Fall Camp Day 5: Sumlin, Price, Obioha talk Polo, D-line

Kevin Sumlin

On the first practice in full pads…

“It looked like day five. It was the first day in pads, but we weren’t tackling to the ground. We’ll probably do a little bit of that tomorrow, but it was just fundamentals today. We’ll probably do some live stuff tomorrow, the guys are kind of in between right now. It wasn’t our greatest, it wasn’t our worst. There will be some juice tomorrow. We’ll probably go and change it up and get on Kyle Field tomorrow to juice it up.”

On replacing the pass rush of Damontre Moore…

“You do it a couple of different ways. You do it by personnel with just moving Julien (Obioha) over there and trying some new guys. Or you do it by scheme by creating a different blitzer and using a guy like Nate Askew or someone else. Right now we’re evaluating the personnel and the schemes to try and create that kind of stuff.”

On the similarity between 2012 and 2013 defensive question marks…

“We have a bunch of new guys. The good news is that they are talented, but they just haven’t played. They’re learning on the run. We’re throwing it all at the young guys and there is a lot of defense in. Just like there is every year, we have some new guys.

"The good news is that they are talented and they’re working hard and understanding it. That’s why the next three weeks are going to be important for us to evaluate both personnel and scheme in order to come up with things to do and put guys in the right position to be successful.”

On Johnny Manziel progressing during the offseason…

“He’s continued to work at everything. In the classroom, he’s been working on understanding the whole picture and the operational procedure. He’s a lot better there, and he should be in year two. Mechanically, he’s better. It’s kind of like playing golf, once you understand the mechanics, you can correct yourself if things aren’t going right.

"He has worked very hard in the offseason to understand the mechanics and the complete offense. I don’t think there is one area where he has really concentrated on, I think he has worked on his whole game.”

On the growth of Obioha in his time at A&M thus far…

“When he first got here, no one knew who he was. He would be the last freshman that anybody would have thought would have started every game for us last year. I didn’t see anybody last year say, ‘What about Julien Obioha?’ All he did was start the Florida game and every game during the regular season. He’s a smart guy and a hard worker. He has played as much football in the SEC as anybody we have and that’s amazing for a true freshman.”

On what he hope to get out of Obioha this season…

“It’s hard to improve on starting and playing well every game. If he continues to do that, he is going to help himself and he’s going to help us. Hopefully his experience is going to help him and help the younger guys on the defensive line because we have some young guys that are going to have to play, particularly inside.”

On Obioha’s work ethic…

“He’s working hard. I don’t think he was laying down all the time. He’s a fun guy to be around. Guys like that make coaching fun, he’s another really good low maintenance player. He just does his job and goes to class and is a great student. He plays hard every snap and is a really steady force for our defense which we’re going to need this year with so many young guys.”

On the emotions that come with attending a funeral and having practice on the same day…

“We’ve talked about it. Bill Johnson, our FCA affiliate, spent the better part of 45 minutes with the team talking about reality. They talked about not ducking away from it, but being able to get things out in the open and being able to talk openly with the team. Going to the funeral tomorrow will be an emotional situation for a lot of different people.

"I think for us to be able to deal with it openly as a team and for us to give support to each other and that family tomorrow is very, very important. No one wants to go through it, but these guys have done a really good job of handling emotions and talking with each other about this situation.”

On how hard attending the funeral tomorrow will be…

“I’ll know when I get there. Things like that are never easy.”

On the opportunity to speak at Polo Manukainiu’s funeral tomorrow…

“It means a lot. We talked today as a team about what time means to you and not taking time for granted. Everyone thinks that you have plenty of time, but you never know. For me to be able to talk and show our support to the family is a big deal. He was part of our family for a year and a half, but he was a son for 19 years. For us to show our support, that’s about all that we can do at this point. It’s a big deal for us to be there at that time.”

On how his group looked in the first day in pads...

"Still a lot of work to do, obviously. You've got a mix of breeds — guys that played a lot last year, guys coming off of offseason surgeries who are practicing for the first time, a bunch of young guys that are just getting out of high school and practicing for the first time. So it's been a mix of two different groups of players, but they're all listening to the message I'm trying to preach to them, which is hard work, come with your heart out every day and try to get better every single day. It's going to be a long process, but we're definitely going to get there.

On how pleased he is with Obioha...

"To me, he is what we live by, our motto as D-linemen. Our identity has to be the hardest-playing D-linemen in this league. One thing he does, every single day in practice, every game, he lays it on the line, he plays every snap. We look at ESPN and all these magazines and they rank us as the worst D-line in the SEC. You have to form an identity. That means we're going to outplay folks and we're going to be the hardest-working group and we're going to get some things done.

"He embodies what we believe as a D-line. Play hard every single snap and give it all every single play."

On the changes for Obioha moving to rush end...

"The biggest thing is he'll be playing in more space, which means he'll be more of an edge-setter for us, and the other difference is in some of our zone blitzes he'll be dropping into coverage. He'll have to understand the coverage concepts, which aren't real complicated from our point of our view. Just getting reps. It's going to be new, but he's done a good job picking up so far.

"He's about the smartest guy we have in our room. Probably a 4.0 student coming out of high school. He's a sharp guy; it doesn't take long for him to learn it. He won't have any issue learning anything we do from a different position."

On which freshman is furthest ahead...

"You know, it's hard to say. We've had these shoulder pads on for two or three days. One day on, you step up and do some things, another day another guy steps up and does some things. I told those guys, we've had a couple quizzes — test time is tomorrow. So Saturday night, whatever time we kick it off, this is going to be your test. And I get a chance to see, as a coach, when the lights come on, who's going to make some things happen?

"I know a year ago some of the guys we're playing now, the first time we went in that scrimmage, they got shell-shocked. They have to learn how to be in true, live, game-time situations. You have to put them under risk, under pressure. They've got to tackle running backs and pressure the quarterback. We'll see how they respond under the lights. So I'll have a better idea after we scrimmage tomorrow where they are. They're all kind of different on different days, one may be better than the other. Just have to see what happens on Saturday night."

On the emotions in the D-line room with Polo's funeral upcoming...

"It's not been easy. It's not been easy. Sometimes it's surreal and it's hard to believe. I saw the guy not too long ago and now he's not part of us. One thing I try to tell all of our guys, all of our group — we're all a family. Texas A&M, not only is our team a family, but the D-line group is a family. Any time you lose a family member, it hurts everybody. It hurts everybody.

"So it's tough for everybody included, including myself, because I'm the a leader of our group. It's been tough, but we're all going to go up there together as a team, try to help his family get through this tough, tough time, take part in the funeral and then come back and go back to work. But we're definitely going to miss Polo."

Julien Obioha

On the loss of Polo…

“Well, losing a teammate so suddenly like that, it was just hard to believe it at first, it was hard to do anything that day that it happened. We just kind of had to accept it and grow as a team, grow as a family, come together, and celebrate a life. We’re all going to his funeral tomorrow and celebrate his life with his family.”

On the D-line rallying around Polo’s death…

“Yes, we actually got, I think there’s some shirt called Play for Polo. It’s just something to inspire us to work hard because we lost a teammate and a family member.”

On how important the D-line cookout was in the aftermath of Polo’s death…

“I believe we needed to have that. That was just something a family would do after they lost a family member, they would come together as a family and just celebrate. That’s something we can always celebrate, go over to Coach Price’s house and eat some steaks. That’s what we needed to do.”

On the differences of moving positions this year…

“Well, obviously Coach Price said, playing in space I have to be the guy that the pass rush primarily comes from, whereas from last year I was more of a run stopper and DaMontre was a play maker, pass rusher, 12 and a half sacks, all those stats. I’m not trying to say I’m going to replace an All-American or anything, I just need to be a primary pass rusher this year.”

On his back injury…

“We have an excellent medical staff first of all. I’m thankful everyday that I get to play football again. You just had to be very patient at first, because you see everyone out there playing football, at workouts, and you can’t do anything for four or five months. I had to be very patient, listen to everything they say, just work hard every single day in the rehab room, weight room, everywhere else.

On where he is percentage wise…

“90 percent. I’m trying to get back to 100 but I’m not 100 percent right now, probably 90 percent.”

On how he compares athletically to Damontre Moore…

“I don’t know really. Damontre was such a great athlete. I’m not really trying to replace him, I’m just trying to help us rush four and get a consistent pass rush on the quarterback.”

On whether he is a great athlete…

“I’m alright. I’m not that good." (Laughs)

On the influence of Damontre…

“Well, having a great playmaker like that, down the other side, coming out of high school I wasn’t that great of a pass rusher, as the season went on I progressively became a better pass rusher. That’s the influence Damontre had on me, trying to make plays.”

On who is pushing him to get better…

“Well of course we have Tyrell Taylor who’s fast. He could play safety if he wanted to. We’ve got Daeshon Hall, he’s a great athlete, a freshmen. He’s going to be a great player one day but he just needs to understand the playbook, not get scared, going against Cedric Obguehi and Jake (Matthews). He’s going to be a great player one day. I think that’s all the rushers we’ve got. We have a whole bunch of defensive ends but we’ve only got three rushers right now.”

On what the biggest reason was for him contributing so quickly as a freshman…

“I just worked hard everyday, I think that was it. I just thought that it didn’t matter what my ranking was out of high school, what Rivals had me at, what ESPN had me at. I was just going to come out and work hard everyday and earn myself a starting job.”

On how rewarding it was to earn a starting job…

“It was crazy. It was my first college football game. When I came on my visit here it was my only visit. I came here in January, there weren’t any football games, so everybody told me how loud Kyle Field was, how crazy it was, and I didn’t believe it. When I went out there for my first game, it was just crazy.”

On whether he was surprised by how fast success came for him…

“Yes sir. Working hard doesn’t guarantee success, it just doesn’t guarantee success, so I came out every single day and worked hard. I didn’t expect anything really, I just expected to maybe make the (travel team), maybe rotate in the two deep a little bit. When Coach Price told me I was starting the first game it was crazy.”

On the influence Price has had on him…

“Coach Price is just a crazy coach. You need a guy like Coach Price. He makes you work hard every single play. If you aren’t running to the ball, Coach Price will run to the ball, Coach Price is a great guy, I love him.”

On what it means to have a D-line coach who played at A&M…

“Well he knows how it is. That’s the first benefit. If there’s a situation that’s going on, he’s more understanding than say someone that didn’t play college football or didn’t play here. Coach Price just knows what we’re going through.”

On what his first game against Florida was like…

“Well it was a lot of pressure at first. I remember the first play going out there, I didn’t know how fast college football was. In practice, we have one of the best offenses, practice is fast but it’s not as fast as a game. The first play I went out there I was kind of watching because I didn’t realize how fast it was. I was watching everybody else because everybody else was moving 100 miles per hour and I was only moving 50, so the first play was just kind of watching everybody.

"The second play I kind of caught on and then after that it was just rolling with it like everybody else.”