bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with Aggie head football coach Hal Mumme during the 2007 season. This week Coach Mumme talks about his seniors, the bye week and what defensive coordinator Woody Widenhofer has meant to him and the Aggie program.
bleedCrimson.net: You've got a short week again this week, with Senior Night coming up on Friday night and another nationally televised game on ESPN2, you mentioned you were going to hold practice on Sunday, what's the teams' mental and physical state after having a week off?
Hal Mumme: I think it was good to have the week off. We rested more and ran some on Sunday, we did our Monday type workout since we have the game on Friday. We started day early. They're [the players] good. We had a good practice yesterday, and we're looking for a good one here today.
bc.net: One of our readers pointed out that you've gotten off weeks very late the past two season, week 12 last year and week 13 this year.
HM: When you go to Hawaii, it would be nice to have one after that. Any time mid-season is always good. It helps, you're more rested but nice to have it a little early.
bc.net: If you could make the schedule, when would you schedule the off week and do you plan to ask the WAC to give you an off week earlier in the season?
HM: You don't get to do that kind of stuff, you can ask but they won't do it necessarily, it's like asking for different officials at a game.
bc.net: Beyond winning the game on Friday, are there any other goals that the team set out before the season that are still within reach?
HM: Well, we actually had three big ones and we only achieved one. We want to finish up with good feeling, I want our guys to feel better. It's been four tough weeks, you can't help the injuries, losing guys like Chris [Williams], and Derek [Dubois]. We've had 10 starters miss 33 games, it seems like we've had three or four key guys hurt since halftime of the Auburn game. It's been tough, i want them to feel better. We've got a lot of young kids, a lot of the guys that we recruited last year are just practice guys this year, most of signing class are redshirted, we had a couple who played, Davon House and J.J. McDermott. We want to end on a positive tone heading into the offseason.
bc.net: You're losing 22 seniors after Friday, including a lot of offensive linemen, can you talk about their play this year and the progress they've made since your first season, they've been one of the most consistent units of the season.
HM: They've done terrific job, that was a position that coming into the season we were still thin. We lose two seniors and Alex Gottlieb who's the backup center, we felt like we had seven or eight guys coming into the season. They stayed healthy which was a blessing and because of their health they've been able to be consistent. Most of the sacks this season have not been on the offense line, I think we're somewhere in the 15-20 sacks allowed range, most of those have been on the running backs or tight ends or on a hot route where nobody could block. Probably on the offensive line less than half of the sacks were on them. They've done a really good job, most of those guys are back next season, the good news is we have some younger guys that have spent most of season in weight room.
bc.net: You're also losing three big production offensive skill players in Derek Dubois, Nick Cleaver and Brandon Allen, can you talk about their contributions to the team?
HM: The injuries to the receivers this year have been a curse and a blessing. Nick [Cleaver] and Derek [Dubois] have missed a lot of time. Nick's had some spotty play on and off with his high ankle sprain. Derek will have missed 5 1/2 games. Wes Neiman has filled in, we've got some guys who have played, the young guys who had to play have gotten experience. It's not something we came into the season planning to do, we were really forced to do it. The silver lining is Wes Neiman is going to catch 35-40 passes as a freshman, he'll be the guy who steps in for Cleaver and Derek Dubois. Kyle Nelson is a redshirt freshman tight end who had a lot of playing time because of Cleaver's injury. We've also got three guys who redshirted who didn't play who are all speed guys, we'll be better in the receiver corps even though we lose Derek Dubois, Brandon Allen and Nick Cleaver.
bc.net: Can you talk about the seniors on this team that you'll be honoring on Friday?
HM: There are 22 seniors and I could talk about each of them individually but I think the biggest contribution is that they're going to graduate. When we came here we lost 20% of our scholarships due to APR rule which they made retroactive. After '05 and '06 with 20% of our initial. scholarships taken away, the single biggest thing they've done is they're going to grad. They've all contributed in all forms and fashions.
bc.net: Which of the seniors do you think have a chance to get to the next level?
HM: We've had the scouts come through and they've looked at guys, we'll probably have nobody drafted, if we do it'll be in the lower rounds.
Mike Martinez will get look, he's been our left tackle for the past two years and he's played center and he can deep snap, he's a pretty utilitarian lineman, the NFL likes those kind of guys.
Dante Floyd has played his way into a look, he's the prototype for a linebacker who plays on special teams, he's also a good coverage guy.
Nick Cleaver was probably going to be the highest drafted guy before his injury, that has set him back. He's tried to play, his play has been spotty. He's the one who's injury has hurt the most. He will get look as an h-back though.
Maurice Murray and Jared Naylor, the scouts will look at and talk about because of their size and they can move around a bit. They both have a shot but depends on how hard they work in the offseason.
bc.net: Looking ahead to the game on Friday, Fresno State after having a bit of a down year last year, seems to be back on track and dominated Kansas State on Saturday. Their run defense is ranked 92nd in the country giving up almost 200 yards per game, a lot of your passing game, the quick outs, WR screens and shovel passes are similar to runs, are those kind of plays just as effective against a run defense like Fresno's?
HM: Well that's kind of a different thing. I think some of that stuff on the stats can be misleading. In Fresno's case, they had a couple of bad nights like us. Statistically on run, one of them was against Nevada and Colin Kaepernick before anyone knew who he was. They led in the game 41-7, Nick Graziano gets hurt and here comes Colin off bench, in a quarter and half he rushes for 200 yards. It's a little misleading. Our short passing game helps us and we'll use it quite a bit. The thing that hurts us, we were doing good job rushing until Tonny Glynn got hurt. We were averaging over 100 yards a game on the ground. Justin Buries is limited physically with coming back from the ACL injuries and other injuries through his career. He's not able to go more than about 15 carries, we've been hurt not having Tonny.
bc.net: Their offense has a very balanced attack, around 200 yards on the ground and 200 yards passing, is it harder to stop a team that gets half their yardage from the run and the pass as opposed to a team that specialized on one or the other?
HM: Well you know I'd probably say specialized teams harder to stop. Fresno is pretty good on offense, their offensive coordinator is doing a good job, he came over from the Raiders, Fresno's always ran ball well, the thing he's done is improving Brandstater on play-action passes.
bc.net: The early signing period started I think last week or the week before, have you signed any players in that signing period?
HM: Well, the signing period for junior college players is December 19th, it's only for junior college kids who will be coming out and be here in the spring so it's a limited amount of kids. I can't really talk about that because of the rules but we're on a lot of kids and we'll have a good list.
bc.net: Coach Woody announced his retirement, what has he meant to you as a coach and to the Aggie program?
HM: I tell you what, Woody is a great person, I've known him for 10 years, I coached against him when he was at Vanderbilt, he was with me at Southeastern Louisiana. He's a terrific person. He was about to retire after Vandy and he got rejuvenated and wanted to help at Southeastern. He got fired up again. He said it yesterday, it's kinda time for him to enjoy life a little bit. I'm going to miss him greatly, we'll still get together on golf course some and other social settings. We'll miss him a lot, he's a great person. A lot of the stuff Woody has done has been beneath surface. The most important thing is graduating players. He's been the liaison with the academic study table and he's done terrific job with getting guys graduated. That's a big attribute to Woody and to the kids.
When we got here as a staff, we had 42 scholarship players on either academic suspension or academic probation. We've done terrific job of getting a chance with the APR, Woody been instrumental in that. He's taken a lot of guys who weren't necessarily good students to begin with and gotten them to graduate.
bc.net: Do you have a favorite memory or story that you might be willing to share with the fans about Coach Woody?
HM: Woody's a heck of competitor. the first time we met, it was my first year at Kentucky and the first time we spoke was at the first game between our teams. It was November, it was the next to last game of the season in Nashville. It was one of those days in Nashville where the wind blows, it was icy, it was sleeting, it was just hideous weather. Usually it's beautiful there but sometimes it can be brutal, and it was just one of those days. I walked to midfield, and you know Woody was a legedary coach and here I am a little coach from Valdosta State who happened to get the job at Kentucky. We're playing Vandy, we had Tim Couch and we were kind of learning the offense and how to throw it around, I walked to midfield to introduce myself to him and he takes my hand and says "Well I guess you won't be throwing ball around in this weather." He was going to start mental battle right there, he wouldn't give me one iota, he wouldn't even introduce himself to me.
We ended up winning that game but he was right we didn't throw it around a lot that day. Tim had less than 200 yards passing and we were lucky to win, I think we won by like three points. He and I became great friends after that. It's fun to be around him not just as a coach but as a person.
