Texas A&M coaches, players discuss the upcoming season at Media Day

On Sunday at Texas A&M Football Media Day, Jimbo Fisher, Mike Elko and Darrell Dickey addressed the media, then TexAgs spoke with a number of Aggie players about fall camp, the upcoming season and more.

Note: All of the players were in the room at once, so it was crowded and noisy. We even shot a vew videos on a phone to get to as many guys as possible in the allotted time. You may have to adjust your volume up and down a bit from video to video, but enjoy the long list of interviews. None of us recall ever having access to this many players at once before.

The following are live, paraphrased notes from the three coaches at Texas A&M's Media Day press conference. 

Head Coach Jimbo Fisher

• You can never see what a guy can do until he starts to grasp everything. You can go down the line and everyone is now grasping the knowledge and nuances ... and are now making plays consistently in the last four practices. We've made significant progress.
• Both QBs are doing a good job and pressing each other very well.
• Mond has played very well. He's set in the pocket and made plays and is understanding blitzes and run checks. He's doing well and I expected him to do that.
• There will be some more investment in facilities, but you also have to invest in people. Kids these days deal with so much more pressure - social media, mental health issues, and so much scrutiny. There are a lot of things behind the scenes, people we need to put in place to support them. We're investing in support staff to help these guys develop as people, as students, and then as players.
• This university supports students better than anywhere. The Aggie Network is set up to help our players at the end as much as anywhere. 
• We have an excellent staff who kids want to play here. You invest in people, and all of those things with a tremendous product (A&M) to sell, and people want to come here.
• The giving and the way people care about the university...it's more than what I thought. I'm not just recruiting or trying to make people happy.
• Etwi is doing a heck of a job. I don't think of him as a walk-on. 
• Recruiting is different because of the accessibility these days. Before you couldn't talk to kids unless you could get them on a phone. Now you can text them and such. But also what helps in recruiting is kids actually coming here and seeing that they enjoy it, it's close to Houston, Austin, Dallas. Our staff has done a heck of a job.
• The linebackers are doing a great job. Keke as well. They're being more consistent and playing solid, very good football.
• In recruiting, we have to make sure we work inside out (starting in Texas) all the time. You have to recruit your home area, and ours is so strong. And then you identify the guys beyond that you need and go get them.
• (On Thursday night game to start the season) I'd rather have it on the opening game to start the season than any other time. It gives us a couple of extra days of rest before the next one.
• Erik McCoy is a rare talent in that he has size and athleticism to play in the middle and the flexibility to get to the second level. He's also a very smart guy.
• We'll start regular game prep about 7-10 days before the first game.
   

Defensive Coordinator Mike Elko

• It's been a great transition. We've got our family here and gotten settled. College Station and the university community is tremendous. We're excited to be here and get going.
• We're real excited with the group we have. We're starting to settle in on what each does well, settle them into positions. Now as camp starts to wind down, it's exciting to get them where they're best.
• We want to be a fundamentally sound defense. Want to play extremely hard. We want to be very good technically, be good tacklers, be physical. We want to make it difficult for QBs these days in the RPO world to know where the read is and make it difficult for them to execute.
• (At Notre Dame) those kids were very hungry to improve. They bought into how we wanted to play defense. We had some good senior leadership that wasn't happy with how the season before had gone. I think it's very similar here. Kids are hungry to change the impression of where they stand. You've got some very talented seniors in this program excited to leave their mark before they leave.
• Keke to the outside was something we had discussed previously, obviously the injury expedited that a little. When someone goes down, people have to step up. As a group, the defensive line needs to pick up when you lose guys.
• Corner is an ongoing battle. There are a few guys in that mix - Renfro, Oliver, Jones, Fuller, Chattman. Those guys are competing daily, and it's an ongoing evaluation as to where that position is going to go.
• We've played with young secondaries, but we're a pretty experienced group here. We've got more length than I'm used to being around. They're a talented group that's eager to learn. I'm happy with the progress they've made and where they're headed.
• The linebackers are starting now to get comfortable with what we do. The two positions in this defense that are scheme-heavy are linebacker and safety. You're starting to see them utilize their skill sets, showing up, flashing. I'm happy with that group.
• It's extremely exciting and challenging (to be part of the SEC). It's hard to argue that this division isn't the best in college football, so when the opportunity presented itself to come down here and jump into this fire and do it with Coach Fisher, a proven winner who's won a national champtionship, that was real exciting.
• When we dove into looking at Texas A&M, we were just convinced that this place was on the verge of something special. The opportunity to link up with him (Fisher) in a great state in a great conference is what drew me down here.
• I've been asked about the Wrecking Crew quite a bit since I got here. I remember watching RC Slocum's team, watching those defenses run around...all of that vividly. This group has to establish its own identity, not measure itself against the past. If we do that, this fan base will embrace the defense.
• I've visited with Coach Slocum a bit.
   

Offensive Coordinator Darrell Dickey

• Starkel and Mond have both been a pleasure to work with from day one. The offensive style of play has been a huge transition for these guys, and they've attacked it. We couldn't be more pleased with the effort, the attitude of the guys we have in that room. There's competition, there's no doubt.
• This is a pro style offense. The QB is in control of everything going on. Coach Fisher is the best teacher of this style of offense in the country and has been for some time. The QBs are learning how to check running plays, check protections. We've been very pleased with their progress. The guys in our QB room are capable of doing the things that are required in this offense.
• College football is a more offensive game than it used to be. The rules are allowing teams to score more points. This offense makes you defend the entire field, but we're a mixture of some old school philosophies and principles, but Coach Fisher has always been on the forefront of what's happening in college football. In my opinion, he has maintained a "win the game" philosophy. There are a lot of offenses out there putting up huge numbers, but their teams aren't winning. Coach Fisher's offense can move the ball and score the points, but not at the expense of putting the defense in bad positions. That's our style, and it fits the culture we're trying to implement here - the hard-nosed type of play. And our guys have taken to it.
• We're going to run Coach Fisher's offense, and it's a great offense. There are some things I've done in my past, but some of them I stole from him. One of our best running plays he was running back in the LSU days, and I went and visited him for two days and took away one play, and it helped our guys lead the nation in rushing yardage.
• At Memphis, we weren't just a throwing team, we ran well too. There we were a fast break team. Here we want to control the tempo - go fast when we want to go fast, then slow things down when we want to do it. Probably the team that did that best last year was Central Florida.
• Sometimes when you go fast all the time, you live with some bad plays. We don't want to do that. We want to be able to run the best play in every situation. It all goes back to our orginal philisophy - we want to control the tempo of the game, be able to run and throw well, and put ourselves in postion to win as many games as possible.
• As of right now, I believe I'll be upstairs (in the press box) feeding coach information. There were things at Memphis he wanted to talk about, but most of this stuff he's done (at some point in the past). He was familiar with all of these things.
• Coach watches football. He has an unbelievable memory. He'll recall a play (from years ago) and remembers what hash it was on, and we'll pull up the tape and it's exactly what he said.
• I'm honored to be here and learn under him, to be quite honest. It's a good situation.
• We've been pleased with the progress they (OL) have made. They'd rather be physical than sit in pass protection. So I think they enjoy that more, but you have to be able to do both. We want to be physical up front, but we're running more running plays than they have in the past, and our guys like it. Coach Fisher knows the running game as strongly as the passing game. And we've got a fabulous OL coach in Turner. That group has come together as well as any unit on our team. We feel good about those guys.
• I have a spot in my heart for walk-ons. At UNT and Memphis we had a lot of guys that ended up playing. I think those guys are extremely hungry. Etwi is no different. He works every day, he's very intelligent, and he has great football ability. He makes good cuts, and he's powerful. He likes to make his cut and get back vertical.