Texas A&M Football
* He will be speaking Friday at a sports medicine seminar put on by the Huffines Institute on campus, along with some of the biggest names in sports medicine, about sports medicine from a student-athlete’s perspective. They want to get into the mind of the people they are working with, and since he has had multiple surgeries and multiple rehab stints due to playing football, he was a prime candidate for speaking at this event. He will be focusing on the things he went through during those surgeries and hopefully the practitioners in attendance will find his information useful.
* After thinking through things and deciding that his body would not be able to take the toll of training for a shot in the NFL, he has decided to pursue a coaching career and will be serving as a graduate assistant under former A&M defensive coordinator and current Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter out in California. He never thought that he would become so entwined with DeRuyter and is anxious to get out there and start working. There will be a lot of coaching opportunities for him under Coach Toth which is a graduate assistant’s dream. He is hoping that he can step up and go beyond the normal graduate assistant role and make an impact with the team.
* The most special part for him of the 2010 season was his ability to help the team win a bunch of games. That team only had one guy drafted which goes to show that they truly were a team, and that it wasn’t a few all-stars here or there pulling the load for everyone else.
* He’s finding out that with every year that goes by, former players want more-and-more to come back and be a part of the program because they miss their playing days so much. He can’t stress enough how much he cherishes his time in Aggieland. It was a hard road to get to A&M, but once he was there, there was not a doubt in his mind that it was the right place for him.
* His high school coaches were really important to his development, and he was lucky to have coaches, both in high school and at A&M, that he could learn something new from every day. As a sophomore in high school he was told by the coaches that he was going to be put on the junior varsity squad. He didn’t like that and told them that he was going to be a defensive starter which he ended up being. He had a similar instance with at A&M with Coach Kines after his first knee blowout. Coach Kines told him that this was the time to start doing better or else they would have to let him go, and he replied that he would quit football if he wasn’t contributing by spring. He was able to build a strong relationship with the coaches which he thinks was key to having success on the field during games.
* There was an interesting dynamic between him and Von Miller because they had totally different roles on the team, but were both looked up to by other guys on the team. He was working with the strength staff during the 2011 season, so he saw the guys every week and was at every home game. Seeing that team fall the way they did was one of the most disheartening things he has seen in his entire life. He’s not sure exactly what happened last year, but it was as if the team finally had the whole puzzle together and the center piece was missing and could never be found. The team built up a swagger in 2010 which made those first two losses in 2011 so demoralizing and damaging to them. This shows how important scheduling can be, because not having those two losses back to back would have set a completely different tone for the year. The style in which those games were lost made people start questioning themselves, and when you start having confidence issues as a defense nothing good will happen. When you go back and look at how those games were lost you can see that the season could have been completely different had they won at least one of the first two real tests of the year.
*He’s learning that the coaching world is a crazy business and that it’s hard to get into, and it’s hard to stay once you’re there. Part of what makes A&M so great is that expectations are so high for the football program. The fans are passionate and want to have a successful team which is part of the reason why he loves A&M.
* He started hearing rumors about Coach Sherman possibly being fired, so he was not completely blindsided when it actually happened. He’s close with Sherman and is passionate about what he did for Texas A&M. He thinks people need to appreciate the talent level on the team now and what he has given Coach Sumlin to work with. The players now on campus are willing to jump on board with whatever the new coaching staff says which is something that Sherman did not have when he started his tenure at A&M. After his final press conference at A&M, he sent Sherman a text message telling him that he is an easy man to admire. No matter what his win-loss record was, he is a great guy and someone who you can look up to.
* He doesn’t follow recruiting as much as some people do, but he has heard that Coach Sumlin exudes swagger on the recruiting trail. He gives off a confidence that will spread like wildfire and will benefit this program immensely. He will be able to get guys truly convinced that they can beat teams like LSU and Alabama which is something you have to have in order to have a shot at the best teams in the country. He did a report for a class in graduate school about A&M going to the SEC and he talked about how it was going to be a tough transition for the football program, but it was a great move from an institution perspective. The exposure that the school is and will receive will do great things for Texas A&M. He is convinced that the Big 12 will fall apart eventually and is glad that A&M is out of it. In his report he talked about that while there will be difficulties for the football team due to the high level of competition, but now seeing what he has of Coach Sumlin, he is feeling better about the move football wise than he expected to at this point. After realizing that Sumlin and crew did not have anything to do with the firing of Coach Sherman, he really started appreciating what he is doing with the program so far. He thinks the team can win 6-8 games and should make it back to another bowl game. He thinks that A&M will be able to upset some teams because teams in the SEC don’t know how to handle an offense like the one Sumlin is bringing in.
* He wants to say thanks to everyone who has affected him while at A&M. He hopes that Aggies continue to stay strong in support of the team because he knows that while there may be some lows up ahead, there are some serious highs coming up as well.
Michael Hodges talks Sumlin, SEC move & coaching future
Notes from Michael Hodges interview
* When talking about the great names from the 2010 football team, he was sure to include Jerrod Johnson because of the way he was able to remain a leader of the team, even after losing his job as the starting quarterback. He found new respect for Jerrod because of the way he handled the situation and how he stayed dedicated to the team.* He will be speaking Friday at a sports medicine seminar put on by the Huffines Institute on campus, along with some of the biggest names in sports medicine, about sports medicine from a student-athlete’s perspective. They want to get into the mind of the people they are working with, and since he has had multiple surgeries and multiple rehab stints due to playing football, he was a prime candidate for speaking at this event. He will be focusing on the things he went through during those surgeries and hopefully the practitioners in attendance will find his information useful.
* After thinking through things and deciding that his body would not be able to take the toll of training for a shot in the NFL, he has decided to pursue a coaching career and will be serving as a graduate assistant under former A&M defensive coordinator and current Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter out in California. He never thought that he would become so entwined with DeRuyter and is anxious to get out there and start working. There will be a lot of coaching opportunities for him under Coach Toth which is a graduate assistant’s dream. He is hoping that he can step up and go beyond the normal graduate assistant role and make an impact with the team.
* The most special part for him of the 2010 season was his ability to help the team win a bunch of games. That team only had one guy drafted which goes to show that they truly were a team, and that it wasn’t a few all-stars here or there pulling the load for everyone else.
* He’s finding out that with every year that goes by, former players want more-and-more to come back and be a part of the program because they miss their playing days so much. He can’t stress enough how much he cherishes his time in Aggieland. It was a hard road to get to A&M, but once he was there, there was not a doubt in his mind that it was the right place for him.
* His high school coaches were really important to his development, and he was lucky to have coaches, both in high school and at A&M, that he could learn something new from every day. As a sophomore in high school he was told by the coaches that he was going to be put on the junior varsity squad. He didn’t like that and told them that he was going to be a defensive starter which he ended up being. He had a similar instance with at A&M with Coach Kines after his first knee blowout. Coach Kines told him that this was the time to start doing better or else they would have to let him go, and he replied that he would quit football if he wasn’t contributing by spring. He was able to build a strong relationship with the coaches which he thinks was key to having success on the field during games.
* There was an interesting dynamic between him and Von Miller because they had totally different roles on the team, but were both looked up to by other guys on the team. He was working with the strength staff during the 2011 season, so he saw the guys every week and was at every home game. Seeing that team fall the way they did was one of the most disheartening things he has seen in his entire life. He’s not sure exactly what happened last year, but it was as if the team finally had the whole puzzle together and the center piece was missing and could never be found. The team built up a swagger in 2010 which made those first two losses in 2011 so demoralizing and damaging to them. This shows how important scheduling can be, because not having those two losses back to back would have set a completely different tone for the year. The style in which those games were lost made people start questioning themselves, and when you start having confidence issues as a defense nothing good will happen. When you go back and look at how those games were lost you can see that the season could have been completely different had they won at least one of the first two real tests of the year.
*He’s learning that the coaching world is a crazy business and that it’s hard to get into, and it’s hard to stay once you’re there. Part of what makes A&M so great is that expectations are so high for the football program. The fans are passionate and want to have a successful team which is part of the reason why he loves A&M.
* He started hearing rumors about Coach Sherman possibly being fired, so he was not completely blindsided when it actually happened. He’s close with Sherman and is passionate about what he did for Texas A&M. He thinks people need to appreciate the talent level on the team now and what he has given Coach Sumlin to work with. The players now on campus are willing to jump on board with whatever the new coaching staff says which is something that Sherman did not have when he started his tenure at A&M. After his final press conference at A&M, he sent Sherman a text message telling him that he is an easy man to admire. No matter what his win-loss record was, he is a great guy and someone who you can look up to.
* He doesn’t follow recruiting as much as some people do, but he has heard that Coach Sumlin exudes swagger on the recruiting trail. He gives off a confidence that will spread like wildfire and will benefit this program immensely. He will be able to get guys truly convinced that they can beat teams like LSU and Alabama which is something you have to have in order to have a shot at the best teams in the country. He did a report for a class in graduate school about A&M going to the SEC and he talked about how it was going to be a tough transition for the football program, but it was a great move from an institution perspective. The exposure that the school is and will receive will do great things for Texas A&M. He is convinced that the Big 12 will fall apart eventually and is glad that A&M is out of it. In his report he talked about that while there will be difficulties for the football team due to the high level of competition, but now seeing what he has of Coach Sumlin, he is feeling better about the move football wise than he expected to at this point. After realizing that Sumlin and crew did not have anything to do with the firing of Coach Sherman, he really started appreciating what he is doing with the program so far. He thinks the team can win 6-8 games and should make it back to another bowl game. He thinks that A&M will be able to upset some teams because teams in the SEC don’t know how to handle an offense like the one Sumlin is bringing in.
* He wants to say thanks to everyone who has affected him while at A&M. He hopes that Aggies continue to stay strong in support of the team because he knows that while there may be some lows up ahead, there are some serious highs coming up as well.
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