Since its upset of Alabama, Texas A&M has become the new pet rock of the SEC West. The hot new team. Everyone is falling all over themselves to praise the job done by coach Kevin Sumlin. Everyone, that is, except Sumlin himself. The Aggies coach, who has done an outstanding job, realizes that the earlier losses to Florida and LSU put the Aggies in the position that now they must depend on Auburn to knock off the Crimson Tide if the Aggies can tie for the West championship and earn a trip to the conference championship game.
And, of course, his team has to come down off the high from the Alabama win and get its focus back on the rest of the season — Sam Houston State and Missouri. The final two games could be trouble if the Aggies don’t focus on the task at hand. Sumlin is counting on his senior class to get the team in the proper frame of mind.
“I met with the seniors yesterday and really had a great conversation with them,” said Sumlin. “We’ve been through a stretch and they’ve got two more games in their career at Kyle Field. No one will care as much about these last two games than you guys because for many of you, it will be your last two times to play football, and for all of you this will be the last two times to play at Kyle Field.
“It was a good meeting. We need their leadership right now, this week, because we’re still on the hunt for a lot of different things right now and to get back home and play, I think our guys will be excited for Saturday,” he said.
Whether the players have gotten over Alabama or not is another matter. Junior defensive end Damontre Moore admitted that it has been hard with all the commotion.
“There has been a buzz around campus since we’ve been back. Overall, the experience was breathtaking. It doesn’t happen that often and I think it did a lot of good for this program and this community. Overall, we were excited and we’re still in awe about it — the experience for the fans and the atmosphere around here,” he said.
“We feel like we haven’t made a statement yet. It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish. We’re not looking at, ‘OK we beat Alabama.’ We’re looking at how we can finish off the season. Let’s finish strong. Don’t get complacent. Don’t look at anybody as a lesser opponent. Just keep doing what we’re doing. It’s not about the other team, it’s about us,”Mooresaid. …
Despite all the strides made by A&M in the SEC this season, the Aggies are going to finish in second place in the SEC West unless Auburn can beat Alabama. The Tigers have a non-conference game with Alabama A&M this weekend as a tune-up for its battle with the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. Auburn, at 2-8 this season, has problems of its own to worry about.
The question of Gene Chizik’s future is the issue that is hanging over the Tigers like a black cloud.
“I have hundreds of emails from a lot of great fans that are very supportive and understand that when you go through struggles you continue on the path, and you don’t deviate off the path in terms of being who you are and pressing through those things,” Chizik said.
“Then you have the other fans that are caught up in the winning and losing so much that it’s hard for them to see it that way. You know what — both of those are fair. It depends on who you are, and it depends on how you see things from a general perspective.
“When you get into this business as a player or a coach, if that hurts your feelings and you can’t handle that, then you shouldn’t be a player or a coach because that’s what comes with the territory. It’s very simple. In college football, in the NFL, in high school, it’s very simple. It’s all about winning or losing, and there are a lot of other things out there that really, really matter, but at the end of the day, most people — or a lot of people — see wins or losses,” he said.
Chizik appears to be more concerned about his players than he does his job status.
“We have a great opportunity this week for us to be able to really concentrate on sending our senior class out on a positive note. That’s very important to me,” he said. “We have 13 seniors, and a lot of them have been great contributors to a lot of the success we’ve had here in the previous three years with an SEC championship and a national championship and three bowl wins. It’s very important because they’re a huge part of that, and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
Chizik is not taking this Saturday’s date with Alabama A&M lightly, even though most Auburnfans feel like this is a sure victory.
“This is a team that’s won seven football games and I’m sure they will be excited to come in here. I think it is the first SEC game maybe that they have played, in state and they have a lot to prove. I think they’ll come in here raring to go and fight like crazy and try to get a win,” he said. “Again, it’s like any game. You go into any football game and you can see it any Saturday — you have to play well, and you have to continue to fight all the way through. If we’ll do that, we’ll have a chance to win.” …
Another coach under fire isTennessee’s Derek Dooley and it will only get hotter if the Vols lose this weekend to Vanderbilt. A win could keep the Vols on track for a 6-6 record and a bowl game, but a loss would insure a losing season.
“[Dave Hart and I] talked very frankly about it,” Dooley said early this week. “He told me he had not made a decision if we go 6-6, despite what all the reports are. Either the sources are wrong or Dave wasn’t being forthright with me and I have no reason to think Dave is not being forthright with me. He is an honest man, he has always been honest with me and I have appreciated how he has handled everything about this. I really have.”
The Vols players know the pressure is on to win in hopes of saving their coach’s job.
“I don’t think we buy into things like that, especially for us seniors. We’ve been through, what, three coaches now? That’s basically the last thing we’re thinking about. We’re just thinking about playing these last two games and having fun with it,” said senior defensive back Prentiss Waggner.
Junior offensive lineman Ja’Wuan James said it has been difficult to shut out all the negative talk around the team.
“It’s pretty hard. You guys ask us. Our families ask us. We get phone calls from parents and stuff like that,” he said. “But I feel like we’ve done pretty good job this year and we’re more mature. I feel like we’ve got a lot of mature guys that can handle it now. We just all want to win, bottom line.
“We still have a goal of a bowl game out of all of our goals that we wanted to reach. That’s still obtainable, so we just want to go out there and win these next two so we can.”