Malcome Kennedy reflects on 2014 Arkansas win, looks at Saturday's game

Key notes from Malcome Kennedy interview

• I still keep track of those guys that I played with. There’s a couple of guys I watch in the league. Like Mike Evans and Von Miller. I was really hoping Swope would get that second chance, but obviously, that didn’t happen because of injuries and concussions. But it is always a pleasure to watch those guys play.
   
• I think it comes down to what the Aggies want in this day and age. I think guys need to understand that you’re a young role model to your team. It doesn’t matter who is coaching or who is playing—you have to want to win. In the SEC, everybody is tough, and everybody has talent. What are you doing with it? How much do you care? Are you staying away from negatives, from social media? Are you focusing on what you need to do? That’s so important. But they have to want to do it. We’re a great team. We hung in there with Clemson when we were not playing well and hung in there with Auburn when we were also not playing well. We could have won those games, but now we have to change that narrative.
   
• That leadership quality started in high school for me. The thing that Coach Sherman did was recruit guys based on their morals and values and not so much on what kind of stars and ratings they had. He was good at selecting guys based on their character and leadership.
   
• You had guys like Spencer Neely, Dustin Harris, Von Miller, and Ryan Swope on the team. They didn’t care about their position being taken. They shared the knowledge and held us accountable for mistakes. They passed that to us. I felt like I could speak more as the years went on. As I got older and we had Coach Sumlin, he helped us pass that down to other players.
   
• I love watching Jhamon Ausbon. I’ve listened to his interviews and tapes from high school. He’s a phenomenal guy. You need guys like him and need him to be that motivator. Kids in college get wrapped up in not wanting to say anything, but that accountability factor goes a long way. You have to have that maturity factor when it's wrong to say, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and get it right.’ Jhamon needs to spread that leadership and challenge others to do the same.
   
• For the Arkansas game, just knowing the venue you’re in is crazy. Knowing the kind of crowd that’s there and knowing that Jerry Jones was Arkansas Razorback—it’s a tough atmosphere.
   
• I’m sure it’ll be interesting for the guys playing against Starkel. I never was in that situation, but times change, and people change. When you recruit a five-star guy, if they don’t play immediately or something doesn’t go their way, it gets tough. Especially at that quarterback position, you want to get to the league, and you’ve got to do what you got to do. But it would have been a little different to play Kenny Hill.
   
• I think you guys know it all about the Arkansas game in 2014. I separated my shoulder and came back in. I thought that was an all-time moment and wanted to show heart. I loved it. I think you guys saw it all.