A perceived lack of toughness was a characteristic that haunted the Texas A&M program under Kevin Sumlin and ultimately led to the demise of the former Aggie coach in College Station. Upon accepting the A&M job, Jimbo Fisher’s first task of climbing the SEC West ladder is to fix that issue.

Hiring longtime Oklahoma strength coach Jerry Schmidt to join his first Aggie staff was a great start to alleviating those issues, as Schmidt had been in Norman during the entire Bob Stoops era. Now with the players buying into the new system, as Trayveon Williams indicates has happened, steps are being made to change the culture in College Station.

During his media availability in Atlanta for SEC Media Days, Williams was asked why he believed the Aggies will prove they have shed the dreaded “soft” label under Fisher.

“The things that Coach Fisher put into place: toughness, effort, discipline. We are going to start building on those things and build on ourselves as brothers and work together to have a great season,” Williams said.

You can view the exchange below, which was filmed and posted by Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle: