Kevin Sumlin talks start of fall camp, newcomers, team depth

Key notes from Kevin Sumlin interview

• It’s been good, this summer has been different with the new rules, dead period started yesterday. We haven’t changed what we are doing, but we’ve got three different recruiting events that have become important to us. What you’ve seen after those events are some commitments from guys that we wanted. Our staff has done a great job identifying players and student athletes that we want. Those guys are in turn recruiting other guys and helping us grow the class.
  
  
• Our staff has done a great job of identification and evaluation. People get upset because I don’t reveal the number of scholarships that we have, but it's a moving target. Areas where people get upset are when we lose guys to the draft, but you have to realize guys come in here to play. You’re not going to replace Myles Garrett, but we think we have some young talent that can help fill that void.
  
  
• First of all, the second and third round picks, no one knew who they were before they got here. Daeshon Hall became Dae Dae when he got here and Justin Evans became one of the better safeties in the country after coming is as a junior college baseball player. Jarrett Johnson had as many sacks last year as Daeshon Hall in limited playing time, now it’s his time to perform. I think he will be a breakout guy, he looks different than he has in the past. Micheal Clemons is also a special talent.
  
  
• My first memory of Aggieland was walking out on Kyle Field in 2001, I remember looking out at the north end zone with Bernard Richardson, I said, ‘this place is awesome.’ Richardson told me, ‘they don’t come to see you play, they come to see you win.’
  
  
• It’s awesome seeing this place change over the years. There are going to be some announcements over the next couple weeks on enhancing the fan experience on game day that should be awesome. The students, the fans and players are who the game day experience are really about. From my point of view, I’m worried about what is happening on the field, but it is important that everyone has a great experience at the game. Kyle Field as great as it is, with these enhancements is going to be even better.
  
  
• I’m excited about today, its report day. This summer has been great, for me in particular the whole college football experience is different. We have 29 new guys, that's a third of our team. These guys, the best part about right now is the older guys understanding these young guys are talented and can help out on the field. If the young guys can play, maybe you see guys playing 40-50 snaps a game instead of 70 or 80 which is a huge difference in the long run of a 12-plus game season.
  
  
• You have to make difficult decisions, Larry Jackson had been with me for a long time. We went out and tried to find the best guy possible for the job and we think we did that with Mark Hocke. This is a guy who has been at Alabama and Florida State, he knows what championship caliber looks like. You only have 15 days in the spring with the coaches and the strength and conditioning staff is with them all the time. They have the most influence on your football team in the summer.
  
  
• Some guys are growing up, we had to get Jhamon Ausbon’s weight down a little bit, he was enjoying the R.C. Slocum center a little too much. He will be a grown man at 219 pounds. Hezekiah Jones ran a 4.42 at 195 pounds. I'm excited, we have a meeting tonight. Coach Hocke wants to run the hell out of them tonight, I’m not going let him do that. What you’ve seen this summer is a relatively low key summer because the guys are hanging out and doing things together. It’s a fun time to be around this group.
  
  
• It’s a big deal having a guy like Christian Kirk as a team leader. The young guys have latched onto him at receiver, he has been a huge help in recruiting and he and Armani Watts are the best of friends. He works hard and wants to be the best and asks questions every day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Christian Kirk is the most dynamic football player in the country with the ball in his hands. I wouldn’t trade him for anything.
  
  
• I was more worried about the offensive line last year than I am this year with the number of freshmen we had to play. We have more starters coming back this year than we did last year. Looking at Koda Martin and Jazzmin Babers wedding, I was the shortest guy at the wedding between the volleyball players and the offensive linemen. I think we have recruited some really good players. You look at Colton Prater, Erik McCoy, and Koda Martin, we have guys who have played SEC football. They can tell these younger guys what they need to do to be successful.
  
  
• With fall camp, it’s about the players and the people. Talking season is over and we are back to football, the wearing a suit and tie days are over.
  
  
• I think what you are going to see is a different energy with new guys on the squad. You better bring a roster early in the season because there will be new guys on the field. We have more time to practice, we’ve tried to develop younger players. We’re not getting on the plane to Pasadena with guys that can’t get on the field and play.
  
  
• We’ve approached things differently in the offseason and we have to play all of our guys. We were very lucky the first year, we had 13 guys start on defense for the whole year, last year we had 20 something. We’re not counting on luck this year, we are counting on depth.