Jackie Sherrill on A&M's offensive identity, matchup with Ole Miss

Key quotes from Jackie Sherrill interview

“Well, I think, maybe, they are really trying to establish [their identity on offense], as everybody saw.  And sometimes it happens to a young quarterback, you know, you have a bad a day.  Like Kyle [Allen] said, ‘I had a bad day.’  It’s kind of like a baseball pitcher.  But, you know, what happened – we played a great football team.  What got my attention, Gabe, is how many people they were playing upfront.  There were 9 different people that played upfront for Alabama.  There were times that our offensive line got man handled.  When you throw 4 interceptions, 3 for touchdowns, then you get sacked 5 times, it’s not a very good day.  I do think that we were better when Kyle was moving.  And sometimes when you play a team like Alabama you can do a lot of things, but you got to find one thing that you can do and just do it over and over.”

“[With the pick 6’s] one ball was overthrown, that happens to everybody.  One ball was thrown into coverage, we had that one back.  And the other one was thrown behind.  So, it’s just one of those balls.  You know, everybody that has ever played the game all the way from [] to Danny Marino, you can go on – It does that.”

“I think, every time [Kyler Murray] goes on the field he’s trying to make a play, instead of letting the plays come to him.  You know, just go out and play and have fun.  When you take a 17/18 year old kid, and both Kyle and Kyler are… Being quarterback at Texas A&M is not an easy job.  And all of us, from every Aggie in the world – either the quarterback wins the game or the quarterback loses. “

“What I like about the defense, first half, they had a 160 yards and in the second half I think they only had 52 yards, I believe.  The defensive linemen penetrated, it brought some linebackers into the second half, which made a big difference.  The thing I like more than anything else is that they played for 60 minutes.  They didn’t quit, they just kept playing.”

“We were fortunate to have some guys that went off to have some great careers in the NFL, but I keep kidding with Coach Chavis... I said, ‘You know those three guys make all the tackles, just move them closer to the line of scrimmage, have them play linebacker.’  You know, put them in space.  Armani Watts, to me, is really an outstanding player -- that was a great recruiting job.  Certainly, Donovan Wilson, those three guys play really well.  What that does, it gives the corners the ability to play press man.  They could play Brandon [Williams], he’s getting better every game, and I think he’s going to end up being a really good, solid corner.”

“There’s no question, what’s best for the football team.  There is no question that the coaches are in the meetings, doing whatever they can to come up with the right plan and put the players in the right positions.  The reality of college football, well football period, is that you’re good until you’re exposed.  It’s all over the country.  There may be teams playing really well, but your identity is not to be exposed.  And if you don’t get exposed, you hide some of the deficits.  If you get exposed, you know you have to eliminate them.  And then you have to come up with ways to move the football and score, same thing defensively."

“The story is that [Robert Nkemdische] is going to be back.  They will monitor [his concussion].  It’s not an easy place to go into to play, he’s had success before.  In the Grove, there’s a lot of water being poured out in the Grove.  At the time of the game, it being at 6:00, ending at 10:00, it’ll kind of be like LSU.  It won’t be as bad, but it will be close.”

“I think personally, I may be prejudiced, but personally I think that we will win.  I don’t think we’ll do as bad as we did last week, we’re not playing the same defensive team though.  I think Alabama got a wake up call at Mississippi.  We’ll play well.  The kicking game continues to be impressive.  I think we match up against Mississippi much better than we did against Alabama.”

“Absolutely.  [A&M] is not out of the hunt.  It may end up a 3-way tie, and that’s what you’re looking for.  With a 3-way tie, what happens is -- that you go.  The team that is furthest removed from going, gets to go.  And then when you come back, you play for the best Bowl game, moving us all the way.  The goal is to get us to a New Year’s Bowl game.  If you’re good enough to slide up to the next post, I mean, there’s too many undefeated teams out there right now, but a lot of things can happen.  The good thing about a football is that it doesn’t bounce back up to you, it bounces a lot of different ways.”