Texas A&M beat No. 15 Arizona State, 38-17, in Houston on Saturday. Here’s what coach Kevin Sumlin had to say after the game.

On John Chavis’ quick impact as defensive coordinator:

“We wouldn’t have been so aggressive in our pursuit (if we didn’t think he’d have a quick impact). He’s a guy I’ve always had respect for as a coach playing against his defenses. Like I said earlier, I think it was a good fit for us and a good fit for him too. The buy in in the offseason was immediate for our kids.”

On what a victory like this does for the team early on:

“You learn from last year it doesn’t mean much of anything. I will say this, somebody knew something. We weren’t ranked, but we were favored so somebody was right and somebody was wrong. That’s a good football team. Very talented and fast. Well coached. For us to come in and play the way we played for 60 minutes I think is something we can build off of. Any time you win a game like that, it wasn’t one person. It was a three-phase win. Offense did what we needed to do late in the game. Defense stayed solid all night and special teams were outstanding. The punt return for a touchdown and excellent coverage on kickoff return and punt coverage. It was a field position game and I thought our special teams were able to maintain our field position and maybe put Arizona State in some bad spots while we were struggling offensively.”

On the havoc the defensive line created:

“We rotated a lot of guys in there. It was really the first time we were able to get two deep. The ends are rotating and you are able to keep (Daeshon Hall) and Myles (Garrett) fresh. We got to stay healthy, but we have enough bodies up front now to keep guys fresh and I think that’s important.”

On rotating quarterbacks Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray:

“I can’t say enough about both those guys. I told Kyle after he scored the touchdown on the run I told him ‘listen, that’s big time because I don’t know that a year ago you would have done that.’ The way Kyler came in, Kyler came in and gave us a spark. He put them on their heels a little bit. Both those guys handled the moment. Kyle’s maturing physically and mentally, being able to handle that and close out the game says a lot about both those guys.”

On freshman making a big impact:

“You look at Daylon (Mack) with a tackle for a loss and playing a lot of minutes. Christian Kirk was a dynamic players. There’s a bunch of guys that were freshmen out there, Kyler. And Justin Evans who is in his first year, was one of the best junior college safeties had an impact on this game as a first-year player. We had a number of guys go in the game and have an impact as freshmen. They are really good players who came here for a reason.”