Jamie Morrison's Aggies are just 15 days away from 2024 season opener

Texas A&M volleyball will hold a Maroon & White Scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at Reed Arena as the Ags prepare for their 2024 season opener on Aug. 30. On Thursday, head coach Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs Radio to offer a preview ahead of his second year in Aggieland.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• I think every year has its new beginnings, and I’m excited and nervous about the season. You think you have the right combination of athletes and other things, but the awesome thing about sports is you get to test that out in the field of battle.
   
• Talent takes time. Patience is not one of my virtues. I like to force a square peg into a round hole and make sure we win in some way, shape or form. I think we have the right people here, and we are working the right way. I’m excited to see what happens this year.
   
• The NORCECA Championship was an awesome competition. I told the girls that my goal was not to win a gold medal but to train them and prepare them from day one for what it looks like on the national team. They were great representatives of the United States, and they were proud to wear the flag on their chests. They were doing it right.
   
• You only get 10 days to prepare a team to play internationally. You just have to dial your team on the things that are really important. For me, over the summer, I got to play around with different ways to teach the game and then come back here with the ones that worked. Coaching is just like playing because you need to get repetitions to get good at it.
   
• I talked to our team yesterday, and one of my superpowers is when we are here, I am here. I was gone a lot this summer, and we talked about this idea of 51 and 49 percent. If this is truly your priority, you make the decisions that you believe in. This summer was rewarding, and I think it really benefits us. I will say this: We have one of the best coaching staffs in the country at Texas A&M. I have a lot of gratitude for those people.
   
• We have six additions and some new outside hitters. We got a freshman in Amaré Hernandez, who we found at camp. It turned out she was an amazing human being and extremely athletic. I don’t think she fully realizes how good she can be. Emily Hellmuth came to us from Pepperdine. She’s 6-foot-3 and an outside hitter. Taylor Humphrey is another girl who is 6-foor-3, and her ability is special.
   
• Ellee Stinson came to us from Northwestern, and defense is her superpower. Tatum Thomas came to us from Grand Canyon, and she has a high defensive motor. She just gets after it. Maddie Waak came to us from LSU, and she has the ability to run the offense. She is really talented, and she gets it done. She finds ways to win. I’m excited about these additions.
   
• One of the things I find with teams is once you have found an example of what a team should look like, you can get through it quickly. Culturally, there is a way we should act. I think people are picking up on things faster, and by day six of practice, everything looked a lot cleaner.
   
• We have the Maroon & White Scrimmage on Saturday, so I’m excited to get them out there. It’s always different when you put on a uniform. Then we head up to Baylor. Now it’s always different when you’re going against someone in a different uniform. Excited for the world to see the work that our athletes put in over the spring and summer.
   
• On Sept. 27, we are going to be the first team to play Texas in the SEC. I saw Texas and Oklahoma coming. Adding them in just adds credibility. Three out of the last four national champions have come from the SEC. Two from Texas and one from Kentucky. The goal is to make the SEC the best volleyball conference in the country. I want it to be the place where everyone knows that you are grinding every single day. I'm excited about what’s coming in the long-term future, but it is going to be a grind this year.
   
• I really believe that the SEC can be the best volleyball conference in the country, and it is going to take everyone in that head coaches’ room to get some more unity. I think it is a positive thing, and I think we are pushing towards that.
   
• I don’t think you can be too forward-thinking about the future of volleyball in the conference. You have to stay nimble, but you can have some plans of where you want the sport to sit from a popularity standpoint. I think it has to be a combination of the two.