Published September 12, 2012 - 8:57am
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In a press conference yesterday, Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was asked about his team’s conditioning for the first game of the season. Sumlin said his team appeared in good shape for the opener after the postponement of the Louisiana Tech game.
However, he criticized Florida by saying “it wasn’t our team flopping around on the field in the second half.”
A reporter then asked Sumlin if Florida’s “flopping around” was because of conditioning or something else. His reply was, “You were there”.
So, Sumlin thinks his team is better conditioned than Florida? Nah. He’s slighting the Gators and Will Muschamp and accusing them of “flopping around” to disrupt the rhythm of his offense.
Gainesville definitely is hot and muggy, and Florida should be used to the heat.
Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit mentioned the University of Florida’s cramps prevention program utilized by the football staff several times during the game.
Kyle Field has never really been known to bring the boo birds out for the opponent, but they sure came out when Florida’s players went down with apparent cramps.
Weather.com tells us that it was a high of 88 degrees on Saturday, down from 104 the day before in College Station.
We’ve seen teams in the past in the NFL and in college football fake injuries to slow down high-powered offenses. But it’s not like Texas A&M’s offense was running a play every 10 seconds like Oregon does. Some Florida offensive linemen went down for cramping as well. Maybe Mushcamp wanted to slow down his own offense? Is that even possible?
Whether or not the cramping or injuries were “fake” by the Florida defense, the Aggies’ offense was totally shut down in the second half and held to 65 total yards, after really having their way in the first half.
Something tells me Texas A&M is going to be just fine in this conference. I love the enthusiasm and pizzazz Sumlin showed by his comments. I don’t have a problem with them.
Saturday could have been the start of a beautiful cross-divisional rivalry in the future, and everyone should commend Sumlin on spicing it up. Don’t take it personal, Gators. It’s all in good fun.
Every up-tempo team in football now complains about this. It’s nothing new.
Talking big before the game is one thing. When you do it after a loss it just sounds like sour grapes and looks petty.
so Jelani Jenkins who needed surgery on his thumb was flopping? or how about Cody Riggs who has a fracture in his foot? I’d flop too if i broke something….
I think Sumlin is more referring to the second half. I know Jenkins went out early, and I’m not sure at what point Cody Riggs went down. He was talking about more of the “cramping” though.
Some of the players that went down never returned, but all of the players who went down, at minimum, sat out a few snaps…..Now, in a big game like this do you think Muschamp wanted to bring in his backups to seal the deal. No, but it happened. The gators made it down to the 3rd string at some positions. Yes, I admit it looked ridiculous to have all those players go down, but if you watch the game tape, not once did it affect the tempo of their offense.
I don’t know if Florida was “cramping up” deliberately or not, but it doesn’t matter. Sumlin should give it more than a single game before he starts complaining like this. And I’m a fan of Sumlin.
I agree with Kevin on this 1.
Well, Sumlin is right about 1 thing, it definitely wasn’t his team flopping around in the second half… the only member of his team that got a workout in the second half was his punter.