Kevin Sumlin gives summer update at Brazos County Coach's Night

Kevin Sumlin at the Brazos County Coach's Night...

“It’s an interesting time of the year for us. Our guys just got off the road recruiting and we’ll jump right into camps, so tomorrow we start our first overnight high school camp. We’ve got a one-day camp Sunday; we’ve got two weeks of camps. There are two fifteen-day windows; we only utilize one of them. That’s a whole other subject that’s been beat to death. Everybody knows where I stand on that. Our guys are excited. We’ll have about 250 guys in this first session. We’ll have about 300 guys here Sunday. Then we’re off and running with the little kids and little Aggies.

"Summer school started Tuesday. All of our guys are in school, all our incoming guys. It’s good. Today was our first day to meet with the players about football. We utilized a new rule and had about a 30-minute meeting for football. The guys went outside and had our first 7-on-7 today, which we can’t watch, so I don’t know what happened. But I heard it’s going pretty good.”
 

On having the veterans in summer school...

“It's something we’ve done since we’ve been here. I think it has really, really helped from a conditioning standpoint. I think you’ve seen a difference there. From a youth standpoint, the new rule of being able to meet with the players – you’ve got eight hours of strength and conditioning, of which two hours can be utilized with meeting time with coaches now in the summer. Not on the field, and if you are on the field, it’s just conditioning. We can go through our installs and meet with the young players.

"I think it really helped Kyle (Allen) last year. It’ll help Kyler (Murray) and Jake (Hubenak) this year, and some of the young receivers. For the skill guys, it’s good because you’re able to do 7-on-7. For some of the bigger guys, the drill work and some of the team stuff, conceptually, it helps them, but I think some of the skill guys — in particular the back end on defense and the perimeter on offense — really, really are helped by being able to coach and be taught in the summer.”
 

On having Jake Hubenak in the program...

“It’s great. Everybody was concerned; we’ve got a plan. I get beat up a lot about not telling everybody the plan, but obviously we do. Things just don’t happen. There’s a reason for it. There’s communication this whole time. Jake had choices. It came down to the end — I think Florida was pressing him. A bunch of other people were pressing him to visit. People couldn’t understand why he wasn’t taking those visits.

"He’s a really good player, and he’s coming in here to compete. At the time we had one scholarship quarterback. Anything can happen, and from a depth standpoint, somebody’s going to play – out of the three of them – as a backup in our games, particularly early in the schedule. You guys know how I do it. We’re going to give him a chance so that if and when something happens, it’s not the first time they’ve been on the field.”
 

On Hubenak's biggest selling point...

“Maturity. He’s played. Any junior college player that’s been around, he’s played with a lot of different players, including a pretty good player that we have here that scored 13 touchdowns the year before for him (Damion Ratley). He’s been around. He knows it. He wants to be here. I think his biggest selling point is, for me — which I think people are starting to see — at the quarterback position, guys who are afraid of competition, that’s fine. But he knew the situation, and he didn’t back off that even as a junior college player, just like Kyler.

"You’re looking at coming in with Kyle who was the No. 1 guy in the country and MVP of the bowl game. Those guys came here, and that tells you the kind of confidence they’ve got in their abilities, too. They’re not coming here to stand around. That competition will be great, and it’s going to make them all better.”
 

On Kyler Murray...

“We’ll see. He’s graduating tomorrow. He’s running back to Dallas. I think he came out today, and then he’s running back to Dallas. He’s been in school this week. He wanted to let me know that he was the first to get his assignment in today in his first class. That doesn’t surprise me, he likes to be first at everything. He’s going to graduate tomorrow, then he’ll come back on Monday and we’ll see. It’s hard for us, because we’re not out there to watch them. Development-wise, I look for him to try to soak it up as quickly as anybody, because of the competitor that he is.”
 

On building depth on the roster...

“Overall, I think you’ve got less guys coming into the program that we’re counting on. Does that make sense? That we’re having to get ready or we don’t know — we’ve got holes to fill. We’ve still got holes to fill. I think we had some early graduates. You look at where we are offensive line-wise, the guys who are going to start for us, those guys have either practiced or played in games for us before, including (Jeremiah) Stuckey with Mike (Matthews) being out. You look at receiver. Those guys have played for us or, like Christian Kirk, came in in the spring, so he’s been through practice. Quarterback-wise, that’s going to happen. Running back? Same thing.

"Defensively, the two ends (are) the same way. Inside, Daylon (Mack) is going to be somebody that’s probably — not ‘probably’ — he’s going to be an addition in there. We’ve got some guys in there. Linebackers all played. Secondary-wise, Justin Evans came in in the spring. So, this is a different summer in the fact that there’s a lot of guys that we’re counting on or not counting on that have to get ready to play right now in the fall, that we have to push to the field. Does that make sense? We’re trying to create depth, is what we’re trying to do. I think that we’re creating the type of depth that we need to be the type of team and program we want to be.”
 

On Brandon Williams' move to cornerback...

“He's excited about it. It’s something that we’ve worked on, that we had a visit about. As a ball carrier, he’s good. He’s got average size. At 6-0, 195-200, he’s a regular running back — maybe below average. Now you get a 6-0, 200-pound corner and he moves to the top of the chart, because he’s one of the fastest guys on the team if he can make the transition. With our new rules and with everything that’s going on and the summer, he’s going to have a chance to — he can always come back and play running back. We know that. Let’s see what he can do.

"And he’s excited about it. If he can help us and it helps him in his career, I think it’ll be a great thing for both of us.”
 

On starting the 2015 schedule with a P5 program like Arizona State...

“I think it helps. Like I’ve said, we got beat up about our scheduling. I think you’ve seen us, with the change of the schedule now that the SEC schedule is solidified — we didn’t know how many games we were going to play or what was going on. Now you see a schedule with Arizona State, UCLA, Notre Dame down the road, all these different games, which is good for our fans and good for us. We’re going to play those kinds of games, and it’s good for everybody — particularly good when you’re playing in Houston, too, to open it.”
 

Closing remarks...

“It’s Coach's Night. It’s great for us to raise money, and next year, I’ll tell you what we need to do, we need to do this inside, because everybody here is sweating. It’s something that, traditionally, we’ve had on opportunity, through the athletics program and as coaches, to raise money for scholarships. Everywhere I go across the state, you see these kids get up and give them the opportunity to come to A&M and experience what a lot of people experience. It’s great, and anything we can do to help that, we’re all about that.”