Kevin Sumlin says all starting positions including QB are being evaluated
Could Texas A&M be making some changes to its depth chart and starting lineup before the Aggies' next game?
Coach Kevin Sumlin didn't rule anything out on Tuesday when asked about potential changes to his team in the wake of a 59-0 loss to Alabama and a three-game losing streak.
"To answer your question I don’t think there’s anything that’s off the table, any position, in evaluating where we are right now," Sumlin said. "Something like what happened Saturday is an eye opener, and should be an eye opener, not just to coaches and fans but to players too. We’re evaluating that situation. We’ve got coaches out recruiting today. They’ll be back in the office tomorrow and we’ll be practicing Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I’ll have more info probably next week at the press conference.”
Sumlin and his coaching staff can afford to wait to annoince any changes publicly because the Aggies are off on Saturday. And then Texas A&M's next game is against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 1. If there was ever a time to introduce some midseason changes to a team, a bye week and a game against a non-conference non-Power Five team is the time to do it.
Sumlin was asked if the upcoming practices would determine if freshman Kyle Allen would start over Kenny Hill at quarterback. Hill, a sophomore, has started every game for Texas A&M this season but hasn't played exceptionally as of late. In the last three games, Hill has thrown for six touchdowns and six interceptions. Against Alabama, Hill only threw for 138 yards.
“You know, I don’t know," Sumlin said. "There’s a lot of things that happen in practices, and we have a bunch of practices. We have a week of preparation. We have three (practices) this week, with meeting time. We’ve got plenty of time and plenty of reps that will determine not just … there’s a lot of evaluation going on, to be honest with you. To get back to those three things I talked about, the message yesterday was basically hey, there are a lot of things open. You can get beat 59-0 with anybody on the field. So the guys who are going to play to the standard that we set and have been, particularly early in the season and the last couple of years, I think we’ve gotten away from that. And it’s our job is to get back to that. And if that’s good enough to win or lose, you can live with that. But you can’t live with not having those three principles. And we’re not going to live with that.”
The Aggies' offensive line has struggled as well, and Sumlin said his team hasn't adapted quickly to the stunts and schemes defensive lines have utilized to disrupt the offense.
"I don’t know, I think we’re seeing some new schemes," Sumlin said. "I’m seeing some things we hadn’t seen before, coming off really a similar game plan from earlier in the year. When you put something on tape, I say it a bunch of times, you’re either sending an invitation or sending a message. I think we invited some similar schemes that we had some problems with, with line stunts and movement and blocking movement and twists. That has been kind of the M.O. right now. We started to get on the perimeter, and we couldn’t get on the perimeter quite frankly because we weren’t as physical as we were at the beginning of year and have been since we’ve been here."
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
