Quotes, Notes & Video: Texas A&M 42, SMU 13

Head Coach Kevin Sumlin

On why he deferred after winning the coin toss…

“You know what, there was some miscommunication. We’ll get that straightened out. There was a little bit more wind from the weather report we had, but we usually take the ball.”

On what he saw from the defense…

“A lot of good things. I think effort was good in a game like that. We had open space. They try to expose you to make you tackle in space and good teams, you watch other teams that play, they’ll be some missed tackles but you have to have good team effort to not expose those missed tackles. I thought our guys ran the ball well. We played a lot of guys. We got some good production out of some of the young guys. We were able to win the turnovers battle.

'Something I know that we have talked about is trying to be in the plus column. I think that last week was the first time all year that weren’t in there. That’s what happens in close games. Our guys are paying attention. As a coach what you look for is are those guys trying to do what you’re asking them to do with effort. That’s where we begin every Sunday during the week with our plan. Here’s the plan but are we trying to execute that to the best of our ability?

"I think we learned some valuable lessons a week ago with doing your job and not trying to do too much. Being gap conscious and sound, I think we can get a little bit more confidence coming out of this game with some of our guys on defense.”

On moving forward, who’s kicking field goals and PATs…

“Programs built on competition. You saw what happened today. We’re going to keep the competition up just like we do at every position. The guys who compete and earn the spot like Lambo came in and did a great job. I took three of his points off the board. He made another field goal and made his extra points so we will continue to compete just like any other position.

"You see that across the board. You saw a freshman playing linebacker this week. That’s what our program is built on and you have to earn the right to step across that white line. We evaluate guys every week no matter what the position so there is going to be competition there.”

On personnel changes with Deshazor Everett and Darian Claiborne…

“We’re going to try to give ourselves the best opportunity to win. We are going to reward guys that we think are giving us the best chances. So whether you have been here five years or five days, if it looks to us like you’re playing at a level that will benefit us and help us win, we’ll give you a chance. I think Darian has been coming on. I have to watch the video but I thought Nate Askew made some plays today too.

"For a lot of those young guys, it’s a different kind of game than it was certainly a week ago. They just lined up and ran it at us but these guys made 62 passes. It’s a completely different football game than we played a week ago. You have different personel out there and you can’t make a general statement about who played. It’s a style that we play that created some personnel changes that I thought Coach Snyder did a great job of getting people on the field that can play in space and handle this type of offensive production.

On Malcome Kennedy…

“After last year, after the Alabama game Malcome’s been that guy. He didn’t do much the first six games last year with Ryan (Swope) being as good as he was. I think ever since the catch at Alabama a year ago, which was a big time play, I think he’s continued to become an every down really good player. He’s been solid for us through the bowl game last year and really had an excellent off-season. He’s playing at high level, blocking well and even made some big plays for us even last week.

"As much publicity as Mike got, which he definitely had an excellent football game. I saw a couple touchdowns that got us back in the game out of Malcome Kennedy right in the middle of the field. He’s doing good job and he’s a real leader for us. I’m really happy for his progress.”

“It’s kind of what we do. We don’t change our routine much. Same routine we use at home we use on the road. Just like a lot of different things, you to try to keep it all the same. Going on the road you try to create own energy. We don’t make a big deal about road trips. It’s part of it.

"As a competitor, the same type of enthusiasm and enjoyment you get from the home crowd from an electricity standpoint, you have to be able to utilize on road and I think our team does a good job of that.”

DC Mark Snyder

On the defensive performance…

“It was good to see. We’re still a work in progress for sure but if we keep seeing improvement every week, I think we’ll be just fine. I saw a lot of improvement this week. We looked fast tonight, sometimes extremely fast. We still have some areas we have to work on, but a much better game from our sideline tonight.”

On the personnel changes in the starting lineup…

“I think we have the right guys on the field right now. We started Darian tonight-he needs to be on the field, he needs to play. He was able to make the adjustment from Will to Mike in a week. Now, with the schematics of it, this was the perfect time to do it because they had four-wide most of the time. I was really proud of him. He brings a lot of energy; a lot like Steven Jenkins, and I was very happy with that.

"We felt like Deshazor is an eraser, and he was unselfish enough to go back to safety for us tonight. We felt like that was just the best personnel grouping to put on the field until we get Floyd back, so we had to put seven at corner and Deshazor at safety. The great thing about Deshazor I this: whether he’s at corner or safety, he’s an eraser, a great football player and I appreciate him for that.”

On what area of the defense showed the most improvement…

“Just overall communication and intensity. We showed them a lot of looks which was great to see again. We made some adjustments at half time that we didn’t even work on in practice, but because the guys were all together again, we were able to do that.”

OL Cedric Ogbuehi

On the offensive line's performance…

“Today we did well. We saw the youth with Mike and GI with the penalties, but I’m glad they kept fighting and kept playing hard. You saw how good we can be when we play balanced.”

On penalties…

“You can say youth, because they are young, you can say dumb plays.  We just need to get it fixed for next week.  I think we came out really well and with a lot of fire. I think that the penalties were just mental mistakes and had nothing to do with last weeks game.”

RB Ben Malena

On dominating performance…

“It felt really good. Here at A&M we want to play to a standard and I think we did a really good job of that starting out fast on the offensive side of the ball. With keeping the tempo up for the game, it was a pretty good dominating performance that we needed.”

On Malcome Kennedy…

“Malcome Kennedy is actually getting a chance to show what he can do. He is so versatile and has really good strength. He had a big game last week with three touchdowns. This week he had six catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. For Malcome Kennedy that’s what you can expect he is very consistent.  On the practice field he gives 100 percent effort all the time. He is a very consistent guy.”

On away game mindset…

“Last year going undefeated on the road really showed the attitude that Coach Sumlin brought to this university. I think next week going on the road versus Arkansas I don’t see any reason why that would change. We have a huge task on our hands with an SEC West opponent. We are going to go in there with the same attitude that we’ve had for the first four weeks of the season and we are looking to come out with a win.”

On high offensive scoring…

“Its year two in this system. This offense gives us the flexibility to do numerous things with the ball, especially having the quarterback that we do. With his accuracy passing the ball and the corps of running backs and receivers that we have on this offense, it gives us multiple answers to whatever a defense plays. I think it is a reflection on our work ethic and on the mindset we have in practice to get first down conversions and to convert on third down and try to be 100 percent in the red zone.”

DB Toney Hurd, Jr.

On moving Deshazor Everett to safety…

“I felt like he brought a lot of energy. He is a really smart player.  He came down and made a lot of good tackles for us and was flying to the ball on each and every play. He is just really coachable, making a transition from corner to safety and it has a great impact on our defense and I think he did really well this game.”

On Darian Claiborne…

“He is young but one thing about him is that he is not afraid to play fast and make plays. He runs sideline to sideline really well and he is a young guy but he is making a lot of plays for us.  Coach Snyder took a chance but it looks like it paid off. “

On confidence from the win…

“It was great for us to go out and play well. We don’t take any one lightly; each and every game is a big game for us. It was great for our dense to put a good showing for us tonight.”

DL Julien Obioha

On the performance of the defense…

“I think we came out and played well today. We executed the defense; we gave them a couple explosive plays but not too many. We just played well tonight.

On the pass rush tonight…

“We didn’t bring down SMU Quarterback Garrett Gilbert too much but we got some good looks, good pass rush and getting good pressure on him. We’re progressing as a D-line and I think that throughout the season we’ll increase the sack and pressure numbers.”

WR Malcome Kennedy

On his role in the offense…

“I try to be a go-to guy. I know Johnny likes to throw to Mike a lot, but we have an inside game with the slot receivers. I’m trying to be a third down warrior and a sure-handed man.”

On his chemistry with quarterback Johnny Manziel…

“Johnny and I have really been developing our chemistry since the catch at Alabama [last year]. He’s been putting a lot of trust in me and I’m just trying to catch everything he throws my way. All throughout fall camp and this year he’s been looking towards me to hit me as a moving target. I really believe that were on the same page now.”

DB Deshazor Everett

On the week preparing to play safety and how he did tonight…

“This week wasn’t very different, it was actually pretty simple. Coach runs our offense against us, so I see the spread formation a lot and I know what the safeties check to me when I’m at corner, so going to safety was more just like: ‘What would I want to be told when I’m playing corner?’ It actually helped me coming from corner because I know where the corner’s supposed to be and where I shouldn’t be as a corner when the safety helps.”

“It feels great. Everything was clicking. It was mostly due to better communication; having the same group in practice all week and translating it to the game, the game felt just like practice. It was easy to go out there and play fast and make plays tonight.”

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Head Coach June Jones

On the penalties...

"We didn't handle the crowd noise very well. [Texas] A&M was calling out our signals. You have to accomodate and deal with the crowd noise. We did not handle it very well. We had seven or eight offside penalties that set us back. It is frustrating."

On quarterback Garrett Gilbert...

"He is very competitive. We had a few critical drops. We kept a few drives going, and made a couple positive plays. Garrett did a really good job of competing and fighting through adversity."

On Keenan Holman...

"He had played some good games. He made some plays tonight. This was a product of what the defense gave us.

On Kyle Field...

"Even from the opening kickoff we had a young kid make a mental error that set us back. We moved the ball a little bit, but dropped a ball that would have kept the drive going. It is unfortunate we didnt play our best. Our best was demanded if we were going to beat A&M, and we didn't do it."

On Manziel...

"We tried everything against [Johnny] Manziel. He is an amazing player. You blitz him, and he is accurate with the ball. You rush three, and he can scramble around. He is a great college football player, and he is in the perfect system.

QB Garrett Gilbert

Thoughts on the game...

"We played a very good team. We would have had to play very well to beat A&M, and we didn't get that done. We let A&M jump out in front of us and we had to play catch up. Offensively we didn't do enough. A&M has a very good offense and defense. There are going to be times were we have to get ourselves in a shootout and we didn't do that tonight."

On building on this game...

"I was proud of our guys for continuing to fight the whole game, even when things were not going our way. We'll take a look at film tomorrow and get better."

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Post-game notes

About the win

• The No. 10 Aggies improved to 3-1 with tonight’s 42-13 win over SMU.
• The win closed out a four-game season-opening homestand. The Aggies head to Fayetteville next Saturday for the first time since 1990 for their first road game of the 2013 season.
• It was the 49th win of Kevin Sumlin’s career as a head coach (sixth season).
• It was A&M’s fifth straight win over SMU dating back to 1994’s 21-21 tie in the Alamodome.
• The win improved A&M’s record against SMU to 44-29-7.
• Tonight’s win was the Aggies’ third against non-conference schools from the state of Texas. A&M hasn’t lost at Kyle Field to a Texas non-conference school since 1954.

Scoring record
The Aggies scored 42 points against SMU, giving them 40-plus scoring efforts in each of their first four games of 2013, which had never been accomplished in school history.

Sellouts record
Tonight’s crowd of 86,542 was the 18th straight sellout at Kyle Field, which is a school record.

Johnny stuff

• Sophomore QB Johnny Manziel generated 346 total yards and three touchdowns with 246 passing and 102 rushing.
• Manziel now has at least one rushing and passing TD in 11 of 17 career games.
• It was the seventh time in Manziel’s 17-game career that he’s passed for 200+ and rushed for 100+ in a game.
• Manziel had a pair of seven-yard rushing TDs against SMU, which tie for the Aggies’ longest TD rush of the season.
• Responsible for three TDs against SMU (two via rush, one via pass), Manziel surpassed the 60-TD plateau in touchdown responsibility and now has 62 for his career.
• According to ESPN Stats and Info, Manziel has nine career games with at least 200 passing yards, one passing TD and one rushing TD, which is the most by any player in NCAA FBS since the beginning of 2012.

Notables

• The 46-yard catch by sophomore WR Mike Evans was his ninth 30-plus yard catch of the season.
• Evans finished the game with two catches for 57 yards, marking the first time that he’s not had at least four catches in a game during his career.
• Junior PK Josh Lambo booted his first career FG with a 40-yarder in the third quarter. Lambo, a walkon, was a first-round draft pick of FC Dallas in the 2008 Major League Soccer SuperDraft as a goalie.
• Senior DB Tramain Jacobs led the team with 10 tackles, including eight solo stops. He is the fifth different player to lead the Aggies in tackles this season. The others were: Darian Claiborne (11 vs. Rice), Howard Matthews and Clay Honeycutt (7 vs. SHSU) and Steven Jenkins (13 vs. Alabama).

12th Man, Polo, game captains

• For the fourth straight game, sophomore defensive back Sam Moeller (pronounced Miller) was the 12th Man.
• Wearing the #90 jersey in memory of fallen teammate Polo Manukainiu was sophmore DE Julien Obioha (normally wears #95). Manukainiu died in a tragic car accident last summer.
• The Aggies’ permanent team captains of seniors Ben Malena, Toney Hurd Jr. and Jake Matthews won the toss, and deferred to the second half.