Aggies' search for solutions begins with BYE week

Kevin Sumlin

On what changes have or will be made...

"Any time you're in a situation like this, from a schedule standpoint, our off week changes a bit. We met and conditioned as a team on Monday. Players will have today off, we'll practice Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. That's a change in the bye week compared to what we've had in the past. This week is about working on us.

"There isn't anything that's off the table. Any position, evaluating where we are right now. Something like what happened Saturday is an eye-opener and should be an eye-opener, not just to coaches and fans but to players too. We're evaluating that situation. We've got coaches out recruiting today and back in the office tomorrow. I'll have more information at the press conference next week."

On whether he's considered staff changes...

"There's nobody who's working harder at coaching technique, game-planning and things like that than our guys in this building. That has not been the case. We have a lot of football to play — four guaranteed games, playing for the opportunity for five. We've got to get the right pieces of the puzzle on the field. And that starts with me. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. It's not one player, not one coach, not one thing, when you have a situation like what happened Saturday.

"Ultimately, I have to evaluate and make sure that we're giving our team the best chance to win, whatever we do. We've done that before and we've been good. There's nothing to lead me to believe we won't get out of this thing and back to where we were."

On the OL problems...

"We're seeing some schemes and some things we haven't seen before. We're having problems with stunts and line movement and blocking twists. We started to get on the perimeter and couldn't get on the perimeter because, quite frankly, we weren't as physical as we were earlier in the season or since we've been here. Everything works hand in hand; there is not a one-group problem when you have a game that happens the way it happened the other day.

"Our message yesterday to our team, to everybody, was that this program is founded on playing hard, playing smart and being physical. The last couple weeks that has not been the case and has directly contributed to us losing. Our challenge is to get back to those three things and be the program we were when we started the season and have been since we've been here."

On how he'll decide between Kenny Hill or Kyle Allen before ULM...

"I don't know. We've got a bunch of practices. We've got three this week with meeting times, so we've got plenty of time and plenty of reps that will determine ... there's a lot of evaluation going on, honestly. To get back to those three things we talked about, the message yesterday was, 'You can get beat 59-0 with anybody on the field. So the guys who are going to play to the standard we've set, I think we got away from that and it's our job to get back to that. If that's good enough to win or lose, you can live with that. But if you're not going to go by those three principles...'"

On how to get the team back to playing by those three principles...

"The same way we began and the same way we begin every season. You've got a lot of young players that we're getting ready to try to get on the field and we may have not taken care of those things as much as getting guys ready to play and teaching them schemes and on the white board instead of playing the game the way we want it to be played around here. That's what this week is about. If we don't get anything else done this week, it'll be that."

On when the team stopped playing the way he wants to see...

"You've got two factors. It's amplified by the fact that the three teams we played are really good, not just OK. That's reflected by the ratings. But Saturday was a situation where it's obvious (that the team wasn't playing to that standard). It's hard to say. Just because you lose doesn't mean you didn't play hard. Sometimes people are better than you, and you can live with that. But how you lose is important. And how we've lost hasn't been our M.O. around here, if we lose.

"So like I said, you get back to those three principles. The funny part is most times we do those things, we win. Then if you lose, it's hard to stomach any time you lose, but you can live with it and move on."

On whether mental toughness has left this team...

"Is it mental toughness? Maybe. Is it physical toughness? Maybe. You can say just about anything. Was it blocking, was it tackling? It can be any of those things. But you have to be careful to generalize about certain things, particularly when it comes to a football game. Sometimes, certain situations will create a generalization. I'm careful not to do that. But I do think it's important that we're honest in our evaluation of what we're doing, what we're asking our players to do and how they're doing it.

"And all three of those areas have to improve."

On whether he's consulted any coaching buddies about things...

"I've had a couple phone calls. I haven't returned them yet. I've had my own meetings. Yesterday was really the first time the team has been back; we had Sunday off. We had a chance to meet as a team. Going forward, there's a couple guys I talk to who've called me right off the bat. They understand it. There's a couple people out there I'll talk to about it, but like I said, the first thing we have to do is not worry about the opponent right now. We're playing us this week. And evaluating us across the board. Nothing is off the table.

"That kind of attitude, those standards, what is acceptable and what's not acceptable, that starts with me. That's what this week is about and we're going to set out to get that corrected tomorrow."

On his faith in Jake Spavital on offense...

"I've got a lot of faith in Jake. You look at what we set out to do, what we attempted to do ... we met as a team yesterday and for the first time in my long career we had players, coaches, everyone watch the game the way I watch it, from kickoff to the end. Offense, defense, special teams. The offensive guys don't ever get to see the defensive guys' plays. But that and the effort tape, what's really going on, and the explanation of why we're trying to do things — because a lot of times people get caught up in just what the play is — there was a lot of work put into that plan; the execution of that plan is different.

"What we have to do is go back: is it scheme? Is it personnel? Are we communicating and getting things done the right way? Obviously, we're not. How do you fix that? That's our job. To start the year that was not a problem and has not been a problem. What we've got to get back to is the little things that create an attitude of, we have to move quicker, we have to be more sudden in all phases. To do that, practice is going to change."

On his opinion likewise of Mark Snyder's performance...

"That's where we are too. Obviously there's a lot of people, based on these last two questions, who don't have any faith in them. I think our team does. Whenever you start questioning anybody, our talk is all inside the building. Players play and coaches coach. There's enough evidence on tape that we need to ensure players are playing the way they need to play through the scheme, on both sides. We've got plenty of football to go; nobody is working harder at putting the right product on the field and the right scheme on the field than our coaching staff right now."

On the last three games leading to questions about the Air Raid in the SEC...

"You can say that. We probably played with a tight end more than we've ever played last week. There's nothing to gain from that knowledge — "Where's the tight end?" and then we got shut out. You've heard me say it a bunch: whether you're a spread team or an option team, it all comes down to how you do things and not what you do. Right now, we're not doing it very well, for reasons I talked about just a few minutes ago.

"I think the misnomer about our offense coming into the league was that it was a finesse offense. I saw a group of guys, the first couple years and the first part of this season, play with real toughness on the perimeter, blocking people and blocking inside. The last few weeks I haven't seen that.

"Whatever you do, you're playing football. Three backs, one back, no tight ends, no backs. At some point, you have to be a physical football team. That's what I was getting at with the question earlier about attitude and where we're headed. What's been lost the last couple of weeks, besides games? What will return it? It would be different if those principles were not in this team to start the year. Those are observations that I've made and those are things that I've got to fix.

"The good news is I've seen it start at the beginning of the year that way. It's not like we're looking at a team that started off the year and it wasn't in there. It's in there. We've got to get it out."

On Alonzo Williams...

"He's pretty banged up. He is not one of the guys I'm talking about. He and Ivan, Ivan probably shouldn't have played that much in that game. I looked at the video, he was hurt. He was almost a liability at the end, not being able to move. I'm very proud of him, but there comes a time when toughness becomes not very smart, maybe hurting the team. We were hoping to get 15-20 snaps out of him and he plays 58 against Arkansas, it hurts him. Those last three weeks of playing three-technique in the SEC has taken its toll on him. He and Alonzo. We've got the two guys who hold the point for us beat up and nicked up; that was a real problem for us Saturday.

"But we've got other players. We've got young players who have to go in for us. We've got to be able to trust these young guys in big games to not get overwhelmed. That's the attitude I was talking about earlier, it needs to go across the board, not just a few guys who have played. Also guys who have talent but have not been very tough with their talent."

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Jake Spavital

On the key to finding a running game and how it would help...

"That's the first thing we emphasize in starting the game is establishing the run game. Going into the Alabama game we tried to get more creative to put guys in easy positions to make better blocks. When it comes down to it there has to be physicality, and I think we backed down from that challenge the last two weeks."

On how to cultivate more aggressiveness on the O-line...

"All positions are open over this bye week. But it goes down to practice; we're probably going to change the way we practice a bit more, try to be more physical and have more contact in our practices throughout this bye week leading to the Louisiana-Monroe game."

On Kenny Hill's attitude and where he's at...

"Obviously he's frustrated. He tries not to show too much emotion, but he does have a lot of emotion. We got hit in the mouth and we weren't responding and he showed some emotion out there. Where Kenny is, he's eager to get out there and back to work and fix what's gone wrong. We started out this season well and we know what we're capable of doing. We have to get back to the drawing board to get to what we're capable of doing."

On the game plan...

"I threw some different things out there, trying to establish a package with Cam Clear, and that didn't work. So we tried to go empty set and show Bama some things they hadn't seen before, cause some confusion — which we did, it just came down to execution and we didn't."

On a potential change at quarterback...

"I'm going to open every position this week. I'm going to find the 11 guys who want to go out there and fight and play. It's a physical sport and you've got to out there and fight. We're going to have a lot of discussions this week and see who the 11 guys are that want to fight for this team."

On what happened to the OL...

"When you go into the season and that's the strength of your team and it's getting beat, that makes it tough on your kids. But I have faith in them; we're going to get them in the meeting room and with the film and they'll see how their performance is out there. They've got to fix it or they'll be replaced."

On whether complacency set in on offense...

"Possibly. We were physical in that South Carolina game, we were blocking well, we were on the perimeter; we had a great running attack and passing attack. What I've seen the last three weeks is we got hit in the mouth and haven't really responded. We've got to come back and fight."

On whether frustration hit him on Saturday...

"That's not in my nature. My nature is to keep competing and find a way. I try not to look at the score at all, I just try to find a way to put the kids in position to go down and score. We try to score on every possession."

On the lack of a downfield passing game...

"If you look how Alabama played us, they played two-high a majority of the game. They took away our quick throws, took away that leverage and put two guys high, so you've got to rely on your intermediate game. We had problems protecting long enough for that (to develop); sometimes we protected well and weren't able to get it downfield. And you've got to establish a run game."

On whether he's been in this position before...

"I've had times. At West Virginia we were 5-0 and lost five straight. I've been through this before. It's nothing to do with scheme, it's the mentality we play with, getting out there and competing and having some pride in what you do."

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Mark Snyder

On whether he feels players quit on Saturday...

"I don't feel like they quit at all, if you go back and watch the film. As we get into the ebb and flow of the game, defensively they hurt us up front. That's a really good football team we just played. Tackling and third downs; those were the keys to the game for us on defense. You work so hard to get them to third down and you can't get off the field against a good team like that, it hurts. It's hard, especially when you're not tackling well."

On culturing physicality and good tackling...

"It's got a bit to do with who we're playing, but we had way too many missed tackles in the first half, way too many. We addressed it at halftime and I felt like it got a little better in the second half."

On fixing mistakes...

"Mistakes are tackling. There's your mistakes, it's tackling people. You go out and tackle people. We've got a bye week this week, and we're going to tackle this week.

"We're going to play Otaro a lot more. He went in in the second half and played pretty well, so we're going to see more of him."

On how much they work on tackling during the regular week...

"The rules have changed so much — how many days you're allowed to tackle, where you can hit a quarterback. We try to tackle as much as we can. Then there's not getting your guys banged up and getting them to Saturday. In camp you're only allowed to tackle every other day; it makes it harder each and every year to get fundamentals down."

On his priority list beyond tackling...

"We've got to get back to being who we were. We weren't up to standard at Mississippi State and obviously we weren't up to standard this week. We were coming every other week. We played decently against Ole Miss and against Arkansas. This week we ran into a buzzsaw big-time."

On guys not set before Bama quick-snapped some balls...

"They got into an unbalanced situation where we had to get the front moved, and everybody's pointing at the tight end because that had hurt us before — against Arkansas, for example — and everyone's pointing (at the TE), then they've got to get down in their stance and play football."

On Amari Cooper getting so much cushion early on...

"We knew when they won the toss and took the ball was that something was up. I thought we were going to get quarterback run. Their plan was to take Amari away from Deshazor in the boundary and put him in the field. They learned that from Arkansas. We had two-eight (No. 28 Victor Davis) out there. They put their best guy on our new guy. That's good coaching. He actually played with confidence and pretty well. We tried to go Ferraris-on-Ferraris and they put him on two-eight (to start) and after the first drive we had to adjust a bit."