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ADVOCARE V100 TEXAS BOWL: KANSAS STATE VS TEXAS A&M

December 27, 2016

Kevin Sumlin

Houston, Texas

Q. When you look back at Myles Garrett's recruitment, how important was he to get at the time and when you look at what he's contributed to the program, what has he meant the last few years?
COACH SUMLIN: You know, I don't think -- at the time, may be different, but I think our staff has done a really, really good job of evaluating talent, not based on stars, or, really, services.

I think, you know, this class that's committed to this right now is a product of that. The guys, we really don't care where they were ranked. Although, I'll give a lot of you guys credit. Usually the five-star guys are really good. Guys that are ranked No. 1 at their position, they are usually pretty good guys, and he's one of those guys.

He was a guy that in recruiting was -- you'll have to ask him -- I've got my side of it and he's got his side. I think we had a lot of work to do, early, with him. But I think he'll be the guy to tell you that between family, and his experience at Texas A&M has been a great one.

And I said this earlier: I think what gets lost with him and with the guys who are here today, you've got guys with a lot of different things that are at stake. And with what you see going on with Bowl games, what you see that's gone on during the year in playing games, this guy was not healthy after Arkansas, and he's a dominant player. And the fact that he wanted to play in games at 50 percent, whatever it was, third downs, whatever, with his teammates, says more about him than just his talent.

That speaks to our team, and you know, he's not very vocal, but when he speaks up, you hear him, and he plays that way. I think it's been a great example to our younger players.

Q. What about the recruitment?
COACH SUMLIN: You've got to ask him. You see him smiling over there; he knows. He knows what I know; that he wanted to go somewhere else early. But we had to convince him that A&M was the best place for him. And mom and dad helped during that time, and Sis. Yeah, she gave me the intel all the time, since she was already there.

Q. Kansas State is averaging nearly 300 rushing yards over the last six games. What kind of challenge do they present on the ground against you guys?
COACH SUMLIN: A real challenge. We've had our issues, particularly with the quarterback runs. And Coach Snyder, they have done a great job. This is one of the hottest teams in the country coming into this game, with what they have done at the end of the year.

So the challenge is, as always, Coach Snyder's teams are extremely disciplined, know what they are doing. They have had a month to hone in -- really, three weeks, to hone in on us. It's a real challenge to be able to stop the run, and then as soon as you commit to that, the ability to, really, defend the deep ball.

You know, that's going to be something that we've had our issues with at the end of the year, but we'll see where we are tomorrow night, because I think we made some strides and done some things to help ourselves, but obviously we've got to execute on the field, otherwise that could be an issue.

And for us, offensively, it's the same thing. It's going to be an interesting game, just because special teams will be a big deal in this game. Offensively we have got to be able to score some points, because Kansas State has been scoring at a pretty good clip here the last four or five games of the year.

So it's going to be a challenge for us.

Q. You talked about Myles a little bit, but can you talk about the impact your senior class has made on this year's team?
COACH SUMLIN: Yeah, at the banquet, I said we've got guys who have been here five years. We've got guys like Ed Pope, who has been here since we got here. We've got guys that are junior college guys that have been here, two and three -- or like Josh Reynolds; and then we've got a guy who's been here 11 months. So it's an eclectic group.

But they have done a great job with our football team, from a leadership standpoint, not just playing. But as I've said before, this group of guys that are here, have done a great job, I think, in the locker room, filled the void with leadership, and then also with how they have played.

And examples: Because the guys that are up here today, not all of them are seniors. But every one of these guys has struggled through some sort of injury this year and continued to press on and have handled it like grown men, and I think they have been great examples for the rest of our program.

Q. This game features some talented defensive players like Myles Garrett and Jordan Willis. Would you compare or contrast the way that they have played?
COACH SUMLIN: Jordan, we are not going to wait very long for them to call his name in Philadelphia this year. He's a really, really talented, talented guy and one of the better defensive linemen in the country. I think he's very versatile. He's strong against the run. He's got a great first step. He's got really good -- he'll be easily one of the top three or four guys that we've played against this year, and we've played some pretty good ones; half the All-American team is in our league in the West. You watch the film with guy with production and what he does, he's right there.

So you know, I think just like one of our guys, a couple of our guys, you've got to account for them. Not only in the passing game but in the running game, too, because he's a heck of a player.

Q. Can you put a finger on or figure out, give some sense of why you think that even when y'all have had some difficulty in the second half of the season, you've come back and very successful, played very well in Bowl games. Any reason you can think of that your team has been able to bounce back like that and play well in the Bowl games?
COACH SUMLIN: First of all, we don't look at it like bouncing back. So that's probably the biggest thing.

You know, we take advantage of the time off, and then how we practice for the game is probably a little bit different. I've been fortunate enough to be in a lot of Bowl games in my life as an assistant coach and I've seen positives and negatives to how you prepare for those. So we have got a system in place that allows us to practice our younger players, early, and really take advantage of that, and it's really two segments with the developmental part of Bowl practice and then our opponent's Bowl practice.

So that's been our approach for the last nine years. It's really a combination of things from Oklahoma and Purdue, and even when I was here the first time, just a lot of things you take from different people. Our guys -- I think our guys feel good. Like I said a week ago, last week was the first time these two guys were in full pads practicing since about two months ago.

And so we got a little energy, and I think our guys are looking forward to playing tomorrow night.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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