Texas A&M Aggies

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- In all its crystal glory, college football's national championship trophy made a brief stop at Kyle Field on Saturday.

Parked on the sideline for a live television shot during Texas A&M's Maroon-and-White spring football game, as well as for photo opportunities for those who walked by, it was a seemingly symbolic placement of the sport's most coveted piece of hardware, mere feet from a team that might have a realistic chance to hoist it next January.

Yes, it currently belongs to Alabama, the reigning BCS champion, and it will remain that way for the months to come. However, the Aggies were the only team in 2012 to defeat the Crimson Tide, and if they are able to repeat that accomplishment in September, Texas A&M should control its own destiny in the title chase.

But that's many months away. In the meantime, the nation got its first extended glimpse of the 2013 Aggies, a team that could be ranked in the preseason top five come August. The score was Maroon (offense) 43, and White (defense) 23, but that mattered little. What the record crowd of 45,212 came to see was how the Aggies looked and, more specifically, what their reigning Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Johnny Manziel, would do.

Johnny Football didn't disappoint. He was 24-of-30 for 303 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions against an overmatched second-team Aggies defense. He got out of the pocket and scrambled a few times (three carries, 18 yards), but that was not going to be part of the show today in the interest of keeping him healthy. Nobody was going to touch Manziel, although he almost found himself in harm's way when he tried to throw a cut block on sophomore defensive back Sam Moeller to pave the way for a Brandon Williams touchdown.

Just one of those "Johnny Football" moments for the redshirt sophomore.

"I went up and apologized to Sam after it," Manziel said. "The way I am and the way my motor drives me, it was just an instinct play. As much as Coach [Kevin] Sumlin was shaking his head and wasn't happy about it, it was more of 'Hey, in a game, this is how it would have been.' It just naturally took over for me."

He stayed healthy, as did most of the players who participated. The only notable injury to come out of Saturday's scrimmage was an MCL sprain for junior linebacker Tommy Sanders, who'll be ready in the fall.

Several other things about the 2013 Aggies became clear on Saturday. Williams showed why he was such a coveted recruit coming out of Brookshire (Texas) Royal High School, racking up a team-high 59 rushing yards on seven carries and catching three passes for 29 yards while recording a rushing and receiving touchdown. The Aggies' starting running back from 2012, Ben Malena, is back, as is Trey Williams, who contributed as a true freshman. Adding Williams and Oregon transfer Tra Carson to the mix (both sat out per NCAA transfer rules last season) adds more dimensions to the Aggies' backfield and their offense.

"Brandon Williams is very talented. He's a home run threat from anywhere on the field," Texas A&M offensive coordinator Clarence McKinney said. "We plan on [using all four backs]. ... It's a good problem to have. The thing about those four guys, is that they all bring something different to the table."

While the defense didn't have its best day, its performance can be taken with a grain of salt with three surefire starters sidelined by injury, and another two defensive linemen who have taken first-team reps also sitting out. The unit out there Saturday wasn't exactly what will suit up for the Aggies this fall.

What the Aggies are hoping to develop is leadership. Defensive coordinator Mark Snyder said that safety Howard Matthews is emerging as a leader, as is middle linebacker Donnie Baggs. Having that presence is critical because the Aggies waved goodbye to two of their best defensive leaders, linebackers Sean Porter and Jonathan Stewart, who both graduated.

That said, plenty of the signs Aggies fans were looking for were present on Saturday. Manziel looked in top form. So did sophomore receiver Mike Evans. The offensive line -- though missing soon-to-be first-round pick Luke Joeckel and graduated center Patrick Lewis -- is coming together well. The remainder of a top-10 recruiting class is on the way in the fall and could produce a few more quick contributors.

Manziel will go back to work and team up with George Whitfield Jr., the private quarterback coach he worked with last summer. Manziel said he's ready to eliminate any doubts about what is ahead for him and this year's Texas A&M squad.

"The big conversation that [Whitfield and I] had before Alabama was 'Be a dragon slayer, slay the dragon,' " Manziel said. "Now there's a big dragon out there for us with all the people that are doubting A&M and all the people that are doubting me, (saying) that last year was a fluke. So that's a chip on my shoulder and that's a dragon we need to slay this year."

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- As college football's first freshman Heisman Trophy winner, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has navigated uncharted territory since accepting the sport's most prestigious individual award in December.

His new position coach, Jake Spavital, is also breaking ground.

Texas A&M's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach is facing first-time challenges, and has been handed the task of tutoring a sophomore Heisman winner while also being one of three new additions to the staff of a likely preseason top-10 team.

Fortunately for the Aggies, the man who will guide Johnny Football in year two might be as prepared as anybody could be for the challenge.

There are a few things working in Spavital's favor as he settles into his new role in Aggieland. He has a strong friendship with Manziel's previous tutor, the Aggies' former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Kliff Kingsbury. Spavital has his own strong coaching pedigree, coming from a family of football coaches that combines for several decades of football coaching experience. He has a great understanding of the quarterback position because he played it in college. And the list of quarterbacks Spavital has already worked with is impressive.

All of that has played a role in the 27-year-old's rise up the coaching ladder, which has put him in this unique position.

A former college quarterback at Missouri State, Spavital had no doubt he wanted to coach football. His grandfather, the late Jim Spavital, was an All-American at Oklahoma A&M [which is now Oklahoma State] and coached at multiple levels, including collegiately and professionally in the NFL, CFL and the World League. Jake's father, Steve Spavital, is a longtime high school coach who currently heads the program at Broken Arrow (Okla.) High School. His brother Zac is the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Houston.

Steve remembers young Jake idolizing his grandfather and scripting his own plays in grade school.

(Read full post)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin isn't the type to dwell on comparisons, particularly as the calendar pages turn each year in college football.

Sure, there are holdovers that were around and played the year before, but all in all, he looks at each of his teams as a new one.

"From my standpoint it's always a new team; it's always a new personality," Sumlin said. "As coaches what you're trying to do is figure out where you are, who can do what and put them in the best position to try to win games."

Going along with this new Aggies team is a new set of expectations. At this time a year ago, many across the country thought Texas A&M was headed for a buzzsaw in the SEC and some even felt the Aggies would be fortunate to earn a bowl berth.

Instead, Texas A&M destroyed perception and created their own, new reality, one that had them finish the season fifth in the national rankings and winning 11 games for the first time since 1998.

As a result, the Aggies will enter this fall as a highly-ranked team in the preseason, perhaps in the top five, after being unranked going into last season. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel said the Aggies are trying to keep the same approach they did a season ago despite the change in outside perception.

"I feel like we're doing all right," Manziel said. "We're still out here just playing football, doing the same thing that we did last year. We didn't have a lot of expectations last year. There's a lot more talk this year. For us, it's just to continue to make sure that we do the things that got us to where we are today."

In many ways, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback's change in status over the course of the last year is a microcosm of how perception and expectations of Texas A&M have changed. During spring football a year ago, few outside of College Station, Texas, or Manziel's previous Texas hometowns, Kerrville and Tyler, knew his name.

Now, he has a nickname -- "Johnny Football" -- that is known across the college football landscape. With a full offseason and a 13 games worth of game footage to break down Manziel's game, it's natural to think that opposing coaches, particularly those in the SEC, will be better prepared for Manziel, who befuddled defenses all last season.

Manziel, again, said he plans to keep doing what he has been.

"Coaches are going to scheme just like they always do," Manziel said. "Some might have one game [circled] on their calendar, but I highly doubt it. This was the same talk whenever we were in the Cotton Bowl and they [Oklahoma] had a month to prepare. That didn't really work out well for them.

"If they want three months, four months, whatever, we're OK with it. We're going to be here trying to get better and trying to make sure we're going to outplay them on Saturday."

Aggies' offensive coordinator Clarence McKinney said he likes the position the team is in.

"I'd rather be in the position we are now than in the position we were in last year," McKinney said. "We'd rather be at the top, getting hunted. That means we're always out front, rather than not being ranked and having to climb so far."

The Aggies also know that because they are hunted, they must continue to push if they want to repeat or improve on last year's success.

"When Coach Sumlin first got here last year, he told us that we had enough talent to beat anybody," running back Ben Malena said. "Now that we know for a fact that we have enough talent and a new group of guys coming in, we know that this year we have a target on our back.

"The work ethic of the team collectively has stepped up even more. We know last year's success was last year's success, but this year's success will be even harder because now you have a target on your back."

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The first time Clarence McKinney met Kevin Sumlin, the two were in quite different places than they are today.

The pair first crossed paths in the late 1990s. McKinney was a young, budding offensive coordinator at Houston's Booker T. Washington High School, while Sumlin was an assistant at Purdue, coaching wide receivers and serving as recruiting coordinator.

Though Sumlin spent plenty of time in Texas and in the Houston-area in particular, he never signed a player from Washington while McKinney was there. But he saw something in McKinney and let him know then what he thought of the Houston born-and-bred product.

"We were hanging out one day, and he told me at that time, that if he ever had an opportunity to hire me, he would," McKinney said.

About 10 years later, when Sumlin was putting together his first staff as a head coach at Houston, he lobbed a call to McKinney, who at the time had worked his way up the ladder in Houston coaching circles and was a successful head coach at his alma mater, Jack Yates High School, which sits literally across the street from the University of Houston campus.

Sumlin was making good on his word and offered McKinney a position as an assistant.

"He made the phone call and without hesitation, I asked him when I needed to show up for work," McKinney said.

The pair have worked together the last five years and had marked success, first, for four years at Houston and now at Texas A&M, where the Aggies put together a memorable 11-2 campaign that included a Heisman Trophy winner. Now, McKinney -- who started his college coaching career as Sumlin's running backs coach at Houston -- is now the man who will call the plays for the Aggies as their offensive coordinator in what is one of the most anticipated seasons in school history.

(Read full post)