Texas A&M made a big splash in its first season in the SEC. The Aggies rode the flash and dash of Johnny “Football” Manziel to the league scoring title and 11 wins and established themselves as a force with which to be reckoned.
But things have cooled off considerably in College Station in the two seasons since. A&M has gone 7-9 in conference play and coach Kevin Sumlin thinks he knows why. The Aggies, he surmised, haven’t been tough enough to excel in the rough-and-tumble SEC. So playing a more physical brand of football has been the goal since they out-scored West Virginia 45-37 in the Liberty Bowl to wrap up an 8-5 season.
Sumlin addressed that first on his coaching staff. He hired away John Chavis — aka “The Chief” — from LSU to take over the defense. And he brought in former Wyoming head coach (and Missouri line coach) Dave Christensen as running game coordinator for the offense.
“Our biggest goal in the off-season was to become a tougher team physically and mentally,” Sumlin said at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. “In order to do that, you’ve got to practice a certain way. The presentation of the offense and the defense has to have a physical aspect to it. I think we brought that into play.”
Sumlin is banking on Chavis’ presence making a big difference. Last season, LSU finished first in the conference in total defense while A&M was dead last. And the SEC veteran defensive coordinator has had the Aggies’ number the past three years as he schemed against them for LSU. The Tigers have won the last three games by an average of almost two touchdowns while holding A&M to just 15.3 points per game.
Asked if Chavis’ domination of A&M is “kind of” why he hired Chavis away from LSU, Sumlin laughed.
“Not kind of. That’s exactly what I did,” Sumlin said. “There’s really nothing more to the answer than that. We’ve studied that defense; we struggled. It’s a great fit for us and a great fit for him. And e was ready for a new challenge.”
Already a lively rivalry, Sumlin stealing away Chavis from LSU has only added to it. Both parties are involved in a lawsuit. Chavis’ contract with the Tigers has a buyout clause that requires him to pay back his base salary ($400,000) if he leaves for another SEC team. Chavis doesn’t believe he should have to pay it, and the timeline of his conversations with Sumlin and the Aggies is at issue.
Chavis’ presence has been worth the trouble, the Aggies believe.
“You can be sure he’s going to help turn things around,” defensive tackle Julien Obioha said. “The first day he came in there and said, ‘guys, I plan to win some championships while I’m at A&M.’ He said, ‘we can win one this year if you guys want to.’”
Offensively, the A&M intends to remain a high-scoring, quick-tempo spread team. But it is focused on being better at “being able to run the ball in a big-time league when we want to, not just when we need to,” Sumlin said.
Though he was also using a spread offense at Wyoming, Christensen was known for creating strong run teams as offensive line coach at Missouri before leaving to be a head coach. And he’s bringing that mentality to his new unit in College Station.
“We’re all holding each other accountable to be tougher and better,” said junior tackle Germain Ifedi, one of two offensive linemen the Aggies brought to Media Days. “Any way you spin or cut it, five losses are not acceptable, but being a mentally and physically tougher team is going to help us in that aspect. Mental and physical toughness along with execution is what’s going to help us and we work on that every day.”
Said senior center Mike Matthews said:We definitely want to be more physical,” “Coach Christensen has done a lot of great things for us and he’s really taking us in the right direction to have that strong running game.”
A&M appears to be ready to re-assert itself into the conversation in the West. Eighteen starters return, including quarterback Kyle Allen, who is coming off an MVP performance in the Liberty Bowl. And if he stumbles, the Aggies are excited about freshman Kyler Murray, who was the Gatorade national player of the year.
And while last year represented a low point for Sumlin, it wasn’t a complete disaster. The Aggies are due to christen their multi-million dollar stadium renovation when they play host to Ball State the second week of the season and they continue to recruit at a breakneck pace.
“We won eight games; it wasn’t a complete flop,” Sumlin said. “And we learned a lot from that. We’ve had to change our style … and now we have to take the next step and from a recruiting standpoint and develop depth on the line of scrimmage. The SEC is a line of scrimmage league, and that’s really increased over the last couple of years.”
