has really helped the last couple days, I'm not complaining about the rain. We're excited, I think our fans will be excited to be in there, our guys get energy when we walk out there too and we have a chance to have one of the largest crowds that has ever seen a college football game in the State of Texas."

On Cam Clear...
"I don't know that Cam will be ready to go this week. We'll see."

On whether he's had to deal with perceptions of the program changing...
"No. I still don't think people think we're any good. So we're going to keep doing (what we're doing."

On playing so many underclassmen on the road against a top-10 team...
"You worry about how they're going to react in that atmosphere. We call it the Julien Obioha Effect here. He got here and nobody thought he was going to play his freshman year — he's started every game since he's been here — and he played well in practice but when we came into Kyle he lost his mind. With the renovation, we went in there one time and did some things and we had guys lose their mind.

"For some guys, when the environment changes it can affect their play, their demeanor. That's the only thing we were worried about — was the atmosphere, was the stage, was that going to be too big for them? Pretty good when you have a guy like Armani Watts say, 'This is the best day of my life.' So I don't think he was worried. We need more guys like that."

On Jake Spavital...
"Jake was with us in Houston. His brother's still at Houston. His brother was a GA for us at Oklahoma. I've known the family a long time. Interesting that one's a DB coach and one's a quarterback guy. Their dad's been a head coach for a long time. They've grown a lot. We try to provide a culture for coaches to grow; I think one of the great things that happened with me, being around great coaches like Joe Tiller, R.C., Bob (Stoops), there's a culture of growth from within.

"Bob Stoops' tree and how his management style has really rubbed off on me a lot — people you hire, guys you bring in who can do your job, guys who aspire to do your job, and that's OK. There are several that are head coaches now in Dana (Holgorsen), Kliff (Kingsbury), Brian Polian and Tony Levine ... there are guys on this staff that have that potential. Letting you work within the parameters of what we do but have your own personality has been appealing to these guys."

On the SEC Network...
"It's great. It's on everywhere in this building, I'll tell you that. I've learned so much that it makes me guarded about what I say. (Laughter.) But the exposure is fabulous. I've said it before: football is a big deal in the SEC, but as you start looking at it, the first game (on the network) for our program was our soccer team. They're on nationally through that. That was something that wasn't going to happen a year ago, two years ago.

"The exposure not just for us but for all our program and our University will open doors in recruiting on a national exposure standpoint that some of our coaches didn't have. We're excited about it. It helps us — from this game being televised, which is always great for recruiting and exposure — and it helps all our programs. That's why the network is such a big deal."

On the defense up the middle...
"I was really encouraged. We've got a ways to go. ... The numbers are skewed. They have to throw it every down, the run numbers go down and the pass numbers go up. We're about to be able to play a lot more guys because we're at home (we don't travel with so many players) and we'll have some guys here that may not have had confidence going on the road, but we can stick them in the rotation here and see. They're at home, there's not as much to deal with. The next couple weeks we'll figure out who we are defensively, I think."

On Jarvis Harrison and Noel Ellis...
"Jarvis, I told you, had a really tough offseason. He didn't go to South Carolina and he's got some things he's got to complete to get back in our good graces. When he completes those, he'll play. Noel Ellis, we had a conversation today about how he had some health issues this summer and we're still trying to figure out whether we'll redshirt him this year or he'll play."

On Hill saying Sumlin advised him not to take pictures around campus...
"It's his decision. (Media echoes that Hill said the directive came from Sumlin.) Well, I told the guys that if they ever want to pass the blame, blame it on me. Johnny didn't do that a lot last year. Kenny already took advantage of that. (Laughter.) But he needs to let me know. You've got something like that, just blame it on me. The next step is let me know... (more laughter.)"

On whether Hill exceeded his expectations...
"We'd be crazy to stand here and say, 'Ah, we knew that was going to happen.' What it says is, as close as the competition was and still is — Kyle hasn't backed off, he's still competing — it was good for both of them. It created a sense of urgency during fall camp. The combination of that and the opponent created a sense of urgency for both of them to get better. We've got two really good ones. They're going to keep the pressure on each other.

"Did we know that was going to happen? I don't think anybody could tell you that. Maybe Kenny's dad. That would be it."

On the Lamar QB throwing 5 TDs last week...
"It was a great effort. I watched the video and he did a lot of different things. It'll be a test for us. They spread you out, they've got talented players on the perimeter and I thought their plan was excellent. What's interesting in this game is a lot of our players know each other. There are a lot of players from this area, the Golden Triangle, all over the state, and they're anxious to prove they belong. There are guys who transferred from other places and they'll be as excited to be in this stadium as we are. They'll have a chip on their shoulders.

"They spread it around and they've been able to do a lot of (different) things. We've got to be able to create a pass rush this week, tackle in space and shore up the inside of our defense when they run it. This will be a good test for us defensively, particularly against spread formations and what we have to do from a nickel or dime standpoint."

On where he'd like to see improvement...
"I'd like to see improvement across the board. That's the coach in me, I guess. We sat down and talked to our players about how we can improve individually and be aware of the things people are telling you about who you are compared to in here, the real picture of who you are on a play-by-play basis. I'm looking for those types of improvements that are tangible. From a statistical standpoint there are a few things we talk about as a team, a few goals we talk about every week, tangible goals, and we didn't reach those last week."


Jake Spavital

On Kenny Hill's performance...
"For that magnitude of the game and it being his first career start, he played exceptionally well. As a coach, you can always get better. Of 99 plays there were 12 that I graded him down on. But he played exceptionally well."

On easing Hill in...
"I started off with two screens, two easy passes to build his confidence up, but when he went to walk out there and you looked in his eyes he didn't have any nerves in there. He went and completed them. After those two passes I said, 'Let's roll.'"

On Hill running the system...
"Lately the quarterbacks we've had have that athletic ability to keep plays alive, which he did a few times against South Carolina. Kenny has grown up in this system at Southlake Carroll, knows how to operate a no-huddle offense, is discreet with his signals, I give a lot of credit to the Southlake Carroll coaches — he was already so far advanced when I got him."

On the goal-line no-receiver formation and discussing it with Dana Holgorsen and Kliff Kingsbury...
"They laughed at that comment. But they were proud of how I handled the situation out there. He went on to play Alabama, Dana did, so we went right into talking about Alabama. Kliff still thinks I'm pretty messed up for doing that, a formation with no receivers, because to him that's not really football. (Laughter.)"

On how he's seen Hill grow...
"He's been pretty much the same every day. Naturally he's going to become more mature as he grows older, but the comfortability he has with the offense, over the past year and a half he's flourished with it. He's got the whole playbook. We can do more advanced stuff with him because we did it with Johnny last year and he's seen it in practice."

On whether they fear Hill, being so laid back, can't get fired up when necessary...
"It was kind of creepy how calm he was in that game. But we're ready to see Kenny face adversity and how he handles that situation."

On Josh Reynolds...
"I thought he did great too. He's another one of those guys that I didn't know how he was going to handle it. He played great. He handled it exactly how he's handled everything he's been through here so far. Once we start having confidence and seeing how this offense runs, I think all these guys settle down."

On Hill taking what the defense gives him...
"He does a great job of playing within the system and understanding what I'm trying to accomplish. If I'm trying to call a run play he looks at whether we need to go inside or try to get to the perimeter. I think he handed it off and got it to the perimeter really well, especially against a team that loaded the box as much as they did."

On Ricky Seals-Jones' versatility from inside WR to H-back...
"That's something we've been training him on since spring ball. We've gone through spring and fall with Ricky working in that situation. There's a limited amount of stuff we can do with him, but Cam was out and we still needed heavier run packages and he went in and executed."

On scoring so quickly at USC...
"Our thing about this offense has always been attacking. We have to go out there and score fast, Coach Sumlin has always emphasized that. We take the crowd out of it and put the pressure on them."

On Hill's overnight celebrity...
"Kenny Trill, you mean? (Laughter.) He's a great kid and he can handle these situations well. His bloodline, his dad being a professional athlete, he can handle it. I think it motivates him to live up to the standard he set in his first game."

On how it helped Hill sitting behind Manziel...
"Johnny was probably the most publicized college athlete of our time. For Kenny to sit there and watch him learn the offense at the same time and handle the media attention he gets, you can tell it's something he paid attention to. He's been watching tape on Lamar for the last two days, so I like to see that he's still ambitious to make this offense go."

On Speedy Noil...
"He was very physical blocking on the perimeter. He was one of the guys too that we didn't know how he was going to handle it. He had a couple drops, but we can fix that. He'll keep getting better throughout the season."


Mark Snyder

On the defensive effort...
"I thought the effort was very good. We still have things to work on."

On the coverage breakdowns that led to TDs...
"We had some eye control problems and some communication problems. Competition will continue."

On the young players' performance...
"You never know how a guy's going to respond in a situation like that. I've got to tell you, Coach Sumlin did a great job getting these guys ready. Getting off the bus, those kids didn't bat an eye. That's refreshing to see."

On avoiding a letdown...
"We talked to the kids yesterday and Coach Sumlin does a great job of that. We worry about us. We have to get better. It's not about who we're playing, it's about us. Let's take care of us."

On Myles Garrett...
"The one thing that doesn't show up in the statistics is the number of times he got pressure on the quarterback and forced a bad throw. He's got to learn the defense, he left a few sacks out there, and he'll learn and grow from that. But the pressure he put on Dylan Thompson with some of those errant throws, that's as good as a sack to me."

On the team's tackling against USC...
"Especially against the skilled athletes they have, I was very pleased with our tackling."

On Jordan Mastrogiovanni...
"Did a great job getting us lined up, playing physical, all the things we wanted to see, we got to see on the big stage."

On Jay Arnold's play...
"Jay played pretty well. The two pleasing things for me were Jay Arnold and Armani Watts. Jay didn't play a ton, but when he was in there he was productive. It was surprising, to be honest, but very great to see. I told the kid that yesterday. Kind of like with Spencer Nealy, he had to move inside and he just went in there. Jay goes in the game and he's quick-swimming the down block and all of a sudden he's in their backfield. Having different body types creates problems for offensive linemen up front."

On the linebacker situation after A.J. Hilliard's injury...
"Justin Bass will move over to WILL. Tommy Sanders has been there since spring ball. We're not going to mess with Otaro Alaka, we're going to keep him right where he's at. He's starting to learn. We're not going to do the experimental things we did last year at linebacker. A youngster's got to step up at MIKE behind Jordan Mastrogiovanni."

On Justin Bass...
"His perseverance, he's a great kid, intelligent and football makes sense to him. Not the most athletic, we lose a bit there from A.J., but now we've got two kids in there who can run the defense. It'll take some off Jordan. And Tommy Sanders, this is the type of game for him, a team that can get out there."

On playing teams that run as many plays as A&M's offense...
"That was the story of the game to me, our offense. They played keep-away. They kept us fresh, took time off and ran that number of plays. I think we (the defense) only played 62 plays. We're used to 80, 90, and we only played 62. We flipped the script. There are going to be some games where we play more than that, but thankfully we came out of it and everybody was healthy."

On the young D-linemen...
"They got baptized a bit. Qualen got baptized, Jarrett got baptized a couple times, but you can see the twitchiness that's just different than our first group. That second group brings something different. Converting from run to pass, our 2s are better than our 1s right now. But they got baptized."

On whether he expects that Noel Ellis will redshirt...
"Sitting here today, probably so. We'll see."

On Hardreck Walker...
"He was a lot better. I was pleased with Hardreck. He's a steady guy in there. Not a big, flashy guy, he just does his job. I was pleased with Hardreck."
 
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