Texas A&M head football coach Mike Sherman met with members of the media on Monday to talk about this weekends match-up with Iowa State. Here are some of the comments that Coach Sherman made concerning the Cyclones.
On Iowa State’s win against Nebraska…An attention grabber…
“There’s no question. You go into Lincoln, Nebraska, and you do something that hasn’t been done since…I don’t know if Nixon was President then or not…I know a lot of you guys voted for President Nixon (laughter)…the `liberal media’ as it is (laughter)…but anyways, they beat Baylor a week before, they’re riding a two-game win streak and they’re feeling pretty good about themselves, as they should. To go into Lincoln and do what they did was very impressive. They forced eight turnovers. They forced some turnovers. It wasn’t like they were gifts all the time. They forced some turnovers and played a whale of a ballgame. I was very impressed with how they played that ballgame. Our kids are very aware of that and our focus is solely on Iowa State. After we got off the plane and landed, I called them together on the tarmac at the airport and I said, `Listen. Y’all need to celebrate. Be careful and be smart about what you do, but you need to celebrate this thing for 24 hours. Because when we get back on Monday it’s over. We’ve got to get ready for Iowa State.’ That’s what our focus has been today and it will continue to be the rest of week. We know that we have to have our best game this weekend. We played them last year down to the wire. It was a dogfight. And I believe they are a better team this year.”
On Iowa State’s Strengths...
“They have a very good offensive line. I’m very impressed with their offensive line. Their linebackers run fast on defense. They have an excellent corner. Their running back, who is one of the Big 12 leaders, is hurt. Their quarterback is very effective, and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. They had to substitute him, because he hurt his hand. But I think they have a pretty good group of guys and have done a nice job.” Which quarterback is Sherman preparing for?
“They run their scheme regardless of who is playing quarterback. They run what they run, like most college teams do. We are anticipating him to be back, but we also realize we can face either one of them.”
On how his team will defend ISU’s tough rush offense…
“They do a great job. They have a very good offensive line. (They are) Big, powerful kids that come off the ball and hold on to the ball very well. They run with their quarterback as well as the running back. They are multi-dimensional in their running game. They block on the perimeter well and their line moves the line of scrimmage. We’re going to have to get geared up and have a physical week of practice to get ready for what we anticipate to be a very good run game and effective passing game.”
On Jesse Smith…
“He is, and I believe he’s the one that got the last interception against Nebraska if I’m not mistaken. He’s all over field, makes great plays, and plays with a lot of passion. He’s fun to watch. You like watching him against other people than your own people, but he’s fun to watch on tape because he plays hard.”
