COLLEGE STATION -- Kevin Sumlin and company met with the media to discuss the upcoming season and conference opener with Florida.

Kevin Sumlin
Texas A&M Head Coach

On what he saw from Florida’s first game
“We watched the game just like everybody else, and had the opportunity to watch some video. Like I said, we’re playing an SEC team, a top-25 team. That’s the team we saw last week: fast, athletic, good offensive line, guys on defense that can run, an excellent kicker. From our standpoint, knowing both coaches; knowing Will [Muschamp] from his days and his aggressiveness on defense and knowing Brent Pease for a long time, they were extremely vanilla in their approach, I think. Coach Muschamp talked about wanting to be able to run the ball and throw play action off of that and they did that. I think that it was a way for them to evaluate their players and they won the game. For us, it was really a chance to look at talent level. Just like he said and I said right after the game, they didn’t show very much as far as scheme.”

On not getting to work out jitters
“We wouldn’t have handled it any differently a week before when we played Louisiana Tech. We wouldn’t have watched them play. This is our first game. You can’t worry about that. We can’t change what happened last week. It’s how you approach it. There are positives and negatives to both. I think any coach would tell you that. They’ve gotten some first-game jitters out of the way. That being said, the same questions are asked, ‘How is your quarterback going to handle opening at home against an SEC opponent on GameDay here?’ and all of that other stuff. The questions would have been ‘How is he going to handle opening on the road?’

So whatever happens, it’s a first game. How you handle it varies from week-to-week. We can’t do anything about what happened a week before. We’ve just been dealt a new set of circumstances for which we need to be prepared for. For us as a coaching staff, the challenge will be that we don’t know how guys are going to react. In certain circumstances, we haven’t been around this team. That will be the interesting part of the game, particularly because there’s adversity in every football game. The only way to know how guys are going to react and how to kind of move through that is to see them in those kinds of situations as much as you can, but from a practice standpoint to a game standpoint, they’re two different things. The intensity level, the speed, the consequences of a mistake in a game is much different than in practice. So the only way to gain that type of experience is to play.”

On players having their first game a week behind the rest of the country
“’There are positives and negatives to both, but it’s how you look at it. For some guys it will be positive, for some guys it won’t. That’s just how it is. Everybody is not going to be the same coming into this football game because we do have guys who have not played in a college football game going out there. I think somebody asked me last weekend about going on the road and starting a quarterback. There are a lot more positives about playing at home.”

On the development of freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel
“We had a battle early. I don’t think it’s changed very much from what I said a week ago. The reason I said he was starting two-or-three weeks ago was that he earned the right to start. We gave him that with two weeks to go. We gave him that so that he could get more reps and because he’s the starter and the team can feel comfortable with him and he can feel good in a leadership role. I think he’s continued to progress but he’s a young guy. As I’ve said before, experience is not about age. You can have a young guy that’s playing or you can have a third-year, fourth-year or fifth-year senior. People get that confused. Until you’re in a game with game speed and the intensity level, that’s where your experience comes from. It’s not about age, it’s about experience. He’s an inexperienced player and because of that, our surrounding cast of our offensive line or our running backs or our skill people on the perimeter who have experience, have to play well and create a quarterback-friendly atmosphere for him. Fortunately we’ve got experienced players in those positions.”

On what he expects from Florida’s offense
“Anybody who has watched Boise tapes over the past couple of years knows that Brent has been extremely creative. Anything goes. He’s got the whole arsenal. He’s been a friend for a long time. I have a lot of respect for what he’s done and, who knows. You’ve got a team coming in here that’s a top-25 team, that’s been in big ballgames, been in big stadiums. They’re not going to be intimidated by anything that they’re going to see coming into Kyle Field. I think this program has had GameDay more than any other college football program ever. All of this stuff is old hat to these guys. They’re coming in here to play football and there’s nothing around here that’s going to intimidate them.”

On whether he’s excited about the expected atmosphere Saturday
“Yeah, I think so. We’re just excited to play a game. I think our fans are really excited about it, with everything that surrounds us with GameDay. The fans will create a big-time energy with it being the first game of the year, an SEC opponent, national television, GameDay, there will be a new entrance for the team this Saturday. There are a lot of things surrounding this whole game that I think will be really positive for our players. One of the reasons why I think our practices have been so good recently is because we’re just so excited to get on the field and play. There have been a lot of great players here and a lot of them would love running out on Kyle Field on Saturday with all of the history-making things that are going on.”

On the tempo of the offense and whether Florida will try to match it
“We talk a lot of times about paying attention to what we’re doing, regardless of our opponent. Based on our performance last year as a football team, there are a lot of things that we have to fix internally that don’t have anything to do with the opponent. Tempo has something to do with that, attitude has a lot to do with it, the ability to handle and weather adversity has nothing to do with the opponent. That’s all internal. One of our problems has been that we worry more about what’s going on across the field rather than what’s going on in our sideline. Whether that’s good enough to win, I don’t know all the time, but that’s one thing we need to fix. We’ve worked very hard and I’m anxious to see how we handle it. I don’t know that that changes overnight but I know that it’s something that we’ve talked about at length. That’s why we’re anxious to play a game.”

On what kind of a factor special teams will be
“It’s going to be a big factor. [Florida’s Caleb] Sturgis is a good kicker. This guy has been around for a while now and has done some nice things. You watch him kicking the ball and he’s a solid guy. How they handled their kicking game really helped them win games last year. When they struggled offensively, they blocked kicks. They’re really good in the return game. They’ve got good team speed. When you see teams that are really athletic, that’s where it shows up. In special teams when you have guys that are returning kicks for touchdowns, it’s more than just a kicker, more than just the return guy. There are a lot of guys that are able to block people and that’s when you talk about schemes and athleticism. They’ve been able to do that and create extra possessions and points through special teams, whether it’s return games or it’s blocked kicks, blocked punts, things like that. Special teams in any game like this is going to be a big deal.”

On Christine Michael returning from injuries
“That’s kind of hard to answer because I wasn’t here. I don’t know if he’s like this all the time or how he was a year ago. I just know that he’s excited to play, which is a good thing for us.”

Mark Snyder
Defensive Coordinator

On Driskel
“He’s working within the system and I’m sure that’s why they named him a starter. He’s got some poise, he’s patient and it looks like he’s running their system pretty well.”

On what he saw from Florida
“I was very impressed. It starts with their offensive line. They’re huge, they’re tough. He’s instilled some toughness in them. They’ve got about 80 starts between them and they are a very physical group. Their tailback is really good. In the second level, he is extremely difficult to tackle.”

On what he saw from their receivers
“They can blow the top off. They can fly. All of them can fly. I’m very impressed with their tight end. Just watching him develop – he’s a threat. He’s like the kid at Notre Dame. I think he will come on this year for them. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t.”

On what Florida will do with the Aggies’ quick tempo
“It will be interesting. That will be the game day adjustment. Are they going to try to slow the game down a little and keep our offense off the field? Again, I don’t know. We won’t know until the first-or-second quarter how they’re going to approach it.”

On how he knew De’Vante Harris and Deshazor Everett would be starters
“The DB position is all about who you trust. Who can you trust? The things I saw watching football all day Saturday was missed tackles, special teams and I have never seen so many play-action pass bombs for touchdowns in my life. Lots of them. And that goes back to eye control. We’ve got to have severe eye control and guys you can trust. Those guys are the guys that we feel like we can trust.”

On having Steven Campbell
“It’s really nice. This is his kind of ballgame, based on what I’ve seen so far anyway.”

On Steven Jenkins
“I thought you were talking about Steve Campbell when I made that statement. It’s good to get Jenkins back. This is Steven Campbell’s kind of game. He’s an SEC safety.”

On whether the defense is ready for the Florida O-Line
“You can watch that film and that offensive line we’re going to go against is extremely physical. It’s our first time with this group so it will be interesting to see how we handle that.”

Kliff Kingsbury
Offensive Coordinator

On Johnny Manziel
“He has the feel of a kid that has always expected this moment, so I hope that he can handle it and goes out there and plays well. I think he’s just one of those kids that has that type of vibe about him that nothing’s too big for him. He acts like it’s his team and he’s never played a game. I like that about him, I like that confidence.”

On the importance of experienced offensive players
“It’s huge. A lot of those guys have played in big games in big stadiums. He has to realize that he doesn’t have to make every play. There are a lot of guys out there that can make plays. He can get them the ball and let them do their thing. I think they can carry him on their experience.”

On what to expect from the Florida defense
“They’re better than last year even, which is impressive. They were a top-7 defense last year. Great D-line, a secondary that can get down in your face and attack. It’s going to be a great challenge.”

On missing out on a game
“I don’t think there’s any substitute for game experience. That’s my take on it.”

On being on the home side at Kyle Field
“I’ve had it the other way. It’s exciting. You can just sense the intensity picking up already. We’re expecting a great atmosphere and we think our kids will play really hard.”

On Christine Michael
“[He’s shown] improvement. From the spring until now, it’s night and day. He just got better and more confident every time he touches the ball, so hopefully that will come to fruition this Saturday. Obviously he’s going to catch the ball a little bit more in the backfield than he’s used to and that’s something that just takes some reps and takes some time.”

On Manziel being the starting QB
“I don’t think he expected to sit very long when he got here, so he’s excited to get out there.”

On making sure that Manziel settles in early
“It’s big. We’re going to run our offense. We’re going to do what we do. If I had any trepidation or hesitation about putting him in, he wouldn’t be our starting quarterback.”

Jake Matthews
Junior Offensive Lineman

On not getting to play on what was supposed to be opening weekend
“The guys were really frustrated you could tell, especially coming out for our practice on Tuesday. We were really prepping for the game and then we found out right in the middle of it that we’re not going to be playing that week, the game got postponed. It affected us a little bit but I really think the guys have moved on. We’re focused on playing Florida right now. We’re real excited about this first SEC game here at Kyle Field. The guys are really pumped.”

On the Florida defensive line
“They’re good. They’re big guys. They’re fast. They’re talented. We’re going to really have to step up as a group and focus on all the little details. They have a lot of talented players, that’s for sure. It’s going to be a good game.”

On the notoriety of the UF defense
“I came here to play against the good players and now that we’re in the SEC we get to play against the teams that are known for winning and doing well every year. We want to play the best players. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”

On freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel
“[Johnny’s] a leader, even if he is a freshman. He tells the guys what we need to do. I’m really surprised at how much he’s grown as a leader this fall camp, how he’s really secured that quarterback spot. We’re all behind him that’s for sure. He’s going to do some great things for us.”

On what the Florida defense compares to from the 2011 season
“There are a lot of great defenses we played last year. I can’t really say there’s one team that was better than everyone else’s. They definitely have a lot of player that we’re going to have to be aware of. They’re real talented.”

On whether opening the season at home is special
“I think it’s special to open the season at home. It will be our first game. We’re at home. There are going to be 90,000 people here. It’s going to be crazy. Everyone’ s going to be fired up. I’m getting excited just talking about it. It’s going to be wild. We’re definitely prepared for it and we’re going to go out there with a game-plan and we’ll be ready to go.”

On how he became the deep snapper
“We had a couple of guys that I guess just weren’t doing that well and coach goes, ‘Who wants to come out and just show me what you can do?’ One of the guys told me, ‘You used to deep snap in high school. You could do it.’ So I went out there and showed them what I could do and I guess they liked it. It’s another thing I’ve got to do but I just want to help my team and be the best team player I can be.”

On Sumlin’s reaction to Matthews becoming the deep snapper
“He told me he was going to help me make money. He told me I could make some extra money so I’m all for it, especially if the head coach wants me to do it.”

On not being able to get first-game kinks out of the way before playing Florida
“We were all sitting in the house watching the game and just being able to see [Florida] go out there and get started. Of course we wanted to play, too, last Thursday, but like I said we just have to move on from it. We were frustrated. We’ve just got to put it behind us. What’s done is done. We’re getting prepared for this game and like I said, I’m real excited.”

On whether the UF game being the first game of the season feels bigger
“You could say that. Especially the season- opening games – there’s so much hype during the offseason, the spring, the fall camp, all of that stuff. It’s all piled up and it’s come to this one moment, this moment we have to open up. It’s real special. Coach keeps telling us we have a chance to do something that’s never been done. It’s our first year in the SEC and going out there and making a statement – we’re really looking forward to it.”

On what message the team wants to send during the UF game
“We just want to go out and say ‘Hey, we didn’t come to the SEC to be pushed around. We’re not just happy to be here. We came here to compete and do well.”

On what the offensive line has done to make Manziel feel comfortable on the field
“Really, at practice we’re just getting him comfortable. We’re always supporting him, telling him that we’ve got his back. He knows that when he’s back there we’re going to be doing our best to protect him. As a group up front, for the quarterback to trust the O-line, that’s a huge deal. We have guys who have a lot of experience and who have played a lot. I think going into this season he can have some trust in us.”

On how the tempo of the offense will help the defense against Florida
“Every day, [the defense goes] against us in practice so they see it, they understand it. Especially since these new coaches got here going back to last spring, we’ve been running it against them there. We really have picked up the tempo and are getting used to it so I think it’s really going to help us out this season.”

On senior receiver Ryan Swope
“He’s done huge things for us. Ever since I got here, I could tell he’s a big-time player and he’s going to make plays. If he just keeps working hard and doing what he’s doing, then I’m sure he’s going to have another great year. We’re all looking forward to seeing what he’s going to do. I think he’s going to do well this year.”

On seeing better competition in the SEC
“You can tell just by looking at the film that the guys in the SEC – it’s a level up. It’s going to be a lot more competition and more of a challenge but we’re looking forward to it. We’re preparing for it and we’re excited to get started.”

Jonathan Stewart
Senior Linebacker

On having the first game of the season against Florida
“Playing Louisiana Tech wouldn’t have necessarily been a warm-up game. They won their conference last year. That would have still been a tough game. The most difficult thing will be just being in a new defense. We’ve been in it through the spring and summer and two-a-days, but it’s all been practice and scrimmages. Once the actual game comes out it’s a little bit of a different feel but it shouldn’t be anything that we have trouble with.”

On not getting to play in his home state (Louisiana)
“It was tough because we worked hard. We were very ready for that game. Unfortunately it was postponed. It’s not cancelled, so we’ll still get the opportunity to go back to Louisiana and play that game. We weren’t necessarily disappointed about not getting to go back to Louisiana or anything like that. We didn’t have a selfish mentality. We were just upset that we didn’t get to play the game. That’s in the past and we’re looking forward to playing Florida on Saturday.”

On Florida getting to work out kinks when A&M didn’t
“Yes and no. We should be fresh. We got an extra couple of days off, and they had a game and got nicked up. It has its pros and its cons. We would have loved to play. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t allow that. Whenever we get to play – October 13 – we’ll be fine. This weekend we’ll be fine. We’re ready to play this game and we’ll handle it.”

On studying the Florida offense
“They announced that we weren’t playing on Tuesday and we turned the page on Wednesday. We’ve got to start looking forward to our next opponent. Wednesday the coaches started looking some old film and stuff like that and Thursday we got into it. We lightly got into it. Monday we did more and today we’ll do a lot more. We will be prepared to play this team. They’re a very good team. They have a lot of talent on offense. We’ll have to be on our Ps and Qs and be ready to stop them.”

On whether Florida held back in their first game
“If I was a betting man, I would be willing to bet [that Florida held back in their first game]. We’re just going to prepare. We’re going to look back and see what the offensive coordinator has a history of doing and how it relates to what they did on Saturday and expect the unexpected, be prepared for whatever they’re trying to do. Trick plays, unbalanced formations, anything. We’re going to make sure that we have our eyes wherever we need to have them and that we’re prepared to stop anything and everything.”

On the atmosphere on campus and at the game
“On campus there’s a lot of anticipation. Everybody on campus is very happy. Walking around campus or getting out of class, all of your classmates are asking, ‘Are you ready for the game? Are you ready for the game?’ You get that question a lot. For the atmosphere on Saturday, I feel like it’s going to be electric. College GameDay is going to be here. The 12th Man is going to be more fired up than it has been for any other game. They’ll probably be louder than they were for the Texas game last year and they were very loud for that game. It’s just going to be great. I’m sure we’ll have a ton of recruits here and whenever they see that type of environment, I don’t see why any of them wouldn’t want to come play at a place like this.”

On freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel
“He’s grown from the spring and over the summer to being able to start. He’s done a great job of doing that and he’s a great guy. He’s doing what he needs to do. He had a little mishap in the offseason but we can’t judge him off of his one mistake. He’s leading the offense at practice and looking very good, and I’m confident that he’s going to do what he needs to do on Saturday.”

On freshman running back Trey Williams
“I think he will [turn heads on opening day]. He’s a much smaller guy but he’s very quick. He’s very loose and he’s tough to tackle because he’s so small and he has great jukes. He has a great ability to see the cuts and whenever he sees that, he explodes through it.”

On whether Florida will be just as excited to play A&M
“We might not necessarily be the marquis name on their schedule but it’s the first SEC game. It’s the SEC opener. Every SEC game is going to be tough and you can’t afford too many losses in this conference. Every game is important, regardless of whether you’re playing the top of the top or the bottom of the bottom. You have to be prepared and you have to be excited about playing.”

On whether the fan support has inspired the team
“Yes, but only to an extent. The fans are going to be excited about this game regardless. Ultimately as players, we have to let all of that be on the outside and once we get to Bright and once we get to practice, prepare for this game. We can’t look at all the outside things. You know, we have College GameDay, we have people putting up billboards in Gainesville. Looking at all of the outside distractions is not letting us focus on our opponent. Whenever game day comes we’re so excited about everything that’s going around that the product on the field isn’t what it needs to be. We go out there and we don’t handle business and we lose that game and then everything that happens outside is basically irrelevant because we didn’t do what we need to do on the field. To an extent, yes, but after that we focus on the football game and that’s it.”

On what he expects to see from the UF running back
“He’s a good-sized running back, a little over 200 pounds, 140 some-odd yards on 25 carries. He’s a very good running back. We’ll have to gang tackle him and we’ll have to stop his running game on the first down. We’ll have to try to get to second-and-long, third-and-long where we can maybe gather up some pressure and maybe try to get the quarterback route. If we can stop them on second-and-long and third-and-long then I think we’ll have a very successful day on defense.”

On the A&M front four
“I’m very confident in the front four that we have. The media always speculates, ‘How will the defensive line be?’ That’s just outside. We hear it but we don’t pay attention. I’m confident in our guys that will be in the game and even their backups. I know that they’ll do their jobs. They’re studying hard, they’re preparing hard, they’re watching film. They’re making sure that they know what they need to do, when they need to do it, how they need to do it and they’re going to give a great effort. If they have all of those components then I don’t see why they wouldn’t have great success on Saturday.”

On Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel
“At first when he got in the game, he was maybe a little rattled, but as the game went on he started to look very good. We’ll have to be prepared for him. He has a lot of teaching tape to learn off of from Saturday, so he’s probably got a lot of kinks worked out and will probably look a lot fresher. We’ll have to be prepared for him. They might try to take their shot because they have a lot of speed on the outside, and a lot of talent.”

On whether he’s offended by Florida head coach Will Muschamp not recruiting him at Texas
“No. Why would you even want to go to Texas anyway? (Laughing) No, I don’t live my life or try to play football by proving people wrong or anything. Ultimately we make our decisions in life and we’re either going to be happy with them or we’re going to be upset. The world’s not going to stop revolving and we’ve got to move on.”

On Muschamp’s comments about College Station
“He hasn’t been here enough. College Station is the friendliest campus and the greatest college town that there is in the world.”

Steven Terrell
Senior Defensive Back

On Driskel and the Florida offense
“They’re a pretty good offense. I saw how they like to run the ball a lot. They’ve got a lot of speed on the outside. Watching film, I could tell that Driskel was a better quarterback and I understand why they started him.”

On Driskel
“I feel like he’s more poised in the pocket and in my opinion he’s a better passer than the other quarterback. I feel like he led the team pretty well in that game.”
On Florida’s first game and whether they ran the ball a lot against Bowling Green on purpose
“You never know. They probably didn’t show everything. Most coaches don’t like to put everything out there in the first game. Against us, I plan on them throwing everything at us. They’ll probably pass a lot more than they did in the first game.”

On watching film of Boise State for OC info
“Absolutely. We’ve been watching them since last week. Most coordinators do what they do. Whatever they did at their past team they’re going to bring it to Florida with them. We’ve been watching a lot of footage [from Boise State].”

On the buzz on campus
“I can just feel the buzz around when I’m in class. You can see all the signs and stuff on campus. I feel like it’s going to be one of those types of games. Even in the heat of the day, I feel like we’re going to have everybody out there. There’s going to be a lot of energy out there.”

On whether the buzz will stay for the whole season
“Absolutely. When you play new teams, it brings new aspects to the game. Everybody’s excited to play somebody different. We’re not playing the same teams that we’ve been playing so nobody knows what we’re going to get. We’re going to have a lot more excitement this year.”

On watching Florida last week
“We took it as a learning point. We obviously wanted to play last week but since we couldn’t, we just took it like a bye week approach. We watched as much football as we could and tried to see those mistakes that a lot of other teams make in their first game that we didn’t get the opportunity to see since we didn’t play. Basically, it was a learning experience for us to watch everybody. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t make those first-game mistakes that everybody made last week.”

On whether they’re expecting trick plays
“Absolutely. [Boise tries] to do a lot of stuff before the play, like a lot of motions and shifts and things like that to get you confused. The final formation is what you really have to focus on. You can’t get caught up in all of the smoke and mirrors at the beginning of the play. It’s just the final formation and things like that. They’re going to run some trick plays. That’s their coordinator’s MO, so we’ve got to be prepared, have good eyes and stay on our toes.”

On freshman starting cornerback De’Vante Harris
“He’s been doing everything Coach has asked for. He’s been making plays. He earned the spot. Coach Yates doesn’t just give out spots. He earned it just like everybody else has earned their starting spot. I’m looking forward to him going out there and having a good game and competing also.”

On getting to see a former Boise State OC against Texas last season
“They do some similar things as last year. If you watch the Boise film and then you watch the Florida game against Bowling Green, there are definitely some similarities in there. He didn’t use all of his plays, obviously, in one game. You never know what they could bring out, but I feel like if we just worry about us and make sure that we’re fundamentally right on all of the formations and things like that, it won’t really matter. We can just go out there and play our defense and we’ll be fine.”

On how important tempo will be
“I feel like they didn’t go as fast as our offense. I feel like when a team faces our offense going that fast, they’re going to speed up their offense. I’m expecting them to go fast also. But you never know what they’re going to bring out. Tempo is ”