Quotes, Notes & Video: Texas A&M 21, ULM 16

Kevin Sumlin

On Myles Garrett’s performance…

“He’s been playing since week one. He’s no longer a young guy. He’s one of the leaders in this league in sacks. You saw Jarrett Johnson and a couple other guys that were out there today- a bunch of big guys-that haven’t been in that role playing a substantial amount of time. Did they make mistakes? Yeah, but I think there’s confidence to be gained from playing as many plays as they did and doing things to win a football game.”

On the young players’ confidence going forward…

“We need to win. It’s been a while since we’ve won. Anytime you win, you put everything you have into this. There’s a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of time and energy spent. Regardless of the opponent, you play to win the game. That’s what happened. I’m happy that those guys are happy. You didn’t see crazy ordeal in the locker room. I think they understand that we have work to do. But certainly the attitude is a lot better right now than it was in the course of the last few weeks.”

On adjusting plays and going scoreless in the second half…

“It can be frustrating. I think we had the ball twice in the third quarter, so that was one issue. Our defense was bending, but not giving up points. It turned into a different kind of game that we maybe we aren’t used to here. We set out, if you look at it formation-wise offensively, to play that style of game. Did we want it that close? No. did we want to win? Yes. We had the ball twice in the third quarter. We had the sack and Kyle Allen’s fumble when we started the fourth quarter, which held us back.

"No doubt, we’ve got work to do. We’re going to continue to work at it. I think the attitude, regardless of what people outside the program think, the attitude in the locker room is a heck of a lot better than it was last week.”

On takeaways from game against ULM…

“That’s a good football team. They beat an ACC team. They played two other SEC teams- the first halves were really close. We had the ball a couple times. We were able to do what we needed to do to pull a win. We did enough to win the game. I think there’s a lot of things from today that a bunch of our players can learn from. It’ll be another learning experience for us. We’ll get back to work. We’ll see how much we improve from today to next Saturday.”

On the game’s rushing statistics…

“We’ve just got to be better. We had some good plays. We had some negative yardage plays. You add in the three sacks. Now you get back to 3.3 instead of 4 or 5.We need to run the ball better, and we’ll continue to work on it. Germain Ifedi getting hurt didn’t help. We had to make and in-game adjustment. Ifedi is big part of what we do. To be able to adjust and put those guys in there, then add Ben Compton in the mix, there was a concerted effort to try to run and continue with that plan even though one of our better players got hurt right in the middle of the game.”

On the physicality of offensive line…

“Can we be better? Yes. It’s something that we can build on schematically and from a personnel stand point to give ourselves a better chance. As I said, were we dominant? No, but at the times we need to do things, we were able to do it. Do you want more points? Obviously you do. I thought for what we had to do at the end to move the football- take time off the clock for our defense to get the three stops that were necessary to win the game- that becomes a team effort.”

On Kyle Allen’s play at quarterback…

"I think he played well. This is really his first game starting so you can't put too much pressure on him for that. He played a great game being a young freshman quarterback. He came in and did what he had to do. He made some freshman mistakes but that’s going to happen. He played well for his first start."

On offensive performance…

"We didn't hold up to the standard that we set at the beginning of the season. As far as some positive things, we put some new plays in. We've been playing with some little third down plays. We're trying to move the ball from inside out and it didn't go like we wanted it to."

On looking ahead to Auburn…

"Like I said before, every team in the SEC is ready to play every night. Any of these teams are capable of winning a championship.  What we need to do to win is play with more effort and more attitude and just play closer as a team. We just have to get out there and play hard. Sometimes you don't execute as well but as long as you play hard that can make up for the mistakes."

On where Speedy Noil has improved…

"On confidence, coming in a freshman, you really don't know the playbook that well and there are a lot of other things that go into that like social life and school. There is a lot to get accustomed to. I think he knows the plays well now and that is helping him play a lot faster and be more confident in himself."

OL Ben Compton

On difficulty the moving ball…

"We give a lot of that to Louisiana Monroe, they played a good game. They played us physical all day long. They were beating us up on the front and every time we punched them they punched us back. I think we moved the ball pretty well. We got stuck on some third downs that we couldn't convert. I think if we convert those we will have a little more success."

On Kyle Allen starting at quarterback…

"Kyle is young but he controls that huddle. He knows that he is the guy and he worked all week and whenever his name was called he was ready. Just like all of us; we would all be ready when our name is called. He controlled the huddle well and he played well today."

On his move to TE…

"We had some short yardage and goal line situations where I was at that position. It wasn't too much of a change. We've been practicing short yard and goal line since last spring, so I just went out there and played my game."

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Post-game notes

Notes and trends
• Junior punter Drew Kaser continued his torrid streak with a 42.4 average on seven punts, including one 50-yarder and four boots that were downed inside the 20.

• True freshman WR/PR Speedy Noil had another big game with five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown and 61 yards on four punt returns. His 130 all-purpose yards marked his fourth straight game with 100-plus yards and his fifth of the season.

• True freshman QB Kyle Allen won in his first career start while passing for 106 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 12 yards. He was the first true freshman to start at QB for the Aggies since Reggie McNeal earned the start against Missouri in 2002 a week after leading the Aggies to an upset of No. 1 Oklahoma at Kyle Field.

• Junior RB Brandon Williams set career highs in carries and yards with 71 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.

• Junior CB De’Vante Harris was the team leader in tackles for the first time in his career with seven stops against ULM.

• True freshman safety Armani Watts took over the team lead in interception with his second pickoff of 2014 against ULM.

• Also earning his first career start was true freshman LB Otaro Alaka. Making his second career start was true freshman LB Josh Walker. Senior OL Ben Compton started for the first time at tight end.

Captains, 12th Man, attendance
• Game captains were seniors Deshazor Everett and Malcome Kennedy and juniors Julien Obioha and Drew Kaser. The Aggies won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff.

• Junior Sam Moeller, from San Antonio, Texas, was the Aggies’ 12th Man for the 22nd straight game.

• Crowd for today’s #ULMvsTAMU game was 100,922.

Sophomore QB Hill suspended for ULM, Auburn
Texas A&M sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill was suspended for the next two football games due to a violation of team rules and athletics department policies prior to today’s game.