Texas A&M’s debut as a Southeastern Conference team will have to wait. Mother Nature in the form of Hurricane Isaac has postponed Thursday night’s scheduled opener until Oct. 13.
“I know Coach (Kevin) Sumlin and our Aggie football team were ready to play, but the safety and well-being of our Aggie fans, our student-athletes as well as the residents of Louisiana is paramount,” Texas A&M Director of Athletics Eric Hyman said.
The postponement means that redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who was going to become the first freshman to start a season opener for the Aggies since 1944, will get his historic moment delayed a week. It also means that his first start will now be against the Florida Gators next week in a spotlight SEC game. …
The news was also bad at the other new school in the league where Missouri coach Gary Pinkel confirmed on Monday that Henry Josey will not play this season.
“Henry Josey will not play this year,” he said. “I tell you what, in practice yesterday, it was kind of interesting. It was Sunday evening and the offense and defense were practicing on both ends of the field in The Zou and all of a sudden I see this guy in a red jersey with his shoulder pads on and he is striding the full length of the field — and I’m standing at the 50-yard line. It was Henry and he was running and running good and running hard.
“He’s a remarkable kid and I’m so impressed. I went over there and gave him a big hug and high five. He will be back one of these days and I have to say that and I admire him so much. He’s battled through all the adversity he’s had,” Pinkel said.
Missouri recruit Dorial Green-Beckham, one of the nation’s most heralded wide receiver prospects, is getting ready to make his long-awaited debut, although Pinkel is not sure how much Green-Beckham will play early in the year.
“You know, we have a position where you can play as a wide receiver in there and you can also play it as a tight end in there and the things you can do are different,” Pinkel said. “He is learning both and he is moving in and out. He is a little bit bigger athlete obviously from the wide receiver standpoint, but he is certainly not a tight end. We kind of worked those together and it will work out fine. He has worked very hard and we are going to let him do his thing in preparation.”
One thing that does concern Pinkel is his team overlooking Southeastern Louisiana with eyes toward next week’s SEC opener against sixth-ranked Georgia.
“I have the responsibly as a head football coach look at everything, so to say that is not a concern is irresponsible on my behalf,” Pinkel said. “The good football teams, the really good football teams, focus on playing their game and they do not evaluate who they are playing.
“What they do is they evaluate techniques, tendencies, weaknesses and strengths and they do that on their opponents. But the really good football teams do not prepare differently because they play a team that is better or worse than another team. If you do that you are not going to be very good. You are going to be very inconsistent, and you are going to have major problems as the season goes on, so that is my job to make sure that does not happen. Quite frankly we have to get better each and every week.”…
Around the rest of the league, Florida is going to go into the opener with nothing settled at quarterback, but will play both Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett.
“I think both guys are good players,” Florida coach Will Muschamp said. “As I said before, I am not overly concerned with the quarterback position and the talent level that we have there. We have good players, no different than the corner position. I think we have really good players at that position and I think we can play well.
“Does that mean we are going to play well? No, it doesn’t. But going into the season I feel very comfortable about both of those positions where we have great competition with guys that all deserve to start and all deserve to play.” …
There is a similar situation still in play at Ole Miss, where coach Hugh Freeze is looking forward to his first game and the walk through The Grove with his team.
“I do know that coming here as a little child, going to the Grove and watching the teams go through,” Freeze said. “My experience in doing that let me know the passion of the Ole Miss people. Family has always been something. That’s where our families got together. I know that all of those people for the most part will certainly try to be there. That will certainly be kind of special, to know that I have the opportunity to walk through them as the coach here. I know it will be special. I know it’s special to my family, to me, my kids, my wife, my mom, my dad and everyone that’s close to me.”
Freeze is positive about the Rebels as they look for their first SEC win in two years.
“There are some days I think we might be better than I thought. Some days I may feel like we’re going to be worse than I thought. Your guess is probably as good as mine. I really don’t know,” he said. “I’m excited to find out. I like the vibes I’m getting from our kids this week, but until we go out there and actually line up against someone else, make the adjustments we have to make and see how our kids perform when things do not go well, which happens in football and how they handle those things.” …
Another coach in a tough situation as his team tries to bounce back from a disappointing season a year ago is Kentucky coach Joker Phillips.
“I really like the attitude in the locker room,” he said. “We have got a lot more leaders. You guys got a chance to talk to a few of them today. Those guys are doing a really good job. I’ve been saying from day one when we first got back together, I like the leadership we have at the top. Those guys at the top are starting to bring some other guys up with them. I think that’s key to our success also.”