Kirk Bohls, Austin American Statesman– “When you lose the top pick in the draft, you lose your starting quarterback, you lose a lot of other people, parts that are real relevant to your team, how would you make a case for you being even better than last year?”
"Sumlin – “Yeah, I don’t know. I think everything is relative. I think for most fans, for everybody. Some people sum it up in wins and losses. I think as coaches, you do that a little bit, but you also sum it up by being a better football team. Because the schedule is different. Your schedule is always different. So, can you be a better football team with the same record? Can you be a worse football team with the same record? I can sum it up by saying how we’re going to play, what tempo we’re going to play at, what kind of physicality we’re going to play at, and how we’re going to finish. If we’re doing that, the wins will come, the way these guys are approaching it. So from my standpoint, to say that we’re going to be better- I know that we’re doing the things that we need to do to be better and I would not be surprised if the results do not bear that out.”"
I’m from Austin, so I’m very familiar with Bohls’ writing. I love this question, kind of letting the coach tell you how he thinks the team is going to improve. Coach Sumlin dances around this one, but correctly points out that lots of things change year to year. I think a lot of Aggies would be happy with 8-5 this year if the team is more physical, plays smarter, and finishes. Avoiding a late season collapse would have people remember the 2017 Aggie team as better than the 2016 Aggies.