Texas A&M Football weekly press conference: Nicholls State

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

• I think moving forward is what we do. Yesterday was a day off. Today will be our first time to review video and talk positives and negatives. This afternoon will be the last time we talk about UCLA. There were a lot of things that happened that we can learn from. There were very positive things in the first half. There are a lot of things we can learn from. The key is to not make those same mistakes again and get better.

• People are frustrated. I'm frustrated. I'm not happy. I am not in the business of paying attention to comments outside this program. I don't have time to get involved in things that are said about me. I'm just not that kind of person.

• I think, offensively, we struggled a little bit, but we ran a lot of time off the clock, more time than people think. I think we could have changed some things in coverage, particularly on the last couple drives. You go back and look, even with those things – we had an interception go through our hands. We had guys run into each other. You have to make plays in those situations. We didn't make one competitive play. We did in the first half, and in the second half we did not.

• I knew when that happened with Nick in the fourth quarter. We talked to the guys and told them Nick wasn't coming back. The quarterbacks were prepared at that point. We have to prepare both of our guys to go, because Nick won't be available. We'll announce a starter on Saturday. We have to figure out what we're doing with that position. I expect they'll both play over the coming weeks.

• Jake was available to play. Kellen had been in the game, and I thought he brought things to the table with his legs. He made some freshman mistakes.

• With Donovan Wilson out, we have a couple options. Keldrick Carper was in the game and had a great camp. The safety position affects the nickel position. We'll move our corners around a little bit. We had some issues with the deep ball, but I thought the corners played well. We have a combination of guys that can help us back there.

• I'm very confident in the leadership we're getting from our captions. The guys have had a really good chance to show who they are. Today will be the first time we get to talk to the players about Sunday and move on to this week. I know our captains have reached out to our team. The inner-talk of this team is completely different than people probably think right now.

• I don't know if Donovan Wilson will be back this year. We won't do anything to risk his professional career. We'll see where he is, and I'll let you know if he's ready to go. Clifford Chatman is not available right now.

• This is a different team than last season. We have 29 new guys. I'm not comparing this to anything. I'm comparing it to Sunday. What happened happened, and we've got to fix it.

• I thought we mixed it up pretty well early. We got kind of vanilla late in the game defensively. Myles Jones and Charles Oliver did a good job early. Jarrett Johnson is a really good pass-rusher. He had the same amount of sacks as Daeshon Hall did last year. Micheal Clemons got injured early that hurt us. Cunningham got hurt a little. Once they were out of the game, UCLA was able to max protect. There were guys who did some really good things. Some of the guys inside did a really nice job against the run. No one is more frustrated than me about what happened Sunday, but there are things in there that we can learn from and get better from. The key is to not less this situation repeat this weekend.

• I think if you go back and look at the video and look at the way we moved the ball and changed field, we ran it as much as we did in the first half. We weren't as effective because of the loaded box. All of us are in on play-calling. We attempted to shorten the game with the running game. It wasn't as effective in the second half. We tried to put Mond in position to make plays with his legs. He did that. Defensively, we didn't hold up.

• Kellen just needs to grow and keep growing as a young guy. That's the process for a lot of these guys that are on the field. We have to encourage guys and play to their strengths. We have to see who they are and where we want them to be and help them get there. We have to design things to play to their strengths. That's where we are right now. That's been our discussion over the last day.

• We're going to be forced to throw the rest of the year. They'll make Kellen be a complete quarterback. We have to address that. It's on tape. It's the same on offense, defense and special teams. You have to address those issues before moving on, whether it's a player or scheme.

• Offensively, Nicholls State is similar to us. It's a zone-read, RPO scheme. They're really balanced. They have a couple receivers that can really go. Their quarterback is effective. Defensively, they keep things in front of them. They're patient on defense. They made strides last year. They won't be intimidated coming in here. They played at Georgia last year. They'll come in here excited, and we have to be ready to play.

• It's not just the quarterbacks that can lead, it's the line. Those guys battled and played pretty well. You don't get that production out of your running game without the o-line doing its job. Our running backs did a good job. Kendall Bussey provided a spark. Keith Ford gave us the tough yardage. To do that every week, we need all those guys. The leadership comes from the backs and the offensive line. They're only going to get better.

• Daniel LaCamera, Cunningham and Clemons are available for Saturday's game.