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
• When you lose a game by one point at the end, you haven't killed anything. If you're winning, you have a killer instinct. If you lose, you don't. That doesn't mean we didn't have it earlier in the year. We won games. We won games in overtime. If you get away from your identity, stuff like that happens. Our defense was on the field for 47 plays in the first half. It's a very different game. Time of possessions isn't as big a factor as number of plays. Arkansas had the ball for most of our game, but they didn't have the number of plays that Ole Miss did. I called timeout before the end of the half to try to get a return with Christian Kirk. We didn't get that. We didn't want to give the ball away and felt good going into halftime. We didn't make enough plays in the second half to win. We haven't played well in the past couple of weeks. We were aggressive coming out of the half. We have to get off the field on defense.
• Nobody is happy about these last two weeks. You can't be with the way it's gone. With two games to go, winning those two games can put you in a lot of positive scenarios. The feeling here is that winning those games can chance how we feel right now very quickly.
• It hasn't been a conditioning issue. We've won games in the second half. We played an extremely long game against Tennessee in the middle of the year and won. When you're unsuccessful, you look for why you're unsuccessful. I think we're well-conditioned. We've played a ton of defensive snaps with a concerted effort to slow things down on offense, at times. For us to stay on the field is one thing. We did that in the third quarter, but we didn't have any points. We need to get off the field on defense on third down. Ultimately, a three-and-out turns into a 14-play drive. That's how you lose games. We recognize that and are working on it. We got away with it early in the year with big plays on offense. We had a good, 6-minute drive in the fourth quarter then gave up a quick touchdown. We've won as a team, and we lose as a team. That's something that has been discussed. It's being worked on.
• The third quarter has been our best quarter this year, and Saturday we had our worst third quarter. We had an opportunity to put things away. We didn't convert that fourth down. Statistically, we're basically even in the fourth quarter this year. In some of those games, we've been ahead. Sometimes we've been behind. We can't generalize what's happened. We have to look at Saturday night. The other teams have players and coaches too. We've played a lot of snaps on defense and have a lot less guys available to play. That's not an excuse. That's everyone right now. We're trying to control the clock more on offense. There were a number of people out. It's a team game. With a backup quarterback, we weren't as comfortable trying to outscore them. We weren't able to move the ball in the second half.
• We've had tremendous success with transfers from other schools. We haven't had a bunch, but the guys that have come here have been somebody we recruited. We had a prior relationship with those guys. That's why they've been here. Going back to Tra Carson. We had a relationship with him. We had a relationship with Brandon Williams. Same thing with Trevor and Keith Ford. We knew something about them in high school. We knew their character and situation. It's the same with the JUCO guys. We have great relationships in this state. We've gotten guys that weren't recruited at all. They've all had successful and positive experiences here because of relationships we've created. We won't take a transfer from a four-year institution that we don't know much about. I think a few years ago, UTSA had 31 seniors just based on the program getting started. They were really good and full of veteran players. Frank Wilson is an excellent recruiter. He has a great reputation and is a hard worker. He's got a great relationship with high school coaches in this state. He's got a good situation and knows what he's doing. The future is bright.
• We have to be able to run the ball. Injuries are not an excuse in this league. We have to be more creative. Without Trevor putting pressure on the perimeter, we see a different defense where we have to block everybody instead of reading a guy or two. We haven't been that team in the last couple games. It's not for a lack of trying. Jake is a different guy. He's not running a 4.5. He's built differently. I won't say he's not strong, but he is built differently. Trevor's running ability scared teams out of man-to-man. I think Jake was effective. He wasn't the reason we lost that game. He had one turnover as a backup quarterback in his first start. He gave us an opportunity at the end of the game with a touchdown pass. From his standpoint, I would have taken that if you'd told me he'd do that before the game. For him, the idea is to be solid and do what we want him to do. He did that.
• The UTSA running backs have gotten loose the last couple games. They can really, really run. That's indicative of high school football in the state of Texas. Now we have a lot of Division I programs in the state. We used to not have as many. Kids in this state can stay at home and play. The guys from A&M Consolidated on their roster will be excited to play. It gives a lot of guys in this state an opportunity to play D-I football. Those guys will be excited to play back home at Kyle Field.
• The mindset of the team is that nobody is happy. It's more anger than frustration. As a coach, that's a good thing in this situation. In critical situations in the last couple of weeks, we were a different team. We were tight. We didn't make the plays the last two weeks at the end of the games like we did earlier in the year. From that standpoint, we've looked at it as a staff and as a team. Honestly, I sat down with our leaders on the team and to try to take some pressure off of them. We need to play a loose style of football that was successful for us earlier this year.
John Chavis
• Obviously, when you look back on Saturday night it's one of the toughest losses I've been around. You don't do this job to finish second. We have to look at the lessons we learned and try to improve. We're going to try to do what we've been doing but do it better.
• It's difficult. We could have done a lot of things better in the fourth quarter. We got hurt by some deep balls. We were relying on our pass rush. We have to play well in close quarters. We've done that, but we didn't on Saturday. In this league, you're going to be in close games. You have to make plays at the right time. We have to get better with our scheme and our play. The first play of the fourth quarter – if we had pinned the quarterback, that's a different game. Those are plays we have to be able to make. You have to give him some credit. He eluded us and made a good throw. If we do what we need to do, he doesn't get to make that throw.
• Deshawn Capers-Smith is a young guy. He's getting better. He understands the scheme a bit better. We're going to count on him this week and next week. We'll keep coaching and preparing him.
• You won't be as fresh on the 80th play as you are on the 8th play. We had them pinned on third down and had a penalty that extended the drive. We've had opportunities to get off the field. We have to be ready if it's 110 plays. That's not what the players need to hear. As far as the linebackers, they rotated better and stayed fresh. We have to continue to build depth. We won't use number of plays as an excuse.
• I saw Johnny Manziel do things to everbody. Good players make plays, but we don't want to give up those kinds of plays. You have to give them credit. They made plays.
• Frank Wilson is a good football coach. UTSA is well-coached. They take care of the ball. It's easy to tell they have good coaching on film.
• We need to get some cohesion on defense. Myles Garrett leads by example. He plays hard and fast all the time. We're going to shoot every bullet we've got. We'll play the game as needed. If we get a chance to rest guys, we will, but that's not our focus going in. We have to play well. We can't just show up. We have to play as well as we can.
• I don't think you'll find a coach in America that will tell you he's pleased with depth. We can't roll out 12 defensive linemen without a drop-off. We have to keep building and recruiting. The best programs in the nation do that. I've recruited against them. Alabama and Clemson are built on recruiting. We have to build depth. We're happy with our players. It's on of the best teams I've been around in terms of character, but to build an elite program, we have to keep recruiting and create more depth.
• I was really excited about Larry Pryor. He's comfortable with what we're doing. He was a big bright spot. He took advantage of the opportunity. We knew he'd be good, but right now, we feel like he's ready for any situation.
• Some of the run defense issues have been scheme problems and players understanding that. Some of it is playing good teams. I think we've made progress against the run game. Our fits were much better. We were stout at the point of attack. We have to work on it every single day. We are who we are. Our kids play and practice hard. We just have to play better at times.
Noel Mazzone
• We haven't been a very good offense the last two weeks. We've made the defense stay on the field. Scoring quickly can make it worse. We haven't been able to stay on the field. We've been around 60 snaps per game when we used to average 80. You have to sustain drives. We have to block the right guys and throw it to the right guys. I felt good about the first half, but we were only on the field for about 10 minutes. We had good field position on our first drive. We missed a trick play and failed on fourth down. It knocked us out of sync. We haven't been consistent the last couple weeks. You're going to have bad moments, but we need to be more consistent.
• The gameplan changed a bit when we changed quarterbacks. We're used to being able to run the football. I don't think we took our foot off the gas. I think we have to be able to run the football. We have to be better.
• It was a hard-count on fourth down. With a certain look, we would have gone to a different play. I call the best games ever after the fact. I think we should have changed personnel and gone to a power run there.
• I thought Jake protected the ball. He played a solid first half and made a couple throws. We have to protect him in the pocket. That was the second start of his career. He managed the game well. The other 10 guys need to do their part, as well.
• Jake and Trevor are two different guys. Trevor is dynamic in the run game. Whenever the quarterback is a run threat, it changes the whole look of the defense. We've got to be able to run the football. I still believe that. Ole Miss mixed up the defense.
• These kids play hard. There's no doubt about that. You have to trust the guy next to you. These kids are a great group. They're fun to coach. They're working their butts off. We have to coach them harder. We just can't lose sight of what got us here.
• Speedy Noil had his best game of the year. Josh and Christian have been solid all year. Speedy made big plays in the first half. We have to get the ball in the right guy's hands. He needs five or six touches a game.
