Post Game Quotes (Texas A&M 45, Louisiana 21)
Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M Head Coach On difference between first and second half… “We’re
like two different teams and coming into this week it’s about three
things. It’s about effort, which we’ve been getting. I think our guys
have been playing very hard all three weeks. It’s about communication,
which we are improving as a team on with being able to play as many
people as we played and getting guys on and off the field. With
communication comes elimination of penalties and things like that. The
last thing is execution, which is a work in progress. In the first half
we did not execute. We did play hard, we did communicate. As I said
before as we started the week, two of those things will win you some
games. Three out of three will usually win you every game. Basically
the first half we didn’t execute, the second half we did. We couldn’t
run the ball in the first half. I think the move back to Erik McCoy at
center helped us. Some of the things we did on defense, on third down
specifically, helped us too. It comes down to execution. Trust each
other, trust each other’s ability and do your job because we have
enough guys that can play. Don’t try to do too much; just do your job
and we’ll be fine. Our defense has consistently created turnovers.
We’re in the plus margin every week. We have to get better at a lot of
different things. We are a work in progress and one thing we have
established is that we’ve created turnovers and we’ve won the turnover
battle every week. In the second half, offensively, defensively and
special teams, we were pretty solid.” On Kellen Mond… “He’s
gotten better and I think he’s comfortable. He’s more assertive. He was
a lot more assertive last night at practice, he was a lot more
assertive pregame and that’s normal as a young guy. I think during this
time, we as coaches are getting to know him, what his strengths are. I
think the first thing a young guy tries to do is impress you with
everything and our conversation with him has been about ‘Hey, listen,
what on this call sheet do you not feel comfortable with? Let’s
eliminate those things. Let’s not find out on Saturday what you don’t
like after it’s a catastrophe on the play.’ So young guys have a hard
time with that because they want to impress coaches and they want to
show people that they know what’s going on, but part of the maturity is
being able to say ‘Hey, I’m not comfortable with that.’ We’ve got time
to work on it. We’re getting a feel for what he likes. He’s getting
more open with us about what he likes so he started the game last week,
where he was what 8-10 a week ago? There was a point today where he was
80 percent early again so it was pretty solid performance for him,
managing snaps, not making a catastrophe out of a bad play already,
just getting on the ball and managing hurry up situations and then
managing a slow-down situation at the end. So for him it’s a learning
experience but I think he’s obviously becoming more comfortable with
playing.” On Erik McCoy moving back to center… “I think
him moving back to center was a big deal and getting him back in there
because targeting becomes a big deal. They’re playing an odd-front with
a lot of guys moving random and who’s blocking who changes a bunch.
Then, the ability again to communicate who’s blocking who before the
snap, it really helps. It’s not just the center, him playing center and
blocking. It’s his targeting and getting us going with the right
people. So that had a lot to do with it and it’s being able to get on
the perimeter. I thought [Tanner] Schorp did a nice job today letting
us get the edge and get on the perimeter. We have lots of video of
several times where I thought he let us get the edge. It was a good
deal to get around a bunch of that stuff inside. They were slanting
away, coming in back door behind and running us down on the inside zone
so we had to get outside a little bit.” On Kibodi and Bussey… “I
said yesterday in the production meeting that I really want to see what
everybody’s talking about Kendall Bussey and we’ve got another one who
showed a lot in practice and I’m really anxious to see what he can do
so he did not disappoint. We’ve got guys that we can play like that.
We’ve got four guys that can go and four guys that we talk about trust
and confidence around here. First, you got to get some trust in
yourself and in your teammates and in your coaches. Again, Jacob Kibodi
showed that he wants to play and he’s capable of playing and he’s big
and he’s fast. I like that combination. It’s always good when it’s on
your team.” On leadership… “I thought Armani Watts with
the turnovers and how he played really played a leadership role. I
thought Tyrel Dodson was that way and I thought our defense was part of
the drive to start the second half. Our defense playing the second
half, it was a team effort and special teams. So coverage and terms and
things like that across the board the second half, obviously was a lot
better than the first half. The message today was what you showed today
was that you trust each other, you believe in each other and it doesn’t
really matter what the situation is or what’s being said or what’s out
there, you’ve got to believe in the people in this room. With that, I
think we grew up a little bit today.” Erik McCoy, Texas A&M Sophomore Offensive Lineman On being able to play multiple positions… “It’s
always good to be versatile in case another guy goes down or something
happens to him and I can just substitute or another guy can substitute
right in for him.” On the offense getting fired up during the game… “We
had a lot of young guys starting off the game and they were bringing a
lot of funky stuff at us. We just had to get adjusted in the second
half.” On what adjustments were made… “They were doing a lot of twist in the first half and we just had to adjust to what they were doing.” Kendall Bussey, Texas A&M Sophomore Running Back On not getting any touches early in the game… “Watching
from the sidelines, I was kind of able to see a few more things that
Keith (Ford) wasn’t seeing on the field and I was just trying to help
him make that adjustment because he was playing at the time and I knew
come half-time we’ll make some adjustments and talk things out so I was
just ready to go second half to try to make something happen.”
On confidence going into the Arkansas game… “Definitely,
we came off a little shaky since it was early in the morning, but we
came into halftime made some adjustments and listened to our coaches
and we were able to pick things up and play Aggie football.” Armani Watts, Texas A&M Senior Safety On today’s slow start… “Part
of it is because of the early game, and some of the new guys aren’t
used to it. Really that’s how I see it. We woke up at 6:30 this
morning, so some of the guys are getting used to that. We just had to
refresh and get our minds right, then come back and play how we play.” On forcing five turnovers… “I
don’t think we did anything different. We had a couple of balls thrown
to us, and you’ve got to secure those. We harp on that every week,
getting the ball out. As you guys can see, we like to strip the ball
out a lot, and that’s the reason we harp on getting turnovers and
getting the ball back to our offense because they can put it on the end
zone any time.” On Tyrel Dodson’s pick-6… “It was amazing. Any time we can get the ball in the end zone, it’s a plus.” Tyrel Dodson, Texas A&M Sophomore Linebacker On the momentum change after halftime… “I
think what changed was that the first half we weren’t playing with
emotion. You know, no one can play defense without any emotion. Second
half we came out with emotion and created turnovers.” On his pick-six… “I
was man-to-man with the running back, and I kind of baited the
quarterback and looked like I was going to the right. I saw that he was
getting ready to throw it so I jumped the route, and then, touchdown.” On his first collegiate touchdown… “I
think it’s pretty amazing, my first college touchdown. I was just
thinking about how happy my family was back home in Tennessee. That’s
what I was really thinking about, my grandma smiling.” Louisiana Head Coach Mark Hudspeth… Opening Statement… “Wow,
what a football game. I thought our guys were ready and really excited
to compete. Nevertheless, they played their hearts outs. Especially in
the first half, in the first three quarters and against a very good
football team on the road. I thought we improved tremendously
especially against the run. That was one of the main emphasis. I think
some of the moves we made last week payed off. We keep improving
defensively. If you take away the pick six, the defense even did a
little better. They had a bunch of short fields and came away with the
big stops. They forced a few big stops. We had one of the best first
halves of offense but they made some adjustments. Give them credit,
they put a lot of people in the box to stop the run. They were
determined to make us throw the football to win the game. We have to be
able to run the quarter back to even things up. We were having a hard
time pushing off with the throws. We just didn’t have the offensive
rhythm in the second half. We pulled out some of the trick plays and
going for it there on the goal line. We just couldn’t keep pace. They
got the momentum and once we gave it away it was hard to get it back.
Our team really believed at halftime that we had a chance to win this
game and we did. We just didn’t get it done in the second half.” On the atmosphere at Kyle Field… “It’s
a great venue. It’s got to be one of the top three venues in the
nation. I know our fans and players were excited about coming here. We
have a lot of Texas players who were ready to play in this game and
they came out and played their hearts off. It was impressive and a
great home field advantage to say the least.” Tracy Walker, Louisiana Senior Linebacker On making big plays… “Watching
film, knowing who my opponent is, and knowing where the ball is trying
to go—I definitely studied the game. I studied their offense well this
week. That’s what helped me make plays early in the game.” On defensive changes… “We
made a lot of changes defensively. It helped us out in the first half.
Like Coach Hudspeth said, we just got fatigued. We have a great group
now. We have everybody in the right place. I think we will have a great
defense for the rest of this year.” Jordan Davis, Louisiana Junior Quarterback On the good start… “People
just wanted it. Our guys were fighting. We had it in our mind and we
were ready to go. In the second half, when we dealt with adversity we
didn’t handle it the same way that we did in the first half. We weren’t
able to execute as effectively as we did in the first half. Our
execution wasn’t as crisp in the second half as it was in the first.” On playing through pain… “We
just wrapped my knee up and braced it up. Coach said ‘You’re going to
fight through this game.’ We were on the same page. Coach and I both
knew. We weren’t able to queue quarterback run as much as we would like
to. That took away an element from our offense and maybe made us a
little more stagnant in the second half. We are going to keep fighting.
We are going to keep pushing forward and get better this week going
into Monroe.”
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