Kevin Sumlin Aiming for Texas A&M to Be Tougher, More Physical in 2015

There aren’t too many college football coaches who can send a loud, distinct message without saying a word, but Kevin Sumlin recently pulled it off at SEC media days.

When the Texas A&M coach walked through the front door of the Wynfrey Hotel, he was accompanied by approximately 900 pounds of players, easily making the Aggies this year’s biggest contingency.

Specifically, representing the Aggies were Germain Ifedi, Mike Matthews and Julien Obioha, who are all linemen. Not making the trip were the young quarterback, any of the speedy receivers or even the pass-rusher who set the program record for sacks last season.

“It’s kind of cool, he brought the fat kids,” offensive tackle Obioha said. “That’s really, really nice.”

Although Sumlin isn’t about to ditch the spread or make major wholesale changes to the program, he does want this year’s team to develop a different personality. In short, he wants them to toughen up both mentally and physically.

“We need to be better and tougher,” Ifedi said. “Five losses is unacceptable.”

But if you look at the Aggies’ recent draft history, the offensive line is where the program has really made its mark (minus Johnny Manziel). This last draft tackle Cedric Ogbuehi was the 21st selection, by the Cincinnati Bengals, and guard Jarvis Harrison was taken in the fifth round by the New York Jets.

In 2014, Jake Matthews was the sixth overall pick, by the Atlanta Falcons, and in 2013, Outland Trophy winner Luke Joeckel went second to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

So that’s three straight first-round draft picks in the same number of years, and yet the Aggies still developed a reputation as not being tough enough, especially when it counted the most.

Last season Texas A&M averaged 4.6 yards per carry on just 421 attempts. This resulted in 149.9 rushing yards per game, which ranked 12th in the league. Against SEC opponents the average dropped down to just 3.8 yards per carry.

It gave up 26 sacks and was 13th out of 14 teams in turnover margin at minus-seven. Texas A&M converted 40.78 percent of its third-down opportunities, which put it in the middle of the league (73 of 179 attempts), yet the more the season progressed, the more the Aggies struggled to run for a first down on third-and-short or in goal-line situations.

“At times last year, it seemed like we didn’t have the tools together to run the ball,” Ifedi said.

Thus, Sumlin made two important additions to his coaching staff with the aim of improving the Aggies’ biggest concerns. The first was veteran SEC defensive coordinator John Chavis, who had previously had the same role at LSU and Tennessee.

The other was to hire former Wyoming coach and Utah assistant Dave Christensen as offensive line coach and run-game coordinator. His addition made nowhere near the same splash with fans as Chavis, but it could have a huge impact in this fall.

What makes Christensen such an interesting addition was that even though he was an offensive lineman himself at Washington (1980-82), he was Gary Pinkel’s offensive coordinator when Missouri adopted the spread.

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press/Associated Press

While at face value Pinkel and the spread would seem to go together about as well as chocolate and anchovies, what spurred the switch were back-to-back losses to Bowling Green in 2001-02—and some coach named Urban Meyer. When Meyer moved on, Pinkel asked his replacement Gregg Brandon to teach the Tigers offensive staff the scheme.

Missouri ended up playing in the Big 12 Championship Game in both 2007 and 2008, quarterback Chase Daniel finished fourth in voting for the 2007 Heisman Trophy and Christensen was on the short list for assistant coach of the year honors including the Broyles Award. Not surprisingly it led to a head coaching opportunity, and from 2009-13 his teams went 27-35 at Wyoming with two bowl appearances.

“Schematically, I think he brings attitude and experience to the table,” Sumlin said. “It gets back to what I said. We’ve had to change our practice style. I think we came into the SEC with an attitude that, hey, we want to win right now, and the best way to do that is by scoring points and then building off of that with recruiting and generating excitement and doing those things. We’ve done that. Now let’s take the next step and, from a recruiting standpoint, develop a depth standpoint that we need.

“I’ve said it before. The SEC is not only a line of scrimmage league. It’s a line of scrimmage and depth league.”

Christensen arrived at College Station with a reputation of being as straightforward as demanding and not hesitating to be brutally honest with his players.

So his initial message would be important, and sure enough it was that the line had to be tougher and more physical.

“I think everybody bought into that,” Matthews, a senior center, said. “We understand that maybe we were a little softer than we needed to be. Being offensive linemen, you have to be really physical guys, and he’s really pushing on that.

As for Matthews’ reaction to that first position meeting, he said, “I loved that. That’s the stuff I wanted to hear.”

Since then, Christensen has told his linemen they’re the most talented group he’s ever had and the Aggies should be able to do what they want up front. He has also tweaked their approach, installing more zone-read and inside zone plays and putting a heavy emphasis on attention to detail.

The players say nothing is drastically different, maybe the hand placement on a certain block or the way someone steps, but they know those small alterations can potentially lead to much bigger things.

Like having more confidence in the running game, which can only make the Aggies offense more challenging and unpredictable.

“You want to see that look on defensive linemen’s faces...” Ifedi said.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.