Wednesday Talking Points

They say you're never too old to learn, and that's probably the case. Sometimes, though, learning takes on a painful form as it comes from experience.

Could that be the case for Kevin Sumlin? I think it is, for several reasons. Let me explain.

Coaches are, by their very nature, egotistical and self-absorbed. There are very few that don't think they do things better than everyone else. After probably having the best team in college football at the end of 2012 and an explosive offense in 2013, Sumlin probably fell prey to his press clippings and really did believe he was the smartest guy in the room. As a result, he gave authority to guys like the inexperienced Jake Spavital, the friendly but over his head Mark Hagen and the thoroughly unlikeable Dave Christensen.

After the beatings of 2013 and 2014, he realized the way the Aggies were playing defense under Mark Snyder wasn't working and canned him, bringing in John Chavis. After last year's complete disfunction on offense and in the locker room, he made what he called "drastic changes". He fired Spavital, kicked Christensen to the curb, fired Hagen and brought in Jim Turner, David Turner and Noel Mazzone. He also brought in Dennis Polian to run off the field operations.

To have your hand-picked guys fail miserably and have to replace them is humbling, humiliating and a blow to anyone's ego. But Sumlin made the admission that he did not have to be the smartest guy in the room and improved the program as a result.

There are a lot of guys out there in the SEC who I think have to be the smartest guy in the room. Gus Malzahn and Hugh Freeze are two of them. Will Muschamp is another. It's not a surprise, then, that one is on a white-hot seat, the other is under NCAA investigation after daring them to coming after him and the third has already failed once as a head coach. One guy who has a huge ego, but doesn't feel the need to be the smartest, is Nick Saban. He's more interested in winning, and will adapt accordingly.

Saban is considered the prototype coach and he probably is. He's a smart man, and sometimes genius requires knowing your limitations. If Kevin Sumlin has done that, and it sure seems he has, he's learned a painful lesson that will serve him well the rest of his career.

When the Aggies entered the SEC, the biggest issue A&M had faced in recent years was a lack of endurance. They couldn't close out games against the Big 12. They fixed that problem with Larry Jackson, but another problem because apparent in the post-Manziel era: they physically got their butts kicked. The offensive line couldn't get the needed push against the Alabamas, Arkansas and LSU's of the world, and the defensive line was getting blown off that ball. It was bad enough that, as soon as John Chavis took over, he had his linemen in the weight room in an altered training program.

One of the "drastic" steps taken by Sumlin was the alteration of the lifting program to, in his own words, make A&M "look like the rest of the SEC." Put simply, A&M needed guys with more weight and bigger lower bodies. The weight program was correspondingly changed, and the differences are obvious.

A&M is now 42nd against the run and you saw what the defensive front can do against a massive line when the Aggies shut down Arkansas 10 times inside the 2-yard-line Saturday night. A team that managed just 65 yards on the ground against an undersized Arkansas line gutted them for 366 Saturday and is now 10th nationally in running offense.

There's an obvious difference on the offensive line. The tackles playing guard, like Joe Cheek and Keaton Sutherland, are gone. Instead, you have Connor Lanfear and Colton Prater, even if the latter is a true freshman. They're a little shorter, a lot stouter in the lower body and tougher to move. The same is true of Erik McCoy at center. Avery Gennesy and Jermaine Eluemunor have become forces in the running game and aren't getting pushed around at tackle. If someone's going to beat the Aggie line to the quarterback, they're not going to do it with a bull rush. That's a big reason they've only given up 4 sacks all year.

This is another example of understanding your limitations. Sumlin realized his original plans for winning the SEC weren't working and adapted accordingly. It's a whole lot better get singed and live than it is to get torched on principle.

To win in the SEC, A&M has learned (see above) that you have to run the ball and stop the run. South Carolina is only giving up 17 points a game to this point, but that's fool's gold: they've played East Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky and Vandy, three inept offenses and one (ECU) that picked up 519 total yards and somehow only scored 15 points.

That's not going to happen with A&M. Especially when you look at the fact that South Carolina in 94th against the run and 124 in rushing offense. That's a recipe for disaster. Now that the Aggies have figured out this running thing, they're going to endeavor to keep doing it. Add the comments of South Carolina's defenders that A&M's offense is easy to figure out with Will Muschamp's past derision of College Station and the Gamecocks are finding inventive ways to piss off a top-10 team.

The big question is what Trevor Knight does against the South Carolina secondary. The Gamecocks have done well in three games -- against the 92nd, 83rd and and 112th passing offenses. East Carolina lit them up for 400 yards. The Aggies could possibly light up USC's secondary in an effort to get up the field in the hurry and continue to strike fast.