Texas A&M Football weekly press conference: Alabama

The following are live, paraphrased notes from Texas A&M's weekly press conference. Videos of the interviews will be added to the story as they are rendered.

Kevin Sumlin

•The bye week was a good situation for us. Our guys approached it the right way. We needed it. It came at the right time. The two prior weeks we weren't at 100%. It came at the right time for us. We were able to utilize it.

• I feel good about our overall team health.

• Daeshon Hall needed to be in the weight room consistently to be a true defensive end. It showed last year. The best thing that happened to Myles Garrett was Daeshon Hall. Daeshon was able to put himself on the map against Arizona State. It gave him some confidence and changed the protection schemes we've seen since. He's gathered confidence from those experiences. When Myles went down earlier this year, we were able to do some extra things with him. We're getting our money's worth on him now. They've improved against the run. They've increased their strength and understand the game. They're not just third down players anymore. They've always been good at rushing the passer. They work together. Myles is one of the premier players in the nation. You saw him against Tennessee. He was disruptive in limited minutes. He wouldn't come out of the game when he was hurt. It was a significant injury. He wouldn't come out of the game. That says more about him than anything. We didn't let him travel to South Carolina, but the best thing for him and the rest of the injured guys was to stay home and get healthy. That helped them. He was 60-70% against Tennessee and played both overtimes. It was important to him. As great a talent as he is and with everything he has at stake professionally, that shows what kind of teammate he is. Our high-profile players are doing everything they can to wing games. That's how this team has approached this game.

• There are very few players out there that have beaten Alabama. Everyone wants to make a storyline about Trevor beating them. Let's make the storyline about this year. These are top 10 teams that are trying to win the SEC West. That's where we are. I still haven't watched that Sugar Bowl. The schemes are different. The players are different. The coaches are different. Watching them this year is plenty for me to watch. It's a completely different set of circumstances. For us, Trevor has gotten better every week. We've learned how he plays, but this is a completely different game.

• Last year, I thought Alabama benefited from depth. I don't know what they do over there because I thought they'd all leave for the draft. They didn't. They do a fabulous job recruiting, developing and educating their players. I've learned a lot from that. We talk to guys about their realistic draft spot and playing your way into a better one. They do a good job with that. Their defensive front is ridiculous. What makes them different is the rotation of those guys. You'd think they would fall off sometime, but they haven't.

• They've had this offense since Lane Kiffen got there. He's made a big difference in their formations. Jalen Hurts has done a great job this year. I'm not surprised. I've known him and his dad for a long time. Very few things get to him. He has a solid demeanor and is very smart. He's an exceptional athlete. His dad is a coach. He's been a pleasant surprise for many, but I'm not surprised. He's surrounded by good players. He's been able to operate their system well. Lane has done a great job of keeping him in position to be successful. He's got numbers similar to Trevor, and lots of our concepts on offense are similar to theirs. Scoring points is at a premium in college football. You have to score points to win football games. Alabama has been able to put up points recently. What they're doing offensively fits their quarterback as well as it could.

• Alabama gets pressure up front. The guys on the back end are really good. Minkah Fitzpatrick is really fast. A lot of them were two-way players in high school. They practice getting turnovers. They're organized. Once you have some success, it becomes contagious. It's not just one thing that allows them to score on defense, but it certainly isn't luck.

• There were high stakes in the first game of the year. There were high stakes two weeks ago. People were saying we needed to win against Tennessee. This team has done a great job of blocking out noise. We haven't played our best football yet. We just have to go in and play. Our guys are in a good place. We're healthy. Based on what I see, I'm not concerned about the big stage.

• We haven't been motivated by the Vegas line all year. Nobody making that line is playing the game.

• Alabama played great last week. Tennessee was banged up, but Alabama dominated. You can't take anything away from it. I don't know what you can take from it. We just have to go there and play. We've been good enough to win every game so far. We just have to be the best team on Saturday. It's nothing more than that. We've been working on that for the last week.

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John Chavis

• Alabama has adjusted to their personnel. They've done a good job with their freshman quarterback. They keep expanding their playbook. They give a lot of different looks.

• We've played extremely hard on defense. We've played some good football teams and haven't played our best yet. We have to be able to finish games. We expect better there, but we're playing very hard. I have to prepare the team better.

• We look like an SEC defense this year. We knew we needed to be bigger and stronger. This will be another measuring stick for where we are defensively. Our players bought in to what we asked them to do. I'm pleased from that standpoint. We've made progress as far as physicality goes.

• The dual-threat quarterbacks present a different challenge. You have to be flexible to play guys like that. It's a different look for Alabama. I haven't seen them do it this way before.

• Shutting down a running quarterback is always important, but can you do it? That's the important question. We'll have to defend deep balls and rush the passer. We need to play well in the screen game. We know they're coming, so we have to be able to handle it. We have to contain the quarterback because he can beat you with his legs.

• We're looking forward to the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country. We're trying to build to be the No. 1 team in the country. It'll happen eventually. I'm not saying it'll happen this year, but we're building toward it. This university has everything in place to make that happen at some point.

• Any time a team runs the zone read, it's not a simple offense. Not all zone reads are the same. There are different blocking schemes. They set up blocking schemes to make it easy on the quarterback. They do a good job of every type of zone read that you can possibly run. We're seeing more of that in football. They aren't just reading the defensive end anymore. We have to keep the plan simple enough to keep our guys in their lanes, but Alabama is running a very multiple system.

• It's going to take 11 guys and some depth. You have to have depth. We're in a better situation depth-wise than last year. Richard Moore is a natural football player. He has good instincts. He's getting better daily. I'm excited that he's part of our program. He's aided our success to this point.

• I don't want to speculate on anything. No one has ever played a perfect game. You have to go play. Most of the time, the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. If we play mistake-free, I love our odds.

• Our linebackers are getting better. They're more productive. We're not where we want to be. I won't talk about the mistakes here, but I'll talk to the players about them. The first person I look at when we make a mistake is myself. We need to improve each week to get to where we want to be as a football team.

• We make decisions about the starting line-up every week. Competition makes you better. We'll start the guys that have earned it. There are guys we anticipate being there, but no one knows for sure where they'll be each week. We have to have competition. When we get competitive enough to not know who will start, we're doing well. Kingsley Keke has played well. When it's all said and done, it comes down to production.

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Noel Mazzone

• It doesn't matter who you're playing. We talk about turnovers every week. If you turn it over, it's hard to win. If you want to protect your team, you protect the football. We stressed that on day one.

• Alabama has an SEC West defense. They're like all the other good players in this league. We play good fronts week in and week out. This is what we signed up for.

• The thing that stands out about Trevor is the way he blended with our guys and stepped into the leadership role at the quarterback position. He's a comfortable person no matter where he is. I like that about him. He's confident in who he is. He's been a lot of fun to be around. He's the same guy every day. He's got a lot of energy and has been awesome to work with.

• I have no idea if Texas quarterbacks are more prepared to play early. High school football here is at a different level than a lot of places, but a good quarterback is a good quarterback. The quarterbacks that play in a system from an early point have a better shot at playing early. The skillset some guys have coming out of high school is impressive. They have 7-on-7 leagues in the summer. We didn't have that growing up. That's why you have freshman that can step in and be productive out of high school. It's the same thing with high school quarterbacks. Their exposure to the game has increased.

• I thought Josh Reynolds was tall, fast and had great coordination when I got here. He was quiet, but he worked hard. I didn't watch much film of these guys before I got here. From the spring til now, he's done a lot of things without the ball in his hands. He's becoming a complete receiver. His downfield blocking and things like that. Those are the things that mean he's embraced being a complete receiver.

• We'll run the football. If they stop us, they stop us. We're going to run the football. They may stuff us. They're a really good defense. We won't know until Saturday. We'll have good practices, watch film, run our offense and try to have success running the football.

• I don't know that Trevor's win against Alabama will help. You'll have to ask him. This team lives day by day, and that's awesome. What happened before has no bearing on what's happening in this moment. We're just getting better every day. We tee it up and see what progress we've made on Saturdays. Our guys are doing a great job of staying in those moments.

• I give the team the same talk no matter who we're playing. It could be a high school or the New England Patriots. We protect the ball, and we protect the team.

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Avery Gennesy

• It's the same thing each week. We just have to take it one day at a time.

• Tim Williams and Jonathan Allen are good players. It's nothing we haven't seen. We just have to prepare like professionals, and we'll be fine.

• Communication and believing in one another. Those have helped the offensive line. Everyone said we were young, but I knew that wouldn't be a problem.

• It's important to run the ball well every week. We just have to do our jobs and do the little things to be successful.

• I try to keep our guys calm in the big games, even when we're away. I don't look at myself as a big leader. I'm just a brother, another teammate. I just make sure the guys stay together.

• I don't remember anything about the last time we were in Tuscaloosa. I wasn't playing. That was a long time ago. I'm focusing on the present right now.

• I don't think about 7-0. We just have to play the game. We have a long season to go. Each game is a big game. We have to prepare well and do the little things.

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Myles Garrett

• I can't let Alabama know how I feel. I'm good enough to play well. I will play on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th down if we have to.

• You have to keep Hurts from getting to the perimeter. If you take that away, you take away a big part of their offense.

• I'm not really focused on what I'm doing. It's a team game. I want to make us better and see how we can improve.

• We've done well against the run. We've been stout up front. The linebackers are filling gaps. The secondary is making big plays. We've got to fix the lapses we've made in the past few games.

• Our offensive line is good, too. Practicing against them will help us prepare for Alabama's offensive front.

• You always want to play in big games. These are what people look back at years down the line. I'd love to make it a thriller.

• I think what happened two years ago is influencing the spread. We want to show that this is a different team.

• Daeshon Hall is a threat at all times. The other team has to be worried about him all the time.

• Depth helps us have breathing room. Guys can be fresh, instead of getting worn out. If we can put in five or six guys, that's good for us.

• We've worked hard during the summer and during fall camp. We're conditioned to hang on during the season and during long games.

• I have a love for people. I've been to Florida and Haiti. I have a connection with those people. I'll never forget them. I wish the best for them, and we should give whatever we can to make their lives better than they are right now. I walked down the street with a kid who felt like he had a brother. I felt complete, knowing that this kid had someone to care for him for a little bit. If you're going to be looked at as a positive role model, why not use it in this manner? Have a cause. Have a purpose. If I can help people that are near and dear to me, I'm going to do that.