Texas A&M Week Football Media Availability

Head coach Will Muschamp held his weekly news conference Tuesday afternoon. Players who spoke prior to him included Spencer Joseph Charlton, Bryan Edwards, Sherrod Greene and Joseph Charlton.

HEAD COACH TRANSCRIPT

Will Muschamp | 4th Season

– Got Texas A&M at College Station at 7:30 Eastern, 6:30 Central. Mr. Fink corrected me there. Out at Kyle field and a great game day atmosphere there thinking back to being a defensive coordinator at Texas and what a great rivalry that was and hopefully will some day continue to be. A great atmosphere, they redid the stadium after the first year in the SEC we were at Florida and we had a great game with Johnny Manziel over there in College Station. Two years ago to see what they’ve done with their stadium’s pretty amazing. But a great atmosphere. Jimbo’s got a good football team. Got a lot a respect for Jimbo, obviously, knowing him since the ’90s. Kellen Mond’s, three-year starter, a dual threat guy can hurt you in multiple ways. Can hurt you with his legs. He’s got arm talent, he can make all the throws, and I think you see Jimbo puts a lot on the quarterback at the line checking in and out of the run game protections, doing a lot a different things with him at the line of scrimmage. He’s done a really nice job for a really talented at receiver. Quartney Davis number one, Jhamon Ausbon number two, big receivers, guys that have been very productive for them. Vertical balls, underneath throws, give ’em the ball in the speed sweeps and different things. Rogers is a 6’4″ guy. Buckley’s a 6’3″ guy. Ainias Smith is a smaller guy but a returner and really good player for a freshman. The running back position really hurt ’em when they lost Jashaun Corbin’s a really good player, I believe he tore his hamstring and he’s been out for the year, but they’ve had two young backs really develop for ’em. Really three guys come on for ’em Spiller and Kibodi and then Cordarrian out of Memphis is a good player for ’em as well and they got two young tight ends, 85 and 86 are guys you got to account for in the throwing game and they’re very athletic up front. Defensively Mike Elko does a really nice job for ’em as their defensive coordinator. The two guys that jump out at you up front is number five Brown and number 52 Justin Madubuike I believe, but both of those guys are very active, big bodies, and guys you’ve got to account for on the line of scrimmage. Buddy Johnson is a really good linebacker. They’ve got some guys down in the secondary, but they are long and athletic and they’ve got some depth there. The punter’s outstanding, he can flip the field. He’s been a guy that I think we’ve faced the last two years, he and Joe are two of the better probably punters in the country in my opinion. So, got our work cut out for us. We’re looking forward to getting back on the field obviously. Injury wise Tavien Feaster, OrTre Smith, and A.J. Turner are probably questionable to doubtful. They all took part in practice but I don’t know how much more they’d be able to go and Jaylen Nichols is out and Hank Manos is back. He was actually back last week and he’s cleared to play this week and I’ll open it up for any questions.

– [Reporter] Will, are Bryan and Shi good to go for this weekend?

– Yeah, they practiced, they are good.

– [Reporter] And also, coming into this season you had all this experience with a lot of old guys that played a lot of ball, how surprising is it that that group has been so inconsistent and how can you try to repair that?

– I think that from the standpoint of it’s been frustrating and number one place you got to look is in the mirror, me, we got to be more consistent with those guys, more productive with those guys across the board. I think we’ve made a lot of improvement defensive from game one till now in those situations and I think we’ve got the older guys that are playing extremely well for us. You look at Bryan Edwards and the year he’s had has been fantastic. We just need to be more consistent. But we certainly need to be more productive offensively.

– [Reporter] What have you seen from Ernest Jones as far as being a leader on the field through these tough times?

– A very steady player number one. Very smart, very intelligent. Has the respect of his teammates. When he talks they listen. A guy that’s been a really good practice player for us. Developed himself into being a really good Southeastern Conference linebacker and he’s had a really productive year for us. But we put a lot on him at the line as far as formation checks and different things that we do front wise, pressure wise, coverage wise and he’s a very, very intelligent young man. He handles those things extremely well and he’s handled being a sophomore linebacker and being really the signal caller for our defense very well.

– [Reporter] Will, if Bryan God for bid gets injured again, is there a plan without him now going forward? Obviously it was really hard to move the ball without him on Saturday night.

– Sure, well I mean he was cleared to come back in the second quarter and I think there was seven minutes to go and Clint Haggard came to me and I just said, “Let’s hold him till halftime, we’re fine, we’ll get him back after half.” So, Xavier Legette, Chad Terrel, Chavis Dawkins is back. So we’ve got guys that are certainly more than capable.

– [Reporter] Will, when Shi’s out and Chavis is out, just how limited are you in terms of just attacking down field with just Bryan seemingly as your only down fielder?

– Well I mean that’s just it. You become very predictable obviously and when you don’t have a vertical threat that people have seen and obviously we think Xavier as a young player is a very promising and he’s got a huge upside and is going to be a really good football player for us but just hasn’t done it consistently on our level and it certainly limits you as far as some of the run boxes you’re going to face aren’t going to be very favorable and we’ve got to be able to get people off of us.

– [Reporter] Will, the players were mentioning earlier that it has been brought up in terms of having to win these next two games and become bowl eligible, is that something you’ve talked to them personally and what would that mean for this team with all the ups and downs you guys have gone through?

– No I haven’t addressed that. I address each week as a season and it’s Texas A&M and it’s folks in our football team and Texas A&M and that’s it. So, that’s what we need to be focused in on.

– [Reporter] Will, what were your emotions like being on the field with Jake Bentley before the game on Saturday night?

– Well it was just tough. Number one for all of the seniors, the contributions they’ve had, the amount of time that we spend with these young people, people have no idea the amount of time you spend and seeing them develop as a freshman, now to a senior, but certainly Jake has been very special to me personally. The contributions he’s made to this program, the success that he’s had as a quarterback here at the University of South Carolina and we’ll continue to have discussions with him moving forward on what his future will entail. But he’s meant a lot to me personally, his family, the Bentley family’s meant a lot to me personally and I appreciate everything he’s done.

– [Reporter] Will do you want him to come back and play next year

– Yeah.

– And when do you expect that decision?

– I do and I think, again, we talked about December. Gene, we talked about we’re going to let the season get over and then, regular season, and then as we move into December we’ll have those discussions. Yep, and that’s true with everybody. That’s true in the NFL, Gene, that’s when we normally have those discussions and there is a right time and a right place and that’s kind of how I do it.

– [Reporter] Just want to check with OrTre, Tavien, and A.J., none of them practiced today?

– No, they were on the field practicing,

– [Reporter] Oh they did.

– I just don’t know how much they’re going to be able to do game day.

– [Reporter] Will, in your Sunday teleconference you kind of talked about progress being made. Have you made the progress you wanted to in year four and if not just kind of what’s been the biggest hindrance maybe to that?

– Well this is a results business, it’s about winning games at the end of the day and we haven’t won enough games. So that’s the bottom line. As far as the main progress that needs to be made is winning football games. We haven’t made that progress. I think over a three-year period of time, this staff’s won more games than any staff has in school history. So we actually have done a couple good things around here and we’ve had a very inconsistent year and I’ll continue to evaluate that and we’ll see what decisions we need to make moving forward.

– [Reporter] Going off of that, Will, there was a report yesterday on Football Scoop, basically said that the administration’s putting a little pressure on maybe making some staff changes, is that true?

– No, that’s absolutely false.

– [Reporter] Okay.

– No one has said anything to me about anything about staff changes.

– [Reporter] Do you anticipate any staff changes?

– I’ll evaluate the staff when the year’s over with, just like I always do.

– [Reporter] What’s been the biggest key to the improved linebacker play year over year?

– Well I think John, I think, just go back to year two, getting Skai back was huge. I mean that’s a guy that was very instinctive. Ended his career I think with 14 interceptions. He leads South Carolina in school history, so just a very instinctive linebacker and I thought he and T.J. complemented each other very well with that. I thought we were a little inconsistent in year three quite frankly and I think this year Ernest is a very calming factor for our front, for our front seven, as far as making calls, as far as making sure everybody’s aligned in the right spot, erasing a lot of issues maybe from an alignment standpoint, from a technique standpoint to make sure everybody’s on the same page and obviously T.J. being a guy that’s really been a four-year starter, I guess I’d say three-year starter, but he’s played for four years. And both of those guys played really well together and I think a huge part of their play this year has been our front, ’cause our front demands a lot of double teams and what we call twofers. They demand a lot of double teams, it keeps our linebackers free. Going back and watching some run cut ups from last year as opposed to this year, there’s a huge difference and we’re playing blocks much better up front. And I think that that’s been a huge part of Ernest and T.J. having good years is how our front has played.

– [Reporter] Coach, I think Bryan’s record got a little bit buried under all the emotions on Saturday, but just looking back on it he’s now the all-time leader in receiving yards.

– Yeah.

– [Reporter] What an you say about him and just the kind of player that he’s been over the past few years?

– Well I don’t know what else to say, he is a better young man than he is football player. He’s meant a lot to this program. There’s some of the greatest receivers that have ever played the game, and when you talk in terms of some of the guys that have come through this program and we’re still trying to get that touchdowns record to make sure we get that as well, but very deserving of any accolades he gets. You see how he’s competing on game day, that’s the way he does in practice, that’s the way he represents himself, our university, our program, his family. But he is a first class teammate, human being, and is about all the right things you want at the University of South Carolina.

– [Reporter] Will, you mentioned the quality of punters that will be on the field on Saturday. Obviously they’re not going to be on the field at the same time, but do you feel from Joseph this week, an extra sense of urgency to prove he’s the number one guy in the country and not just one of the top guys?

– Well Coach Hutzler told me Sunday night the guy at A&M was better, so I don’t know, you figure that out.

– [Reporter] You disagree?

– I disagree a lot, I defended Joe. His own coach didn’t, no, I’m just kidding. But that guy’s really good. I mean they are two of the best that I’ve ever seen as far as on the college level punting. Both guys can flip the field. They hang the ball. So, they’re really good as far as the pooch, those situations are concerned, but both guys are outstanding. [Reporter] Will, a little off topic, you’ve got a couple guys on your defense with NFL dads. You’ve probably recruited players like that your whole career, are those players, I don’t know, do they have a better attention to the detail coming in? Are they better prepared maybe for this level because of what they’ve gone through with their fathers?

– I think anyone’s experience that’s been able to have an experience like playing in the National Football League having the opportunity, I’ve coached there, it’s all ball. You get in there in the morning and you start meetings, you have walk throughs, you eat, you have meetings again, you have walk through, you have practice, you watch the film, I mean it’s a full day of just ball and anybody that has that experience obviously is going to gain knowledge of how things are done and how things are done the right way and how you’re supposed to practice, how you’re supposed to prepare and I think that it’s been a wonderful experience with those young players and Jaycee and Shilo I’m assuming that’s who you’re referring to, because their dads did it the right way. They played at extremely high level, they understand obviously God blessed ’em with a lot of ability, but you talk to the people that played with those guys, their work ethic was what was special as well and that’s what I would say. And Jaycee and Shilo are both really hard workers, they take it serious, it’s important to ’em, and that’s why Jaycee’s been a very productive player and Shilo’s going to be a good player for us as well. We’re going to try and preserve his redshirt this year. He’s played in four games, we’re holding him right now. But he’s still practicing with us and taking all the reps.

– [Reporter] I guess it sounds like their dads understand that hey, you guys are the coaches.

– Joe and Deion have been awesome. I think there’s a certain, they understand what we go through as coaches and the different things that you travel down, but they’ve been wonderful, they really have. And I go back to the recruiting process. They were great in the recruiting process. What’s that? I’m sorry, Damani. Yeah, Deuce was up at the game on Saturdays, and Damani’s been wonderful.

– [Reporter] You guys considering any offensive line personnel changes?

– No, I feel like that obviously we weren’t as effective as we needed to be Saturday night and we certainly are more than capable of playing better.

– [Reporter] On a different subject, how has the targeting call changed the way the game is played if it has?

– You spend a lot of time talking and really defensively and on special teams talking in terms of lowering your targets and getting the head out of the contact, out of the tackle. I can’t tell you how many times in training camp that we talk and meet with our guys about those things and then have examples whether it’s from us, a game, a practice, or examples from our league office about this is going to be considered targeting. You’re going to be ejected from the game if this happens. And nobody wants to be ejected from the game. But I think it’s an awesome rule from the standpoint of player safety and trying to eliminate some of the contact with the head. And we’ve tried to remove the head out of the tackle and out of the contact.

– [Reporter] From the film you’ve watched over the last three, four, five years, do you think offenses are attacking the middle of the field differently than they did because of the rule?

– No, I think that schematically I think certain people, especially if they have vertical people inside, bigger bodies inside will attack the middle of the field and some are more apt to attack the outside of the field. I don’t think that that rule has changed anything.

– [Reporter] You mentioned Shilo, are there any other guys who are kind of on that redshirt edge?

– Well Trae Kenion and KeShawn Toney have both played in two games, so we’re trying to manage that right now. Cam Smith’s played in three, so we’re going to probably sit him this weekend and not play him this weekend. And then off the top of the my head I think those have been the guys we’ve had discussions about when we went through it on Sunday, but that’s where we are right now.

– [Reporter] On another subject, with the state of your receiver core, how much does that limit you schematically, maybe not having the horses you would want to?

– Well again, we’re going to have Shi back, and we’re going to have Chavis Dawkins back. Well certainly, from a practice standpoint, of little uncertain sometimes when you get into a Wednesday or a Thursday whether or not, who’s going to be up for you. So you got new faces in there and obviously it takes turns and reps to learn things at times and to block different looks whether it’s a middle field, whether it’s split safety, whether it’s cover two, it’s quarters, whatever the case may be, how we going to run the route based on the leverage of the safety? Got to be on the same page as the quarterback, so yeah there’s certainly some issues with that.

– [Reporter] From a communications standpoint, how’s Ryan done on the road, has he sort of progressed from week to week with those away games?

– Yeah, I think obviously the Missouri game was not a great situation for us and we didn’t help him a lot, around him, we didn’t run the ball well at all. We came back home to Kentucky and I thought he improved and played extremely well and I thought when he was in the game in Athens he played extremely well. He did some really nice things. So we’ll continue to progress. We had the lead going in at Tennessee at halftime, we came out in the second half and didn’t respond as well as we would’ve liked, but I think the communication has not been an issue for us since early on.

– [Reporter] And obviously you guys practice with crowd noise piped in, is there anything with the quarterbacks that they do, any drills or anything along those lines to help try to simulate that stuff to make it harder?

– No just the 11 on 11 with crowd noise. It’s about everybody being on the same page when the ball’s snapped and substitution signals I mean all of those things with the crowd noise and under duress going on.

– [Reporter] Will, looking at the dropped passes Saturday, how much of that was a lot of young receivers maybe just not having the experience and how much was it anything else?

– Well I mean again, I think there was some traffic throws that were going across the middle, and a body flashes in front you got to keep focused and stay on the ball and catch the back tip of the ball in some of those situations. But the bottom line is the ball hits your hands you need to catch the football and that’s get on the jugs a little bit more and I know Bryan’s done that with some of the receivers as we continue to move forward.

– [Reporter] Is that Bryan McClendon or Edwards?

– McClendon, yeah.

– [Reporter] Will, even going back to your time in Baton Rouge together, how have you seen Jimbo’s offensive philosophy evolve over the years?

– Well, I think he’s always wanted to have a two back formula and he does have a fullback there at Texas A&M in the guy that was the 12th man graduated last year who’s a perfect fit for what he wanted in a fullback. Always been multiple with tight ends. A lot of the route concepts haven’t changed since LSU. From that standpoint the running game I think evolves a little bit depending on what his offensive line does best, what his back feels comfortable with, and then what kind of quarterback? Does he have a quarterback with legs that he’s willing to run? Or do they have a quarterback that maybe he’s not as willing to run with? Obviously with Kellen Mond he has a quarterback with legs that he’s able to run with. So those are the things that I see and there’s some tweaks here and there, year to year, but you turn on the tape it dates you back to about 2003 sitting in Baton Rouge and going against him in the spring ball and fall camp and all that kind of stuff. But he’s a really good football coach and really helped me a lot in my career. I was a GA at Auburn in ’95 and ’96 when he was the quarterback coach for Terry Bowden and I got hired as a grad assistant on the defensive side of the ball and he and Pete Jenkins got coach Saban to give me an interview when I was at Valdosta State and went to Baton Rouge to interview. So I really appreciate Jimbo and Pete going to bat for me with Nick. [Reporter] Will, what’s your message to the fans who have lost faith in this staff now in year four?

– You know, again, we’ve had in our first three years more success than anybody else has and we haven’t played as consistent as we need to. And there’s some things that we need to address as we move forward and continue to support these players, continue to support what they do. We’ve got another home game and we need to get two wins and go to a bowl game. So, we’ve had some success here before that some other people haven’t. We look forward to a long tenure here at South Carolina.

– [Reporter] You’ve mentioned facing a lot of heavy run boxes, just what have you seen defenses kind of schematically try to stop your offense and what are they doing to confuse Ryan who’s still in his freshman year?

– I don’t know that necessarily confusing Ryan as much, there’s been obviously Missouri and Appalachian State and that’s who they are defensively, it was a lot of movement. A lot of what I would call three down odd structure movement whether it’s creating the fourth rusher or the fifth rusher with a linebacker, whether it’s an inside or outside linebacker, spinning an extra safety down in the box whether you’re in middle field or you’re in some sort of what we would call a quarters cheat where you’re playing quarters with an overhang and a safety down to the back side and zeroing out the X receivers. So, those are some things we’ve seen with some people and the frustrating part, Colyn, is we run the ball well against some of those people and we didn’t Saturday night and that’s the frustrating part for us.