Aggies discuss Florida loss, SMU in Dallas

“You know the old adage: ‘It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it seems.’ Once you get past the initial reaction of losing a football game, you go back and look at what you could do better, whether you win or lose, but particularly when you lose a game. 

 

“For a first start for a redshirt against a defensive team like Florida, I thought he performed well. I think the first thing you worry about with a new guy is turnovers, whether it’s a quarterback or anybody who is handling the football, not just him but a number of our freshmen handled the ball. We put Trey Williams back there as a kickoff return and those guys handled those situations well. We worry about ball security, and we worry about decision making. 

 

“I thought coming into the game our main concerns, which I think were everyone’s concerns, were our kickers, punters, snappers and our defensive line. You look at Saturday and you know what, our kickers made every kick, our net punt was 49-something and our defensive line really did a pretty good job of containing their running game. 

 

“I think it’s important. It lends confidence to the reason that he’s doing that. You can’t make 17 tackles if there’s somebody blocking you all the time. I think that says something, too, about our defensive front. That all works together. It’s kind of like a running back and an offensive lineman. You can be a really good linebacker but if there’s somebody all over you all the time, it’s hard to make tackles.

“I think for him to make 17 tackles, that’s great for us and great for him, but that also says something about the design of the defense and that means there are a bunch of other people doing their job.”

 

“Mike has been doing that since we’ve been here. Here’s another guy — this is his first start — who played one year of high school football and redshirted last year. He’s very, very raw, but 6-4/6-5. He’s a big guy, and a great basketball player in high school – a tweener, which means, when you’re 6-4/6-5, you’ve got no jump shot. That means you’re a post guy.

When you use the term ‘great basketball player at 6-5’, that’s what that means. You can’t shoot a three. You can’t defend on the floor. So, he played football. What he does give us is a big threat. He can run. The guy played one year of high school football and redshirted and there he is out playing against Florida, and starting, and playing well and competing.

“I go back and watch the video of the receivers and they blocked like crazy on the perimeter and he competed with those guys. I think I’m encouraged by the young guys and the old guys. We don’t skip a beat by running those guys in-and-out of the game.”

On his familiarity with June Jones and whether it helps game planning...

Sumlin: "No, it doesn't. Just because I know June doesn't help me in anything (laugh). He knows me too. It should help him more than he helps me. He's got the spy. I don't have anybody from his staff that works here. It works both ways. I have a lot of respect for June Jones. He's a guy that's coached in the NFL, taken a non-BCS school to a BCS game, taken SMU to a Conference-USA championship game from nothing and really done a fine job with that program.

"June is a buddy and I think I asked him last time I saw him if he'd let me play in his golf tournament in Hawai'i now that we're not in the same conference. But we still play each other, so I don't think he'll let me (smirk). Now they've gone from 1-11 to winning the (C-USA) West and playing in the conference championship."

On preparing for SMU's Margus Hunt...

Sumlin: "He's got 15 total blocks over the course of his career, nine FG blocks, an NCAA record. We're very aware of him. We know very well who he is. (Him getting two more last week) wasn't any shock to us. I told Coach Polian on Sunday, 'Have you watched any of their film? You're about to see the greatest PAT/field goal blocker of all time.' The guy's got a great gift, a knack. They do a lot with him in there. Six-eight, 275, extremely athletic, a D-lineman too. This guy's a real athlete and a real weapon."

On whether Christine Michael had any physical limitations in the second half...

Sumlin: "None that I know of. We have three good backs. I didn't see anything wrong with the other two guys. One knocked out a safety and the other, a freshman, had the longest run of the day. We rotate our backs. And that seems like the smart thing to do."

On Zach Line...

Sumlin: "He's extremely difficult to defend. He's listed at 230 but I don't believe that. He looks 245. He rumbled up and down Kyle Field last year. The amazing stat on him is that he's right now the third-active leading scorer in rushing touchdowns behind Denard Robinson at Michigan and a pretty good running back at Wisconsin. That's all you need to know. This is a real running back. Powerful.

"And they'll turn around and throw screens and shovel passes and he's a load in the middle of the field. They spread people out and arm tackles won't take this guy down. He's not afraid of contact. Very impressive since he's been there. He's a real weapon for them. When you have a guy putting up 100-something yards a game and everyone's paying attention to the pass ... that sounds familiar. They're spreading it out and letting him pound it and it's pretty effective."

On whether Manziel got high marks for distributing the ball well...

Sumlin: "That's not high marks, it's just kind of how we've always done it. We're going to play lots of guys and keep guys fresh. The better teams I've coached have had more than one guy that's pretty good. The better we are, the more numbers you'll get of guys catching the ball."

On Eazy Nwachukwu and Ryan Swope not having big games...

Sumlin: "A lot of guys got the ball, it wasn't minimizing them. They haven't played in this offense. I'll say this: We had chances to get them the ball early but we had a missed tackle on a screen trying to get the ball to Swope. We had guys a beat off here, a beat off there. We had quarterback scrambles. And then in the second half we couldn't catch up to the chains. We had nine plays in the third quarter. That's it. It's hard to do much with that.

"Offensive football, the way we look at it, it's a progression-read. Based on the defense, based on what's happening, some guys will have big nights and some won't."

On what Trey Williams showed...

Sumlin: "He's a great player. To answer Gabe's question, it wasn't Christine Michael so much as it was Trey Williams. In per-carry averages, they'll all be right there. One back is not successful. Trey is a change-of-pace guy, Ben is a power guy, Christine has some wiggle. Trey has home run speed. All three bring something to the table; all three can play. And we're going to use all three because it's a long season.

"For a guy who's had some injuries, (Michael) understands that. And we understand that too."

On having a recruiting presence in the Metroplex...

Sumlin: "It's extremely important. I think we've shown at this point where we are in the Metroplex and in Houston and East Texas. You look at where we are right now recruiting for 2013, we have a presence in the Metroplex as well. It's about commitment to getting back into East Texas. But certainly the Metroplex is a big area for us, a big area for, really, this area of the country. The battle over these type of players in that area is really stiff.

"Playing there is a good thing, but I'll just say this — it's their game. We don't get to give out tickets. And the game's on television no matter what. I don't know that playing there is that big a deal. It might be to the families of the recruits we have there, but it might not be in recruiting. You can't invite recruits to the game."

On Pat Lewis' game...

Sumlin: "He did well. We had some false start penalties, which is disconcerting. But we're working on tempo and we'll get there. That was a good D-line. How he was able to snap and direct, that was good. In a new offense, to handle it out of the box against guys like that, he'll get better. It was a learning situation. On audibles, even when it's quiet here, it's loud. That can create some snap issues for us. But Johnny and he have to be on the same page more. It's hard to simulate that kind of intensity and tempo.

"We'll eliminate some of the snap issues and, if we can do that, it'll eliminate penalties. But he did a nice job. He's done a nice job all through Fall Camp. I don't have to yell at him anymore."

On former Texas QB and SMU starter Garrett Gilbert...

Sumlin: "I think he's a good quarterback. I thought he was one of the best high school players I had seen. Everybody tried to recruit him for a reason. He was an exceptional high school player. People forget he's played in a national championship game.

"Guy's been at the highest level, knows what's going on, he's older and he's moved into a new system. He'll take some time to figure it out. Hopefully he doesn't figure it out completely by Saturday afternoon. He's a good player; he's going to be better as time goes on. He's been too successful throughout his career not to be."

On whether the second-half offensive problems were about execution...

Sumlin: "Yes."

On the new entrance...

Sumlin: "I just read the script. (Laughter.) Everybody thinks things like that are things I do. I've got enough to worry about. It was a combination of people who tried different things and asked, 'Does this work?' Obviously they ran it by me. It might have gotten out because we walked through it before Louisiana Tech, took pictures, timed the walk. We got the drumline out there and did everything but turn the smoke on. We had imaginary smoke and they said go and we ran out there. The players loved it.

"I was really close to going down (when he ran out in the Florida pre-game). It's motivation knowing there's 80 guys behind you and national television is there. It would've been ugly. I was sure somebody saw that. I'm a little less athletic than Damontre Moore and Johnny Manziel, who were kind of pushing me there. I'm not going to run out first anymore (laughter). I had some energy and I thought I was running, but thank goodness they're faster and bigger than me. I will not be running out anymore in front (smile).

"I got a lot of emails from people about (the entrance). It created some energy in the stands and for our players. It was a great blend of everything. We didn't take away from anything, we added to it. We had a number of recruits there and when you look over and they all had their phones out recording it ... that's pretty cool."

On closing games and whether the team still has mental issues...

Sumlin: "We talked about the conditioning and mental aspect of it. We continue to practice. I wasn't here last year. I know that from a conditioning standpoint there's no way Damontre could have played all but five plays. And it wasn't us flopping around out there in the second half. Our defense got stops and gave us four chances to win in the second half.

"We've played one game this year. And I think our guys played exceptionally hard against a good team. In a close game like that, you've got to make plays to win. Our defense made four stops and we couldn't move the ball. From my standpoint, I look at it as what happened in that situation to win the game. Our defense gave us an opportunity to win and we couldn't get it done. From an effort standpoint and how we did things ... we couldn't execute and you have to give Florida credit for that too. They played well."

On whether Florida's multiple cramps were legitimate or flops...

Sumlin: "...You were there. (Mass laughter.)"

 

 

“You never know until you get to the first game. Transitioning from a 3-4 to a 4-3, I’ve got to give Coach Sumlin a lot of credit for that. The way we practiced, half-line inside drill going good-on-good, I think it showed Saturday. We have two SEC periods every day. I think if you watch the film, we more than held our own up front against Florida.”

 

“That’s what this system is about. Jonathan played well. He knows he can play better. We’ve got to press the line of scrimmage a lot better than we did. Again, it’s his first game in this system. That’s what is expected of that guy and that position. That MIKE and that WILL in our system make a lot of plays if the D-line does their job, which they did.

“I thought Stew played well. He knows, speaking out of turn, he’s got to press the line of scrimmage more. We’ve got two unblocked linebackers and we’re not pressing the line of scrimmage. Those things are all correctable. That’s what is good about it.”

 

“They were aggressive penalties on our side of the ball. I’ve got to be careful there. (Pass interferences) and facemasks, I think it goes back more to tackling, not being in position to tackle when you get a facemask penalty. We cut down the offsides, the delayed hits, the silly penalties we got rid of. Ours were facemask penalties, that are aggressive penalties.

“We do address them. I need to be careful because I can handle the aggressive penalties. I can’t handle the stupid penalties. We really didn’t have any stupid penalties. We weren’t in the position to tackle. That’s why we had the facemasks and the penalties that we had. Facemasks and PIs — those are the kind of penalties that you’re trying to make a tackle or go after the ball. I think you have to be careful there.

“If it becomes a consistent problem, then we’ve got a problem. I went back and looked at all of them and we’re not in position to tackle. We’re reaching. We’re not coming to balance. Again, I think those things can be corrected.”

 

“Our big thing to Damontre was, he’s been a slot player and he produced as a slot player. It’s time to grow up, put your hand in the dirt, stop the run and put pressure on the quarterback. And you’ve got to go play for 60-to-80 plays or whatever is required and you know what, he did that. I’m very, very proud of him.

“He’s a baby, there’s no doubt about it. There’s a maturation process that has to continue to happen. I see a more businesslike approach out of him from the first day of we got here for spring ball to now. There’s a little bit more of a businesslike approach.”

 

 

“It’s been big. The big deal was 11 negative plays. Snap the ball 70-something times, 11 of those times we moved backwards, whether it was penalties or just missed assignments. That can’t happen in the style of offense we want to play.”

 

“I knew he would play hard and he fought the whole game. It’s a tough situation, obviously, playing against that defense and I thought he battled. We just have to keep getting better each week. I’ve got to coach him up and get him going.”

 

“We think all of them can give us something different, in the running game and the pass game. We want to give them all touches and get the ball to them as much as we can.”

 

“I think the thing that stood out was that physically, I thought our guys stood up to them and played hard. The effort was outstanding — blocking on the perimeter, blocking up front, the running backs running the ball physically. I thought that really jumped out.”

Uzoma Nwachukwu

On Florida's defense in the second half...

Nwachukwu: "I don't think it was much of the scheme, it was really that they adjusted well and ran to the ball well and making sure the quarterback didn't run on them. They had guys dropping, D-linemen, to stop the short passes. They just did a great job of adjusting."

On whether open guys weren't getting the ball or the receivers were just well-covered...

Nwachukwu: "They just did a good job of running around and making sure there weren't any holes. They just did a great job of adjusting and running to the ball."

On Thomas Johnson...

Nwachukwu: "TJ is a great kid. He comes to practice every day and his mentality is he wants to get better. To see that in a young guy, that speaks volumes about where he's come from and things like that. He's a great guy and he has a lot of potential. He should be a pretty good player."

On playing in Dallas...

Nwachukwu: "Oh man, always excited to play in Dallas. It's like a mini-homecoming for me. A couple guys from Allen are probably going to come to the game, coaches and family. It should be good."

On Johnny Manziel's first start...

Nwachukwu: "You guys have got to realize that was his first time running on Kyle Field. His first time playing a college football game. He had a great game. That speaks volumes. He did that well with all that pressure on himself. He did a great job controlling the game, not throwing any interceptions, not forcing anything. He did great."

On losing another second-half lead...

Nwachukwu: "It's really frustrating, especially for the seniors and guys that have been here a while. But I think that frustration has built into making sure it doesn't happen again. You'll see that in practice."

On having game tape to help learn the new offense...

Nwachukwu: "It's great because now, instead of being at practice where you have no referees and other things, you can put yourself in that position and see how the defense reacts. It's great having the film."

On whether he was ever the first read...

Nwachukwu: "I don't think it's a read system. It's more just concepts instead of 1-2-3-4. But like I said, I think Johnny had a pretty good game. He didn't force things and did a good job."

On the WR corps' performance...

Nwachukwu: "I think we did pretty well, and not just in the passing game. We did a good job blocking and setting the tone. Mike Evans had a great game and Kenric McNeal had a couple good catches. Gaston Lamascus is a guy you guys probably don't know about as well, but we encouraged him in practice and he had a great camp, so it's great to see him doing well."

On recovering from games like this one...

Nwachukwu: "We just try to share to the young guys our frustration and our sense of urgency. You saw last year. This is our last go-round and we want to go out the right way."

 

 

“Obviously, we had a pretty good first half. The second half was rough. We weren’t very good on first-and-second downs. When you get to third-and-long situations, it’s pretty hard on the offensive line and it’s very hard on the offense to capitalize. We weren’t too good on third downs either so we definitely have to learn from that and get better next week on first-and-second downs.”

 

“We were ready to go. At the beginning of the game we were ready to go. The coaches bring confidence to this team and we were ready to go at the beginning of the game. We were still ready to go in the second half. It’s not like we just sat there and relaxed or anything. We still wanted to play hard and wanted to win. Things just didn’t go our way.”

 

“I think he did well. He’s a very confident guy. He’s a very tough guy. He took some hits out there but he got right back up. He’s always trying to make plays. You can’t hate him for always trying to make plays and do that for us this year. I have total trust in him. I know he’ll make plays for us. ”

 

 

“It’s a big boost. I feel confident in my play on Saturday. I feel like from then-on it’s going to be a good season.”

 

“I always say games are easier than practice. After that first game, from now on it’s just smooth. At practice you can tell that young guys, old guys, it’s easier for them now. It’s a big difference.”

 

“With Johnny, it’s different. You can’t just block and stop. You’ve got to block until the whistle. Last year with Tannehill, you knew he was probably going to take about three steps and then throw it. With Johnny he’s fast, he’s electric. He’s going to play with his legs, so you have to keep blocking until the whistle.”

 

Damontre Moore

On his pleasure with the level of physicality A&M displayed...

Moore: "We were pretty pleased. When we went back and watched film, we were upset that we lost and didn't get to win, but we saw that we did a lot of good things. We were worried about the transition from a 3-4 for a 4-3 but we handled it well and turned some heads. There were a lot of good things. There were also mistakes, but we were pleased."

On his own transition to defensive end...

Moore: "I feel good because I played D-end in high school and became a linebacker when I came here. When they told me I was moving back to D-end, it's kind of like riding a bike. You never really forget."

On how A&M rolled up so many sacks...

Moore: "Great scheme and tremendous preparation. Our coaches have been telling us what to look for, giving us extra time with film. This week you'd notice that everybody was getting in there and watching as much film as possible, studying the opponent. The coaches put us in position to get after it."

On the progression of his focus level and maturity...

Moore: "I think it's a tremendous improvement because I have a whole other year under my belt. The focus level is increased because of the new conference, new opponents, bigger, faster, and I'm just trying to help my team as best I can. Maturity comes with time, so it's going to improve."

On keeping early-season performance going...

Moore: "Honestly, early in the season it's fresh legs, everybody's excited, you haven't played for nine months. Of course you're going to be having fun. To keep it going, it's about strength training. (Larry) Jackson has done a lot for us. It's helped us a lot and it'll keep helping us as the season goes on to prevent injuries and tiredness.

"It kind of shocked me. I played 61 plays out of 66 total defensive plays. If you had asked (Jackson) during the summer if I'd do that, he'd say no way. I'd laugh. The conditioning program has helped us a lot. I really just maintained my weight. I picked up maybe one or two pounds, but I moreso just leaned out. The workouts we've done, we just shaped up."

On whether coaches have asked him to tone it down during games...

Moore: "No, we haven't even talked about that. It's just about keeping the energy level going."

On A&M's penalties...

Moore: "It's frustrating, because the coaches have harped on that. Last year we would've been second-to-last or dead last in the SEC. It's frustrating, but at the same time it wasn't outlandish penalties. It was people just trying to make plays. You can't be too upset with that."

On SMU's tempo and whether it will help A&M...

Moore: "I think so, because it won't be that big of a change. Coach Sumlin has been pushing our tempo since he got here. I think it'll be a good thing."

 

“It’s only one game. You’re only as good as your next performance. I think I had 17 tackles this week and if I don’t perform like that again next week, then this week doesn’t mean anything. It’s something that you can look back upon after the season, but as the season goes on, it’s on to the next game whether you win or lose.”

 

“The questions were all from the media. From a defensive standpoint, we were all confident in what the D-line could do. We saw them do it all in two-a-days when the media wouldn’t be out there. We were confident. We expected them to come out and perform the way that they did. To get as many sacks as they did, that might have been surprising, but the way that they played, that didn’t surprise me at all.”

On Zach Line...

Stewart: "He's a tough guy, he's big, strong and powerful. A hard-nosed guy."

On remembering Garrett Gilbert at Texas...

Stewart: "You can go back a little bit and look at what he did at t.u. Because of habits that he had. Habits are tough to break. If he likes to lock on receivers, routes, things like that. But you don't look at it too much because he's got new teammates and a new scheme. You can look at it a bit. I haven't watched much film yet besides the run game and what they try to do there."

On how long the defense was on the field...

Stewart: "Playing 20 (second-half) minutes wasn't that tough just because of the offense Florida was running. They weren't out there going up-tempo. That's why the time of possession was what it was. They huddled. Sometimes they'd snap it with five seconds on the play clock. We were out there in two-a-days getting in shape. And this was a nice, cool, breezy Saturday. We weren't tired at all."

On creating turnovers...

Stewart: "Just focus on it. When the first guy has him wrapped up, the second guy come in and try to strip the ball. On sacks, try and rip the ball out. It's little things. We have to work on them. But it's a long season and it's a new week. We might create four or five turnovers, and that's our goal this week. It's something we can fix."

On whether the defense is settling into the scheme...

Stewart: "One game helps a lot. Saturday was our first time playing live, tackle football in nine months, since the bowl game. For a couple guys it was their first look at college football ... and it happened to be the SEC opener. But it's little things we'll fix. We'll get ready for the season."

On fixing penalties...

Stewart: "It's something Coach Sumlin has harped on. Last year we would've been 13th or so in the SEC in penalties. It's a problem. We have to make teams earn it, we can't give them anything. When you mess up and give teams more chances, they're going to do what they need to do. Penalties are a part of the game, but you want to try to lower them.

"With the first game, it's kind of going to be expected to have penalties. Penalties and missed tackles. Just because the speed of the game is different than what you've been seeing in practice. But there's never an excuse for us to have penalties or that many penalties. Penalties happen; it's rare you see a game where none are committed. But it's an issue we have to get fixed. We can't get teams' drives going with our help."

Steven Terrell

On whether film from Gilbert at Texas is relevant...

Terrell: "Maybe from some of his tendencies and things like that, but we're going to watch more of when we played SMU last year and their two games this year."

On how the defense played against Florida...

Terrell: "Overall, OK. We missed some tackles. The D-line played great. When they play like that, it's on us to back them up. But we'll do better this week. Going against a spread offense like SMU, it's going to be more on the secondary. I always said that I didn't feel the D-line would be a problem for us. I knew we had a veteran, hard-working group up there. They came to play for us."

On how it feels to have a game under the belt...

Terrell: "Coaches always say you see the biggest improvement from Game 1 to Game 2. We had a lot of young guys out there and just getting the first-game jitters out of the way was good."

On whether the second-half frustrations came back...

Terrell: "It was just little mistakes. A lot of people focused on the second half and things lke that. But it was not capitalizing on plays we should have made, little penalties and things like that. We'll get it fixed."

On how many of the sacks were coverage sacks...

Terrell: "It was more a combination of both. It was coverage sacks and our guys beating their one-on-one matchups. It wasn't just coverage sacks. There were scheme sacks too. It was a team effort."

On his own performance...

Terrell: "I missed a couple tackles. Angles a lot of us took, we took some bad angles on some plays. Just a couple times there were some bad eyes, eye violations, things like that. Sometimes you see it in the first game, but you have to work on it every day in practice. This week we have to get rid of it, have to focus on the little things. Like you do every week."

On the way to force turnovers...

Terrell: "It's all about practice. You have to do it in practice. We do turnover drills. In a game, you have to get to a guy, the first guy makes the tackle and the second rips the ball out. In the secondary, we have to get hands on the ball, try and get tips and things like that. It's about effort. It's just about effort."

On the young corners...

Terrell: "They're absolutely talented, but it was some of their first times being out there or as a starter. It's little things. Keeping your head down, angles, things like that. But I'm not down on them." 

On what he's seen in Damontre Moore...

Terrell: "Damontre has obviously matured. And his biggest thing is effort. He's out there running quarterbacks down. He played the whole game. When you have D-linemen running the quarterback down, it makes everyone's job easier, the linebackers and the secondary."

On having Steven Campbell back healthy...

Terrell: "I'm glad Steve's back and we were out there together. We didn't play as well as we could, but to have everybody healthy was good for us."