Aggies reflect on Arkansas, head into bye week

Kevin Sumlin

Opening statement...

Sumlin: "Thinking back to last week, I thought that was a great experience for our team, great experience for our fans. I appreciate everybody who traveled, up in that right hand corner we had a lot of folks at that game sitting in the rain. Really good environment, packed house in Fayetteville. To play in the manner we did and answer some challenges offensively and defensively, play a different style, be able to react to the weather, do some things a bit different than we've done in the past — I think that's probably the first series since we've been here that we didn't attempt a pass and scored.

"That says a lot about your team and about your versatility and where our confidence factor lies with our offensive line and our running game. And, it says a lot about the maturity level of our team. For a quarterback, that's not the most fun thing to sit there and hand the ball off on every snap. He operated well and our team answered some challenges in the fourth quarter from a team that was very well-coached. On the road, that's a very good win for us.

"Which brings us to the bye week, which we need. Last year we had 12 straight because of the hurricane. This year we've got a break after five weeks and we've got guys limping around after that game. We practiced yesterday. The players have Thursday and Friday off, we'll work out Saturday and then we'll get ready for Ole Miss."

On Johnny Manziel's progression in the pocket...

Sumlin: "I've had a bunch of people ask me that. He's done a better job of seeing the field, not bailing right away, and when he's ran he's exercised good judgement in sliding or getting out of bounds, which we asked him to do. It's another sign of growing up and protecting the football and not being reckless. There's no doubt we have some more designed runs in for him. He knows that. What you also see is his ability, with more freedom and understanding of the offense, to change plays instead of looking back over at us all the time.

"He's been able to get us into some good plays. The key for quarterbacks is that everyone wants to get us into the perfect play, but it's not about that. It's about keeping us out of horrendous plays. He understands that more now

On whether he's addressed his players about the USC rumors...

Sumlin: "I don't ever talk about that. That's always going to be around. There's two ways you talk about coaches — either they're not going to be around or they're going to move on. As long as I'm not in the first category. I don't talk about that, it's part of the job."

On handling that type of speculation...

Sumlin: "I don't approach it. I don't talk about it. It's going to be talked about no matter what. If they're not talking about you at all, there's probably some other issues. That's always going to be the case, I hope. It means you're winning and that you're winning the right way and doing things that are helpful. From my standpoint, it's not a job to manage. I just don't approach it."

On his relationship with Manziel...

Sumlin: "It's probably a bit different. Every position coach and head coach has a different style of dealing with players. I'm just a firm believer that as a head coach your relationship with your starting quarterback has to be a very unique one. Unlike a lot of other players on the team, the quarterback — much like the head coach — gets way too much of the credit when we win and probably too much when we lose. It's a lot of responsibility compared to other positions. Your ability to communicate with that young man is important.

"The relationship I've had with he and Case is a very different one, because of the stress level they're under not only during the game but the whole time. From a relationship standpoint, I'd categorize it as a close one."

On Deshazor Everett's versatility...

Sumlin: "He's playing pretty good (laughs). I can't wait until he gets that cast off, maybe he'll score twice a game. We moved him from corner to safety, he's making tackles, he's scored in back-to-back weeks. An invaluable piece to what we're doing. He understands what we're trying to do. He's our best corner, you give up something you'd think, but he's also one of our better DBs. He's saved us some touchdowns and given us the opportunity to line up and play defense again. I can't tell you how critical that is.

"Any time you have a team that's winning, you have to have some unselfish players. I'd put him in there with Mike Evans, who'd never been in on kickoff return and we had a guy go down and Coach Banks explained it to him and he went in because he wants to win. It's hard playing safety, because at corner you've got one guy. Safeties have formations and fits. (Everett)'s unselfishness is another great example to this team of what it is to be a teammate and try to win games. Not being selfish and saying, 'I'm just going to do this.' You'll see him, too, on a number of special teams. He's on our frontline kicks, kickoff return. He's doing a heck of a job for us and that is a great example for the players on this team."

On the players who were injured against Arkansas...

Sumlin: "Mike Evans is limping around a bit. He needs this week off. We discussed that this morning, I don't care what he does this week, he's proved he's a tough guy. Darian Claiborne's got a thigh bruise and I'd expect him to be back next week. Kirby Ennis is a lot more serious than that. We'll continue to evaluate that and see where he is by the end of the week."

On the defense...

Sumlin: "We need to move forward. The communication, as soon as we get something going, Kirby's out half the game. We've got Isaiah Golden in there and we're back to where we were. Darian Claiborne has given us a shot from a tackling perspective. Are we fitting everything right now, no, but we're better than we were. The consistency at the linebacker position, Darian's really helped us, Steven Jenkins being back full time has helped us. We really kind of solidified who we are until Kirby, as big an anchor as we've got down there, goes down.

"We'll put Isaiah Golden and Hardreck Walker back on the field and move Alonzo (Williams) some. Alonzo, by the way, that was the best game he played. ... The interesting thing is that if you watch the video, we had less mental errors than we did all year — but they were critical. They're putting 100 yards on everybody they play and if you give them a crease... The key is, we made enough stops in a situation where we had to and created turnovers. You go on the road and you win the turnover battle 2-0 or 3-0, you're usually going to win the game every time. We really harped on that.

"As our defense gets better, we've got to be opportunistic and create turnovers. But offensively we've got to hang on to the ball. That's pretty much the recipe for success on the road."

On the advantage of the bye week...

Sumlin: "It depends where your team is. Some teams, you don't want a week off. Like last year, we were a hot team, we just wanted to keep playing. This year we've got some guys limping around. Everybody getting off that plane, it was some slow walking coming down that ramp — and not just because it was wet. Everybody thinks about the physical strain of playing. The hard part for the young players, now, is the mental strain. You've got the first barrage of exams, quizzes, you're having to handle that. For our team, the bye week comes at a good time. Not only physically, but mentally we needed this week.

"Today, we won't practice. Go to class, go to study hall. It's been a long time since these guys have had a day like today."

On the running backs...

Sumlin: "I think what you're seeing is they're all getting healthy. For whatever reason we've been missing one here and there. Trey Williams isn't completely healthy but he's getting close, and you see him rush for 80 or 90 yards. Tra Carson gives us a different dimension at 230. Ben Malena just does his job, he's the most steady. Brandon Williams is probably the guy with the most wire-to-wire potential. When we're in those two-back sets, they blocked well for each other. Didn't matter who it was. That's the kind of, again, when you're winning you've got to have an unselfish team. That's hard, because running backs get pretty selfish. They like the ball.

"I think our staff does a good job with those guys. If you don't block, you don't play. They're sharing the load, and the more you share, the healthier you'll be. We're not even halfway and we've got some bruised up guys. They know that, they help each other and I'm pleased with the way it's going."

On Cam Clear's unselfishness and progress...

Sumlin: "No doubt. All over the place. He's in the backfield as a blocker, he's in line as a blocker, he's caught one pass for one touchdown. Maybe we should throw it to him some more. Big, physical guy, loves to play, all over special teams, has fun out there. His role has definitely increased. Remember, the transition for these guys whether it's from high school or JUCO is difficult. His role is increasing by the week, even if it doesn't seem from a passing game standpoint that that's the case. It has. He's played more snaps every week, and I look for that to continue."

On Josh Lambo's performance and confidence in him...

Sumlin: "I'm not worried about the team, I'm not worried about his confidence. That's ok, we handle that. I worry about personal confidence. He took advantage of every opportunity that we had, whether it was an extra point or a field goal, and that's all we can do. To come out in that on the road, in a bit of wind and weather, I guarantee we're going to see better conditions than we saw. That's where the confidence comes from for me and for him.

"So many times at that position or at any position where you're touching the ball, or on defense where you've got to fit, it's not necessarily my confidence in you or the team's, it's your confidence in your ability to do that job. I don't see how he can leave Fayetteville in that situation, with everything that was going on that night, and be perfect and not have a lot more confidence than when he showed up. Yeah, we're pleased with his progress."

Clarence McKinney

On using four good running backs and having them healthy...

McKinney: "It's a luxury. It was really good to see all four of those guys out there, not only being competitive in the game but competing with each other. That's how they do it every day."

On where the offense is right now...

McKinney: "It's definitely not where we want it to be. Every time we get a possession our goal is to score a touchdown, and we haven't done that yet. I think we're about 54 percent conversion third downs and we'd like to build it higher than that. We're about 80 percent in the red zone and we'd like to be 100 percent. Other than that, and the penalties, I think we've done a really good job of holding on to the ball for the first part and we just need to limit the penalties."

On calling running plays with a quarterback like Johnny waiting to throw...

McKinney: "Sometimes when we call pass plays, they turn into run plays anyway. We didn't have any designed runs in the game plan for Johnny last week and he was OK with that. Those running backs, we let them carry the ball."

On Manziel's pocket presence...

McKinney: "He's done really good throwing the ball from the pocket. The game plan didn't call for designed runs for Johnny. He's going to run the ball whether we have designed runs or not. We want to limit the amount of hits on him."

On the decision to run so much...

McKinney: "It was all based on what they were showing us. Our offense is all about what the defense gives us. They gave us an easy run box."

On Trey Williams getting healthy...

McKinney: "He's really good with the ball in his hands. He showed that on Saturday."

On Derel Walker getting five straight passes...

McKinney: "We didn't go the sixth time because Derel was tired. They were giving us soft coverage and we took it. Derel's really good with the ball in his hands, so we took advantage of that on that drive."

On handling ball security in rainy weather...

McKinney: "We talked to our guys about the weather conditions before the game. We didn't change anything in practice. We teach the guys who are going to carry the ball how to carry the ball regardless of whether it'll be bad weather or not. We focus on that no matter what the weather is."

Mark Snyder

On how he feels about the second half...

Snyder: "It was good to see. The one thing we did well was, at halftime, made some adjustments — and the kids adjusted. I credit our offense big time, Clarence and his staff, the running backs and offensive line. The way the game was going, taking the clock helped us out a lot."

On the progress on defense...

Snyder: "We're getting some continuity. We need to continue to have continuity and have some consistency. We play well in spurts. They played well in the second half. We did a good job of showing them some things they haven't seen, but consistency is key for us. Yes, I do see the confidence coming."

On Isaiah Golden...

Snyder: "He did OK. The guy that played really well was Alonzo. Alonzo's played a lot of nose for us. Getting some guys back who've played 3-technique in real games will help us a lot."

On Everett's pick-six...

Snyder: "It was one of the halftime adjustments that we went through. It's always rewarding as a coach when you make an adjustment and see it come to fruition. Really good stuff."

On whether the bye week will be about self-correction or Ole Miss...

Snyder: "We'll concentrate on both, no doubt. Fundamentally we've got to do some things, and we'll prepare for Ole Miss."

On Everett's playmaking ability...

Snyder: "I'll be happy when he gets that cast off. You see that play where the tight end caught the ball on the sideline, he couldn't use his hand. Not that he couldn't use it, he didn't use it to rake the ball out of there. It'll be nice when he gets that cast off."

On the linebackers' game...

Snyder: "Not too bad. They got some new stuff thrown at them. Great teaching yesterday. That's going to happen any time you've got young players. But that's part of building a program. That's kind of what happened last year and that'll happen this year. I watched the Ole Miss game yesterday and whatever point we were at last year, that's where we were in this game."

On moving Everett between S and CB...

Snyder: "Deshazor's got some skills. We're doing him a service down the road because he's had the ability to play corner and safety, which I think will help him down the road."

On Otis Jacobs' play...

Snyder: "I'm the first one to take my hat off. I thought he played well. I was happy for him. They went after him, targeted him, and he rose to the occasion. They'll continue to target him. I was very proud of him on Saturday."

On the long run by Arkansas late in the second quarter...

Snyder: "That's me being greedy. They were trying to get out of the half. I got greedy and we moved the front, which is OK, it shouldn't be an issue, but the ball slid out the back door. That can't happen. They got three points when they were trying to get out of the half. I take that on myself. That should be a three-yard gain, not a 50-whatever. If you ever start learning, you're dead. And I learned. We moved the front and our backside pieces weren't doing what they were supposed to do. Coming out of the half I didn't think they had that many yards rushing. Just a couple big runs. For the most part, I think we handled the run pretty good."

On Nate Askew's showing...

Snyder: "It's another learning experience for Nate. He wasn't great, he wasn't awful. He made some plays when I asked him to make some plays in the backfield. He was on the tight end better than I thought on game day. That was a good player, good quarterback. We've got to move on. But I thought he did OK."