Former A&M stars McGee & Swope look ahead to Saturday's showdown

During Thursday morning's edition of TexAgs LIVE, former Texas A&M football players Stephen McGee and Ryan Swope joined the show to preview Saturday's contest. The duo discussed what they want to see out of Mike Elko's Aggies in the season-opener vs. No. 7 Notre Dame.

Key notes from Stephen McGee interview

• We were talking about great defensive linemen. Ndamukong Suh was one of college football's most dominant interior linemen. Can you imagine taking the field as a right guard for Texas and knowing you have to block Suh for the next 60 minutes?
   
• Mike Elko can draw things up. He makes life difficult for offensive linemen. He shifts guys around and will move from an even front to an odd front, which makes all their calls change.
   
• We had a veteran offensive line my junior year. My senior year, the offensive line was pretty young. We had a new group that replaced the 2007 class with Kirk Elder and Cody Wallace. Playing offensive line is a physical adjustment. They have to adjust to strength and speed. Nic Scourton is not just big. He is fast. Defensive linemen can also bend off the edge. These offensive linemen have to be really smart, especially the center. He is making all the calls and the protections.
   
• Buy, Sell, Lease, Cash Buy: Best defensive player on the field: Benjamin Morrison, Nic Scourton, Howard Cross III or Taurean York. I know Notre Dame has a good corner, Morrison. Nic Scourton will be the most impactful. The most important positon in football is quarterback. The second most important is the guy who gets after the quarterback.
   
• I am buying Scourton with cash. I will finance Benjamin Morrison because I don't know what we have at receiver. That matchup is intriguing to me. If they can play a lot of single high defense, then the advantage goes to Notre Dame. If they can do that, they'll load up the box to try and stop our run game. If they can do that and hold up one-on-one with their corners against our wide recievers, that is a huge advantage for Notre Dame.

• No one talks about this, but Conner Weigman does not take sacks. No one ever looks at how few sacks the great quarterbacks take. One of the things that hurts a football team more than anything is a quarterback who hesitates and takes sacks. 

• If you have two tight ends that can play, it can force the defense to get in base defense, which is three linebackers. Linebackers covering tight ends is a mismatch. I love Taurean York, but I promise we don't want to have him in pass coverage. 

• We have to get after Riley Leonard. His legs are the one thing that does concern me offensively for Notre Dame. You can neutralize a great defensive line with the quarterback's legs.

• I am not a summer person. August is my least favorite month of the year. The best part of August is that you are close to football season. 
   
• One of our friends on the old staff said that every bad assistant on your staff would cost you a game. Unfortunately, that turned out to be true. 
   
• Who do you think will be our guy to take the top off the coverage from the receiver position? Noah Thomas is the guy who can go up and make tough catches. He has big-play ability. Whether he can stay healthy is the question mark. Not a lot of people are talking about Tre Watson. I am excited about him. That is a big position that often gets overlooked. Donovan Green has the ability to be a top-end player when his engine is turned on. 
   
• I got frustrated last year when we started a series on offense by taking deep shots. That is when the defensive line is the freshest. You want to get the ball out quickly. Get a couple of first downs, and then the defensive line is tired, and you can take your shots. Part of protecting the offensive line is putting them in a position to succeed. We have to have receivers that can win on a slant or hitch route on early downs. I want to see how we are moving the chains in short-passing downs when a corner is pressing. Can you beat a guy on a slant route and make a contested catch?
   
• I think we will find out if this defense can carry us to nine wins on the back end. We have had a great defensive line. If you look at A&M's defensive line over the last decade you are going to see some cats. There are so many guys in the NFL on the defensive line right now. We are up there with the Alabamas and Georgias on the defensive line. 
   
• At linebacker, York makes you feel good. Who is going to be the No. 2 linebacker? Scooby Williams is a guy that was there in the spring. You also got Solomon DeShields from Pittsburgh.
   
• The biggest downfall for A&M on defense has been the backend. More specifically, it has been at cornerback and the explosive plays we have given up. Dezz Ricks was not here in the spring, but he has a lot of ability. Tyreek Chappell at nickel now. We have two really good safeties. No offense to our past safeties, but I want a safety that can run. I do not want a big run-stopping safety. I want a guy that can run sideline to sideline. I want a hawk. Bryce Anderson is playing safety now. I am excited to see Dalton Brooks. I am as optimistic about the defense's back end as I have been in a long time.
   
• I think early we will have to rely on the defense. Our offense has too many question marks going into Week 1. Conner Weigman is as good as we are going to get at the QB position. I am nervous about the offensive line and the wide receivers. 
   
• I think the buy in to strength and conditioning is so important. You have to have the No. 1 guy on the roster, whether that's Scourton or Weigman, to be there grinding every day, as well as the last guy on the roster. They said recently that they did not have a s single missed workout all summer. 
   
• You can go back to the Johnny Manziel days, and I think a trend started where Johnny was not there in the offseason. He needed to be there. It is important that the players see their guy there. It created this superstar complex where future stars had their own workouts. Some of that crept into the Jimbo Fisher era. I loved that that was ended. On day 1, Mike Elko said all of my guys will be here. If you want to be on this team, you are going to be here. That accountability has been missing. I love that.
   
• These games are won and lost with turnovers and explosive plays. You have to protect the football and find ways to generate explosive plays on offense. If you're going to have a good defense, you have to get after the QB. If Leonard runs around and makes plays, it will be a long day for us. I think we will try to slow his legs down and force him to throw it. 
   
• Their secondary is proven, and they are familiar with what they are asked to do. Our guys are all in a new system. They do not have many reps in it. I think we will keep it simple. 
   
• Weigman does not have as many starts as many would think he would going into year three, but I go off of how you play when the lights come on. Weigman will not be able to make the 50-yard throw on a rope, but he plays fast and is tough. He stands in the pocket and delivers accurate throws under pressure. That, to me, is the Drew Brees type of QB. Brees went in the second round because he did not look like a Build-A-Bear QB, but that guy was phenomenal when the lights came on.
   
• If this football team is going to be great and get to 10 wins, it will be because of Conner Weigman. You can't get to an elite level at Texas A&M right now without an unbelievable QB. He has to take a big leap. He has shown some great things, but now it is time to do it for 12 games in a row. Conner has the skill set to play for a long time in the NFL. He is further along than Ryan Tannehill was at this point in his career. He does not have the arm of Tannehill, but he has the accuracy and the toughness.
   
• I am excited about the assistant coaches at Texas A&M. I want to see the impact they can have. I will buy our assistant staff and say we get it done play-calling. That has to be a difference this year.

Key notes from Ryan Swope interview

• I'm better now that football season is here. I need it. With this weather and some rain showers that have brought the temperatures down this week, it feels like it's football season.
   
• We were talking about going on a snipe hunt here in a few months with that first wave of cold weather rolls in.
   
• I'm really excited about this coaching staff. They did a good job of bringing a collective group in here that knows football and understands the Xs and Os that will put us in a position to win football games. Last year, there were a few instances when I felt like we got outcoached. These coaches now are going to put these kids in a position to be successful.
   
• In 2012, we knew about half of the receivers coming into the season. There was a young guy named Mike Evans that we weren't really sure of. We saw some glimpses during the summer, and then he stepped on the field and emerged as the greatest receiver in A&M history.
   
• With this receiver room, there are guys with experience, like Moose Muhammad III, Noah Thomas and Jahdae Walker. There are some guys that can really make a difference, but it's a matter of protecting our quarterback and giving them time to get open. In 2012, we had a spectacular offensive line that gave Johnny Manziel time and us time to do our jobs.
   
• I want to see Muhammad emerge. When he wants to play, you can see he's really talented, but it's some of the off-the-field stuff that gives him issues. He's the most talented across the board.
   
• I like Cyrus Allen, and I saw glimpses during the spring. He's going to bring some explosiveness. We need a guy that we can lean on for explosive plays because we're going to miss Ainias Smith. Allen can step in and do a good job for us.
   
• Donovan Green is healthy, and he was one of Conner Weigman's go-to guys when he was healthy.
   
• I watched Collin Klein this spring, but I wasn't able to get there at all this fall or during camp. McGee has told me about Klein's eye for running the offense and his ability to get the ball in the playmakers' hands. If we can run the ball, that's a bonus and really helps because it makes the linebackers crowd the box, allowing us to take some shots. We've really lacked the explosive plays down the field in recent years.
   
• The strength and conditioning coach is huge. The energy that Tommy Moffitt has brought this summer to the guys... Mike Elko has said that they've been preparing for this game since the spring. I know Moffitt has been getting these guys ready. My senior year, we had a new strength coach and new plans thrown at us, but you have to learn to adapt and go. I thought it was great. Sometimes change, quickly like that, is good. I think Moffitt is a great strength coach, and he's getting these guys ready both mentally and physically.
   
• If we run the ball effectively, we're going to be a talented football team, and that will open the backend for our receivers to make plays down the field.
   
• On my notes, A&M's No. 1 advantage is the defensive line vs. Notre Dame's offensive line. If I'm Riley Leonard, I'm shaking in my boots with two Shemars running after you. Nic Scourton, the transfer from Purdue, is a beast. I'm excited for that matchup. This game is going to be won in the trenches.
   
• I think Weigman has the advantage over Leonard at quarterback. Weigman has all the intangibles. We have to keep him healthy. Our offensive line has to protect him. When he was healthy, he was above average. The year before that, he was lights out.
   
• There are a lot of question marks with our secondary.
   
• Don't compare guys to Manziel because he is in another category.
   
• Our defensive line is going to get it done. I'm putting all my stock in them.
   
• Who is not going to get it done? Riley Leonard. With him being Elko's old quarterback, I think it'll be a fun matchup to watch.