After a road trip to South Carolina and a five-hour marathon game against Tennessee, the bye week came at the right time for No. 6 Texas A&M. The Aggies travel to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 1 Alabama, the last showdown of undefeated teams in the SEC.

Sumlin, in his fourth year at Texas A&M, was asked if this Crimson Tide squad is different from the others he’s faced. In short his answer was the obvious one: Jalen Hurts.

“I don’t know, offensively their identity’s different, but they’re effective,” Sumlin said. “I think Lane (Kiffin) has done a great of transitioning what they’re doing offensively. Giving Jalen a chance to be a really, really effective quarterback. They’re using a lot of RPO stuff and quarterback reads. That’s probably the biggest difference, schematically. Defensively, they’re really, really strong up front… A really dynamic and talented defense… They score plenty of points all kinds of ways…I think that is a credit to Nick (Saban) being able to change philosophically to the players that he has, because they’ve got dynamic players. Having a mobile quarterback, and they’re ability to use him, that’s probably the biggest difference.”

Stopping Hurts will be a key for the Aggies to get their first win against the Crimson Tide since 2012. Sumlin said that game doesn’t come up for him much these days.

“I don’t think so,” Sumlin said of the 2012 game being a popular conversation topic. “Maybe with our fans but, it doesn’t come up in recruiting and it doesn’t get brought up by me.”