A football conversation with Gene Stallings

Gene Stallings talks Ags, SEC, '67 and more

On the conference move in general…

“Well listen, I’m happy to be here and the Aggies have got to be excited about the inaugural season for them in the Southeastern Conference. They have a coach that is relatively new and a quarterback that hasn’t played much. They’re coming into the lion’s den, and you know what? I think they’ll do us a good job.”

On the Aggies' path to the SEC…

“To review the bidding, they were first talking about going to the Pac-10. I was on the Board (of Regents) at the time and I didn’t think that Texas A&M had anything in common with the people of the west coast. If we were going to move, I wanted to keep the league intact if we could, I thought that we should pursue the Southeastern Conference. It’s by far the best football conference in America. Period. Anyway, eventually it happened and I was not on the Board when it did happen, but I followed it very closely.”

On what it will take for A&M to have a successful season…

“The key to anybody’s season is staying healthy. You’ve got to stay healthy. You’ve got a new coach and a new quarterback. … One of the things the A&M people have got to realize is that it takes a while. You think about opening up your first league game against Florida who has won the national championship and has players, and then playing five or six teams that have won the national championship. At A&M, we’re still talking about our 1939 team. We’re going to be OK, but it’s going to take a while.”

On the toughness of the SEC…

“You talk about playing the LSUs and the Tennessees and the Alabamas, what a great league that is.”

On Kevin Sumlin taking the reins of the A&M program…

“It all sounds good to me. I visited with him one time, but as far as knowing him, I don’t. As far as pulling for him, I am. We’ve got a new athletic director (Eric Hyman) that I haven’t heard anything but good reports about. I talked to Steve Spurrier and some people that are familiar with South Carolina, so I think things are really headed in the right direction. I thought Mike Sherman did us a pretty good job, but Mike isn’t there, so we’re doing everything we can to support the present coach.”

On what it takes to be successful in the SEC…

“First of all, you have to play hard. I told the people there that you have to wear long britches in this league. This is a grown man’s league. A&M is a good football team. If you look at the people they played last year, they were in all of them at one time or another. The Texas game was sort of a pivotal game, and you can always debate calls from time to time. If they just play hard, play as a unit, they’re going to be fine. You’ve got to have expectations, but you have to be realistic, too. You can’t hurt your team as a coach. You know, sometimes coaches hurt their team. We’ve got to help our team.”

On the matchup against Florida in week two…

“It’s only a big game if we win it. If we lose it, it’s not that big of a game, it’s just the first game in the SEC. If we can win that game, it would really be something to build on.”

On the Aggies coming to Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium in November…

“It’s going to be a great event. You can’t imagine the support. Now, A&M supports their football team, no question about that. But there will be 100,000 people at the game and 50,000 people outside that can’t get in just milling around. When they play that ‘Yea Alabama’, they get excited, but they handle it with dignity. I’ve never seen them do anything to the opposing team other than show respect. It’ll be a good place to A&M to come to, but it will also be a good place for Alabama to go to when they go to A&M.”

On the magic of the 1967 season…

“Well, we were fortunate. I was just so pleased with the players because the game is for the players and not the coach. Sometimes we get caught up thinking it’s all about us. Those were life changing experiences for a lot of those players when they worked hard and all of a sudden they started smelling the roses as they won the next game, and the next game. The reason I wanted to play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl is because I wanted the players to be exposed to Coach Bryant a little. We played exceptionally well.”

On SEC Beachfest…

“It’s sort of kicking off the season. It’s a beautiful place to go for a vacation. The sand is pretty, the water is pretty and the people in that area love for the visitors to come down. There are going to be a lot of present coaches, R.C. Slocum will be there along with a lot of former coaches as well. Nick Saban will be there visiting with the people. There will be a little coaching clinic for the little ones. If you like to play golf, there are going to be some scrambles. The nightlife will be some entertainment with some outstanding musical groups. It’s just going to be a fun couple of days.”