Texas A&M Football
Jason Cook on Bright renovations, Kyle Field, SEC Network
Key quotes from Jason Cook interview
"I don’t think that there’s any strategic plan that you could have put together that would’ve predicted or positioned us for what we have had the past few years. I always say you always have to prepare yourself for when the door opens for you so that you can walk through it.”
“You look back at the things we have done with the conference move, Kevin Sumlin, Johnny Manziel, oil and gas, SEC Network, Kyle field, you name it. I think it’s just that we have not been sitting back waiting for these things to happen, a lot of them have been out of our control but when these opportunities have presented themselves, Texas A&M has been in a position to maximize those and that’s not going to change.”
“Singing the war hymn, sawing the horns off and that line ‘goodbye to Texas, so long to the orange and the white’ at the initial SEC celebration in the Zone Club took a different meaning for me and this university and that was the signal that we put Texas A&M on a different trajectory.”
"Renovating Bright was a great team effort. I don’t thing that people realize that we broke ground in March and it's already where it is. Kyle Field is a very aggressive construction project but what has happened in Bright has just been transformational in such a short time."
"I want to give a shout out to Clay Taylor, he has really driven the video work within that facility and just did a phenomenal job. He was really an unsung hero on the project.”
"Our core values here at Texas A&M are littered throughout Bright. We're trying to create leaders of character to serve the greater good.”
"We're refocusing on the student athlete. How can we make their experience here first class, not just in the stadium, but in their academic experience, their nutrition experience, and their down time? We’re going to make them as successful as we can, it’s all about them and maximizing their time and experiences here at Texas A&M.”
"We've got 18 hours to be out of the stadium after the LSU game on Thanksgiving night before all of this starts again. That’s one thing I want to make sure people understand is that 2014 is a year of transition the stadium is not complete, we are at the half way mark here. There are still a lot more bells and whistles to come.”
“It is a new stadium in how it’s going to function and how people are going to get to their seats so we're ask for people’s patience. We are going to have a lot of forms of communication coming out to make sure that people get to the right gates and the fastest ways to get to their seats and the Destination Aggieland App is going to be huge.”
"I call it the big myth that we're sold out of season tickets for 2014. I don’t think people realize that just this year we increased the stadium capacity by 28%. So it’s a quarter larger here and a quarter more inventory. The south end zone is going to be a new experience."
"We had respected newspapers running with the maroon turf story. We recommend just calling and asking next time.”
"We're 14 days from launch of the SEC Network. It will be a shame if everyone can't get the SEC Network here in Aggieland and that’s the situation that we are in right now. The biggest advice that I can give to Aggies is continue to ask, continue to engage on social media and let people know that if you don’t get the network this is what’s going to happen."
"I continue to be optimistic with Suddenlink because this is such an A&M town, but at the end of the day there is no contract right now."
"The SEC Network is already the most successful sports network launch in history and that speaks to the power of the SEC, the power of the brand that brings the TV viewers into the marketplace. It’s our next chapter in our move to the SEC."
“It’s never complete in college athletics, the moment that you are satisfied with the status quo you are gong to get passed up. I think a lot of focus is going to be on track and field and softball over the next few months, but I can tell you Kevin Sumlin has a list that we are working on and I think you are seeing the commitment here that we are going to do what it takes to compete at the highest level.”
“I look at it from the whole experience of game day. That tailgating experience is really important.”
"There will be a march-in this season. A little reconfiguring is being done, but they don't need a track to have a march-in and will march in to the stadium."
"We're very close to doing a request for qualifications on the new outdoor track stadium. The ball is definitely moving."
“One thing that ESPN will do is that they are going to package in-game highlights from other SEC games going on around the league and we will be able to feed those up on the video board.”
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