Fall Camp Day 7: Sumlin, Spavital address QBs & more

Kevin Sumlin

Thoughts on Saturday's scrimmage…

“There were some good things, just like everything else. Good things and bad things. Ben Malena didn’t really scrimmage, so it gave us an opportunity to look at all our other backs and work through that. I thought Cam Clear showed some things. He got loose and continues to get better. Both our tight ends have continued to get better blocking and catching the ball, which takes some pressure off some of these young receivers too. So if they can continue to come on, it gives us a whole other dimension.

"I thought, defensively, we have a lot of young guys that are playing. That’s our challenge this week with the number of actual two-a-day practices, to try to get the young guys that are going to play this year, to get them up to speed. There’s a bunch of them that showed some real good flashes, so we’re going to give them an opportunity to try to get in the two deep here and it’ll help clear that up for us offensively and defensively, but special teams primarily, just so we can get those guys involved — because we've got a lot of guys that can help us.

"All those linebackers, those young guys showed flashes Saturday and today, we did a little goal line here tonight ... so, all those young linebackers have a real chance to help us on special teams, where we didn’t have any depth last year. Sean Porter and Jenkins and Stew, we had all those guys running down the field on kickoff — we just didn’t have any depth. Now we've got some young guys that have talent and we gotta figure out how they’re going to get in the mix.”

On Jake Spavital’s development since his arrival…

“I think how he does things has been a real help to us. Like I said, he brings instant credibility, dealing with coaching Case Keenum and the number of guys they had at Oklahoma State and West Virginia and being around us before, and the offense, he knows it like the back of his hand. And also, he has been able to add some extra things and wrinkles.

"I think his communication with our quarterbacks has been really good and his communication with Coach McKinney and our offensive staff has been excellent.”

On the dynamic between McKinney and Spavital…

“Clarence is the playcaller, so every year things have changed. It’s been six years and this is our third different guy. The other two guys are head coaches (now). We’ve had some pretty good guys. Clarence is no different. We’ve got a number of talented guys on the offensive staff. The ability for each guy to say, ‘Here’s what I’m trying to do. Here’s what I’m trying to help.’

"They all have their expertise, just like when Kliff was here from the run game, with B.J., where Clarence was, to the passing game with David Beaty. It works out just fine. I think our guys communicate as well with each other as they do with the team and because of that I think we’re moving right along. We’ve got some new wrinkles, we’re trying to incorporate some guys in the offense.

"We’ve got to figure out what our guys can do, not what our offense is but what our guys can do within our offense — and we have to get those guys involved.”

On the philosophy in preparing a backup quarterback…

“We rotate guys all the time. We do that fast start so you guys can say, ‘So-and-so is the number two quarterback. So-and-so is the number one quarterback.’ If you guys have paid attention, it really doesn’t matter, we’re just rotating them. We’re getting them snaps, trying to keep their arms alive. We’re trying to figure out through reps who can do what, who can handle what and just giving everyone a chance to compete.

"You have three guys. Somebody told me Matt Joeckel played 11 snaps. Besides that, the other guys haven’t played a whole lot. So we’re trying to get them all a bunch of snaps and get people back up to speed and at the same time trying to get some continuity with the receivers and get them all rolling in and out.”

On what to look for in a quarterback…

“Leadership, knowledge of the offense, being comfortable, not giving the ball to the other team. It’s pretty simple.”

On lingering questions this far into camp…

“I don’t know about that. We’re so far away right now. We’ve got really almost three weeks till we play. You want to keep people healthy, you have to practice hard and you get here next week with guys that are coming in and out of practice in the heat and everything else. So, you never know. We’re still trying to develop which young guys are going to help us and what their role is going to be and that’s going to be ongoing up until probably game week.”

“No, it’s all individual. You have challenges every year. The importance of 11-2 was the momentum that it created for us in recruiting. I think its reflected in this class. The quality of the student athlete we were able to recruit had a lot to do with it.

"Also, I think its from our fans. Expectations are a good thing. You want to be a program that is involved in relevant games. These guys are working hard to attain that again this year and try to stay there.”

Jake Spavital

On different qualities amongst the three backup QB’s…

“Well, Joeckel is probably the most experienced out of the whole deal. He’s a big kid, not the most mobile guy, so you’d probably call the game a little different, definitely, even with Johnny in the game rather than him.

"Kenny Hill, he’s young. You can tell I give a lot of credit to the Southlake Carroll coaches, because you can tell that he has been pretty experienced in running this type of offense. He’s still going through the learning curve, so I’m trying to give him as many reps as possible because both Matts went through spring ball as well, so I know what they’re capable of doing. So I’m trying to put Kenny through this.

"Matt Davis, same as Jockel, they can communicate and operate the offense the best so far because they’re over the learning curve and it’s in year two of the offense. Just got to go down the execution, and trying to give him as many reps as well. They’re all three open right now, so probably at the end of this week we’ll start making more decisions.”

On the importance of securing Hill to signing day…

“I was very committed into keeping him committed. We knew that Kohl Stewart was going to be a very high draft pick, so that’s always doubtful. I’m always big on bringing in one quarterback, because the majority of time whenever both quarterbacks compete, one beats out the other and the other one transfers out, so you’re back to ground zero with it. So it was very important for me. I actually offered Kenny when I was at West Virginia. He kind of laughed at me whenever I pulled that trigger on him, but I’m glad he’s here and he’s on our side.”

On Southlake’s growth for Hill into the college level…

“He is very discrete with everything he does. A lot of guys that actually huddle in high school, they’re very loud with telling the play to the offensive line and signaling out to the receivers, it’s very obvious. Kenny is very discrete with how he handles all this stuff. He kind of knows where the huddle's going. He gets your eyes on you once the play is in progress, so he can keep the tempo of the game up as well. You can tell he’s been coached very good through high school.”

On Johnny Manziel’s demeanor during practice despite off field issues…

“You know, I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder right now. He comes to work every day. He is very excited for the season and the thing I’m most impressed with him right now is that he’s more focused on the receivers and he’s out there coaching as well. He’s running with the ones. He’s looking good. I’m excited to see what he can do this year, but I’m very impressed with how he’s handling coaching the receivers and he’s trying to get things the way he wants them out there.”

On Johnny’s improvements since last season…

“His pocket presence. That’s what we’ve focused on throughout the spring because we know what Johnny can do outside the pocket running the ball. That’s the thing, I try not to let him scramble during practice — which, he gets pretty frustrated at times — so you see some pretty wild plays out there. He’s been staying in the pocket, he’s been going through his progressions and I think it’s going to make him a better pocket passer.”

On Davis’ improvements in the offseason…

“He had a good offseason. He’s been throwing the ball pretty well out there. I still can’t really tell much. We’re going to get some more live situations out there. This is a big week for all three quarterbacks. Like I said earlier, once we get through this week we’re going to start cutting some things down.”

On Johnny’s game surprising him…

“I watched a lot of the tape, because I traded with Kliff (Kingsbury) all the time. We were going through tape the other day and we noticed he scrambled a ton. I wasn’t surprised or shocked with anything — offense is still the same, you've just got a quarterback that can just make a lot of plays with his feet.”

On Johnny’s amount of scramble plays…

“That’s just part of it. That’s year one, this is year two, so he’s gone through just about every look that you can do. He’s better at that aspect cause right he can focus on trying to get us at the best looks as possible.”

On working with Sumlin’s style of offense and its evolution…

“It evolves every year. That’s something that you just try as a coach to keep evolving. I bet Kliff is doing different things at Texas Tech, they’re doing different things at West Virginia, we’re all trying to find ways to keep the game going.”

On relationship with Manziel due to closeness in age…

“I’m not much of a yeller out there, because if a quarterback screws up, the whole stadium, then the media knows he screws up. So I try to just talk with him through everything and see what he’s seeing. I’ll tell him what I think and he’ll tell me what he thinks about certain things and we just try to work it out through there.”

On whether Johnny is still coachable…

“Yes, he’s very coachable. He’s a very smart kid. He can actually take, when you tell him one thing, and take it out there and remember to do that and execute it out there.”

On the standout young receivers…

“They’re all getting better and getting through that learning curve. I think Laquivonte and Ricky Seals-Jones and Tabuyo, I think all three of those have been showing good. They’ve all been playing well and I think we’re going to play a lot of ‘em.”