Price, Christensen, Moorehead discuss 2015 class on signing day

Quotes from Terry Price

On Daylon Mack’s re-commitment…

“Yes, it’s a big, big piece of the puzzle right there. Probably our biggest need was just size, strength, just talent inside at the defensive tackle position. I thought we had a pretty good group last year of defensive ends, and a lot of them, obviously, helped in a variety of ways. Some ended up starting for us. Some ended up playing for us, but I felt good about our haul last year at that position. This year we definitely needed the help, size, strength, and just need to get bigger, stronger bodies inside. Obviously, he’s the best in the state – best in the country – and we’re glad he’s coming to Aggieland.”

On attributes that separate Mack from most players…

“He has what you call quick-twitch. He’s extremely quick off the ball. His first two or three steps on the snap are very, very fast, but he also anticipates the snap very, very well. So, part of that is vision and anticipation, and part of that is physically being able to move extremely fast for a 325-pounder. Those combinations of things, along with him being a really sharp guy, a smart guy – I think a lot of people don’t realize he’s taken a lot of college credits at Gladewater High School. He has an almost 30 credit jump-start. So, I mean, he’s going to be way ahead when he gets here. So, he’s a smart guy, on top of being a tremendous athlete and a very quick athlete, as well, for a big man.”

“Being a former player here, I’ve followed the history and know how important that was. It’s one of the things we talk about, as a staff. We had to start building our talent there first. That’s the most important place in the defense to build talent, and I think this class, along with last year’s class, is really helping us take a big, big step forward. When I was here under Coach Slocum, Coach Sherrill, we had D-linemen. The first group was an NFL group, and their back-ups were future NFL guys. I mean, that’s how talented we were. So, we’re trying to get that same type of depth built up where we have great players behind great players, and that’s when you can play great defense in this league.”

On Kingsley Keke…

Kingsley is another guy that’s a big-body guy. He brings length to the position. I mean, he’s 308 pounds. He’s 6’4”, very, very athletic. He brings size and length to that position that we really, really need. On top of that, he’s a great kid. He plays hard, physical at the point of attack. He still, obviously, has a little bit to learn, as far as the game is concerned, but – I tell you what – his upside is absolutely tremendous. Like I said, he was recruited nationwide. I’m glad he’s calling Aggieland home. He’s a guy that will fit in well, and a guy that we’re very, very excited about.”

On James Lockhart…

“James Lockhart – you know, one of the best defensive ends in the country – he’s a winner. He’s a guy that won a state championship. He played well along the stretch. I watched him play two or three times this year, and didn’t just love his skill set, but loved the heart he played with. He’s a high-motor, high-effort guy – you know, some of the guys that Coach Chavis prides himself on, defensively. He’s a big believer in that, and I think he’ll fit very, very well into a scheme that we’re going to jump into.”

On his relationship with John Chavis…

“He’s one of those guys that have been in the SEC, now 20 years, and he’s one of those guys that I’ve followed over time. There’s not a defensive coordinator that you, probably, respect more, as far as what he’s done in this league. He’s one of the best defensive minds, maybe the best defensive mind, to ever come through this league. Wherever he’s been, he’s had success. I remember playing against his teams when he was at Tennessee back in the ‘90s, the early 2000s, and even in the last six or seven years when he’s been at LSU. He’s always fielded tremendous defenses; defenses that were very, very aggressive, that were very, very productive. It’s been an honor to have a chance to work with him the last few weeks, and we’re looking forward to some bright things here in the future.”

“Like I said, the more talent, the better we are up-front. Everything on defense starts there. The more players we get and the more players we get at that position, the better we’re going to be. Not only that, but we’ve added some size to our interior, as well. That was really, really necessary. Daylon Mack is almost 330 pounds. Keke’s probably 310, and by the time he gets here, there’s no telling how big he may be. He’s a big, athletic guy. Adding that size, along with depth, is really going to help us, especially at the D-tackle position.”

Quotes from Dave Christensen

On his time in Aggieland so far…

“So far, so good. It was a great day to be an Aggie today. I know we improved drastically with some great talent today.”

On his run-game philosophy…

“From the onset of when I first met with these guys, it’s a mind-set of what we want to be from a physical standpoint up-front. People say you can’t be a physical group up-front if you run a spread offense – and I’ve been involved in a spread offense now for about 10 years – and I disagree with that wholeheartedly. We want to be extremely physical up-front. We don’t want to be catchers, we want to be attackers. It’s just a mind-set of finishing blocks, understanding how to establish leverage on the defender, and then finish that guy off. It’s an approach we take on a daily basis. We’re going to talk about it with these guys every chance we get, when I see them. It’s going to be demanded that we play at a high physical level.”

On choosing to coach at Texas A&M…

“That’s real simple. I’ve been in coaching now for 32 years. I’ve never been in a situation where I had an opportunity to recruit the best players in the country or had an opportunity to coach the best players in the country and where I was at a place that I felt we had an opportunity to compete for a national title, and that’s what I want to get done before my career ends. It was an easy choice. I didn’t have to think twice about it. Automatically, it was a done deal when Kevin offered me an opportunity to come here. I couldn’t be happier. It’s a great place to live. My wife loves it here. We’ve got everything we need to be successful and compete at the highest level.”

“Great players, and as I said, we have to opportunity to recruit the best in the country. We certainly got a number of those guys. I feel really good about the guys we signed up front. The first thing I did when coach offered me the job, I got on my computer, pulled all of them up, and studied how they played. They’re physical. They’re smart. They’re tenacious and very athletic. We don’t want road graders; we want thoroughbreds that are physical up-front and can move and get on people, and I think we got four really good ones.”

On Connor Lanfear…

“He is, maybe, one of the best finishers I’ve ever seen for a high school lineman. He has a nasty attitude, which I like. He finishes blocks, loves to take people to the ground, and he’s just a real, real, aggressive, tough, mature individual.”

On Keaton Sutherland…

“Great upside. The first thing I noticed watching his high school film was that he’s extremely athletic. He’s not on the ground a lot. He’s got great feat, can move them. He’s 300 pounds right now. He brings in some natural strength already. He’ll continue to get stronger. He’s getting a six-month advantage by being here right now. From a size and a physical standpoint, he’s close to being able to contribute.”

On Trevor Elbert…

“Getting here late, not knowing everything about these guys, I sat down to visit with him a few weeks ago. He was telling me he had offers from Alabama and Texas and Ohio State and a number of great places. Again, being able to get and attract those kinds of players to come here, he’s got a huge upside also. You know he missed that senior year. He missed some time, but he’s big. He’s physical. He’s athletic, and I think that he’s got a huge upside to him.”

On Erik McCoy…

“Well, you’re right on the ‘smart’ part. He’s in the top 10 percent of his class, and so you know he’s very intelligent. I like his athleticism. He’s also a starter on the basketball team there. He’s got size to where he can play a number of spots, probably playing inside for us. You know we’re going to start him out at center. He’s got a chance to play some guard, and possibly some tackle at some point in time.”

On the offensive line talent on campus…

“I had a chance to meet with them a little bit. I’ve studied film on them, had a chance to see them play from last year. I’ve been in the weight room with them, watching them work out in there, run a little bit. So, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what we have coming back, and again, I think we have some really good talent there, and with the class that we signed, you’re starting to create really good depth. The thing that we want to continue to sell is that this is the place that you want to go if you want to be an NFL offensive lineman. We’re going to have guys drafted in the first round. There’s been a number of them, and there’s going to be a number more coming.”

On the running back situation…

“Big, powerful, speed. Guys that have different skillsets – I feel good about them. I was at the bowl game, had a chance to watch them in person. Certainly, we have the guys that can run the football. You want to have guys that run physical. They don’t all have to be 240-pound guys, but when they do run the ball, you want them to be physical when contact happens. We’ve got backs that are physical.”

Quotes from Aaron Moorehead

On his first signing day in Aggieland…

“It’s been great. We’ve got some great additions to this football team. It’s the same thing Coach Christensen said: you’re here to win a national championship. We’ve got pieces today to put yourself in a position for that to be a reality here very soon. We’ve got to keep doing a good job for the next couple years, but we have a team now that’s going to put us in contention. That’s a big deal.”

On Kevin Sumlin’s hiring process…

“Long story short, a guy that I worked with that used to work here that worked for Coach Sumlin gave me a call and said that they were looking for a receivers coach and wanted to interview me. I was at home, and so I made the decision to interview. I really just met with Coach Sumlin and met with Coach Spav. It clicked right away, and I think we all kind of saw that and understood that. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to get the job – actually I was on the road recruiting for Virginia Tech – and I got the call and went on home and got on out. It was pretty simple.”

On Christian Kirk…

“I think that, you know, being here only for a couple weeks, I had to really get to know not only the guys that were on campus, but these recruits we were trying to get. Obviously, Christian’s the guy that everyone’s going to talk about being the highly rated guy, but when you watch him play and you get to know the kid, you see why everybody has such high regard for him. He’s a great person. He’s got a great family, and then you look at what he does as on the football field, not only as an offensive player, but you watch him play defense, and he’s really good on defense. You watch him return kicks, and he’s really good at returning kicks. To me, he’s a versatile guy, and those guys are generally smart. You talk to the kid, and he really gets it. That’s awesome. He’s going to be a special player for this place, and I’m excited to have him. Me and his mom grew up in town next to each other, so that always helps his cause a little bit.”

On Christian Kirk’s role…

“The guys say he’s working hard in the weight room, and he’s pushing the older guys already. That’s what you love to see from your young players. He’s going to be a guy that’s going to be a leader in my room really soon. I just have that feeling. He’s got that natural ‘it’ that guys want to follow. I’m not saying that he needs to be a leader as a true freshman, but it’ll happen here, sooner or later. I’m excited about him.”

On Damien Ratley…

“I tell you what, this guy might be one of the biggest steals of this class. You watch him run around, you watch him catch, and he reminds me of Reggie Wayne. That’s big praise. It’s the way he has ‘pluck’ hands, and he’s not a body catcher. He runs through the catches and just continues on his route in his effort to score touchdowns. Those little things that you can’t teach, he has. I’m able just to tweak little things that he does and get him better. He’s a big-time player that reminds me a little bit of kind of the situation that happened with Josh Reynolds. He just wasn’t a highly touted guy out of high school, goes to junior college and flourishes. Then, all of a sudden, you’re looking at a big-time player. Those guys – and I had a chance to talk with Josh a little bit – they keep a chip on their shoulder, because they don’t forget that you didn’t recruit them out of high school, now. You’re glad you’ve got them now.”

On Kemah Siverand…

You look at Kemah – and everybody talks about these other guys and who we didn’t get and all these things – and we kind of looked at Kemah running track the other day. You’re sitting at the high school and you’re going, ‘We’re going to be really glad, in a couple of years, that we got this kid.’ All he does is work hard. He’s a ‘yes sir, no sir’ kid. He catches the football well. He runs well. He’s put together well. He’s going to be a guy that’s going to provide great depth as a young guy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw him getting out there and doing some really special things.”

“I think the first thing you want to look at – especially being in the SEC – is: What is your playmaking ability? What can you do? You’ve got to be able to catch a football. You’ve got to be able to run with the football. I was a Big 10 guy. There’re all these different possession receivers and all that. This is a different world down here. You’ve got to be able to catch and run. Points are at a premium. I think when you’re going against the defenses you’re going to be going against – week in and week out – you need to score touchdowns. Field goals aren’t good enough, and we understand that. That’s a lot of the reason I came here. I understood what this offense was about. It’s score a bunch of points. I hadn’t been around that in a long time, throwing the football.

We scored a bunch of points at Stanford, but we had 17 offensive linemen on the field and 12 tailbacks and we were running the ball. It was tough for the receivers, but I tell you, I’m excited about that. You look at the guys in the room, and they have a lot of those abilities. Catching the football’s got to be improved. I watched some of the games last year, watched some of the practices, (and we had) too many drops. We’ve got to take care of that, first and foremost. That’s our job. You’re here to catch the ball. That’s what we’ve got to do. That’s what we’ve got to continue to get better at.

Then you look at just their overall movement. I like to see certain movements, and if you don’t see those movements off of the tape, it’s really hard for me to fall in love with you as a player. So, that’s kind of what you’re looking at. Playmaking ability, ability to catch the football, which kind of go hand-in-hand, and then, obviously, kind of: What’s your movement? What’s your skillset? Does your skillset compute to what we’re trying to do? If all those answers are ‘yes’, then move full-speed ahead.

On Speedy Noil…

“Speedy’s got a lot of natural ability. I think when you just watch him, he’s a big, strong guy that really can be a force with the ball in his hand. You’ve got to love that about him. He played quarterback in high school. He’s not as polished as you’d like him to be right now, but he’s got all the ability. Guys say he works hard. I’m just really looking forward to getting my hands on him, and, being a technique guy, that’s probably my biggest attribute.

I’m great at technique and kind of understanding that what’s going to help Speedy is not always going to help Josh, and what’s going to help Josh isn’t going to help Ricky. You’ve got to understand that different guys do different things. Speedy’s got some things that he does naturally really well and then there’re other things that he’s got to get cleaned up. So, I’m excited to get my hands on him a little bit and just kind of polish up some things. Then at the end of the day, you let your natural ability take over. That’s when you’ve got a superstar.”

On the receiving weapons on campus…

“You’re glad they’re not playing defensive end over there. I think Coach Price would might take those guys, with how big they are. It’s fun. I think Ricky and Frank, both of those guys, have a lot of ability. When you watch their movements and you look at them, you just say, ‘Man, these guys are going to be unbelievable once they get this thing figured out.’ It’s my job to push them and my job to really look and figure out how to get the best out of those guys every single day. Both of those guys have a lot of ability.

You’ve got some different pieces that are going to fit into that puzzle. Guys are going to have to come in and compete every day. When you have 7, 8, 9, 10 receivers that can all play, there’s no days off, because if you take a day off, someone’s taking your reps. It doesn’t matter what you did, it’s what you’re doing moving forward. Those guys are all eager to get out there and start playing again. Spring ball’s right around the corner, guys. It’s going to be an exciting time.”

On working under many successful coaches…

“I always say, ‘things happen for a reason,’ and I truly do believe that. There are certain people that are placed in your life at certain times, and I think, being a young guy and a young coach, I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of really special people. Then there’re guys you’re going to learn from in other ways. Maybe this guy did some things you didn’t like that you won’t take with you, but he did do some things that you’re absolutely going to take with you. Those were the head coaches, but there’re a lot of assistant coaches that are great people that taught me a lot of things.

You look at the guys that I’ve been blessed to be around that really all have different styles, and you can kind of take a piece of this guy and a piece of that guy and a piece of that guy and make it your own. It’s been pretty neat. All four of those guys (Shaw, Harbaugh, Beamer, and Sumlin) have been big pieces of college football, Coach Beamer for 30 years and others more recently. It’s a good deal, and as long as you’re continuing to learn, I think, as a young coach, you’re going to be continuing to move forward. As soon as you think you know it all, you’re done. I think that’s a mistake that young coaches make. They think they’ve got all the answers and don’t want to continue to learn. I’ve taken that piece of advice early on, and kind of rolled with it.”

On his first impressions of Kevin Sumlin…

“He reminds me a lot of Coach (David) Shaw. They kind of have a lot of the same personality when they’re recruiting. Just the way they talk to the kids and the way they talk to the parents, you can hear the similarities in a lot of the ways that they do that. Obviously, both places have had great recruiting success. It’s just exciting for me to sit there and learn, even recruiting. You have to continue to learn. You have to continue to adapt to what these guys are doing and what our message is. That’s kind of been the fun thing about being here for a couple weeks.

I’ve been able to talk to these guys and talk about myself, but I want to hear more about how Coach Spav recruits and how Coach Price recruits and how Coach Sumlin recruits and how Coach Christensen recruits. You take pieces of all those guys, and you can put out a message that’s, obviously, been pretty good here for a long time. Obviously, with Coach Chavis being at LSU and taking some of those things that he’s been able to learn over there recruiting-wise, I’m just excited to be a part of this staff. If you look out at what the possibilities are, I think they’re endless this year.