Jim Turner analyzes what he saw from the Aggie fronts vs. Utah State

Key notes from Jim Turner interview

• Glad to be here, man. I’m looking forward to this game.
   
• I think it’s optimism. As you watch Texas A&M, just like in any season, when you start the season, it’s going to be difficult to get the thing off the ground, especially with the five guys up front. Offensive line is my position, so of course I’m going to defend it, but I believe it’s the toughest position to coach because you have five players, and they all have to be together. I’m not trying to take anything from the defensive line, but they can have one great lineman. Everyone else can be mediocre, and that guy can make every play. On offense, you can have four great linemen and one bad one, and you’re in deep trouble because he will be exploited. I think they have five good players at A&M. They’ve done a great job at rotating the ones and the twos.
   
• If I compare Notre Dame’s offensive line to theirs, I would rather be in A&M’s situation. Notre Dame had a bye week, and I don’t think that bothers them. It’s good for them. They were tested in Week 1 against Miami. I think they know a lot more about themselves. I think they know more about themselves than we know about A&M.
   
• I think A&M has done well, but not as well as you’d like to see early on. Nobody has said that A&M is off and running. Everyone has questions. How A&M performs on Saturday night... They’re going to face a really good defensive line after the Miami game.
   
• Do I think Notre Dame did a great job in the game against Miami and with game planning? I don’t think they did. I don’t throw criticism lightly. I think they should’ve run the ball a lot more. Statistically, they had 3.3 yards of rushing, and their tailback had six rushes for 45 yards. That’s six yards a carry. I think if they did it over again and ran the ball more, I think they would have won that game against Miami. The other big thing was that they turned the ball over twice. Miami didn’t at all. If they don’t do that, the game will be different.
   
• I think Notre Dame will come in to run the football. I think A&M’s defense hasn’t done great at stopping the run against two teams. Both teams have quarterbacks who can run. Notre Dame’s quarterback isn’t necessarily a read-run QB like last year. But he’s a good runner, and they run him his way. In the last game, he ran three, four, five draws, and every one of them was downhill. He doesn’t slide, he sticks his nose in there. He’s a likable kid. I think Marcel Reed is a heck of a QB as well. I think it’s going to come down to running the football in this game. You can’t put it all on the QBs.
   
• Notre Dame struggled late in the game against Miami. Every team has its closers on defense, and that’s how Miami did it. They put in their closers. They were able to get to the passer late and had a pressure and a sack on the last drive to shut Notre Dame down. They’re a problem and ran right around one of Notre Dame’s left tackles. That was really telling at that point in the game. He got beaten pretty clean. Both of those defensive ends are really good pass rushers. They work up the field, and they try to under-rush you late. They work you beyond the QB’s level and come back underneath. They’ll challenge us. You don’t want to throw the ball 25 times. I don’t see that being what will win the game.
   
• If you look at the Miami game, the Hurricanes had the ball 35 times and ran the ball more than Notre Dame. Handing the ball off makes a difference. Even Notre Dame’s defensive ends are not great run stoppers because they’re smaller. Running the ball beats the ever-living-snot out of the DEs. When you play teams like that, you want to attack the DE and smaller players. Slow the pass rush down later in the game. If you ask the D-line if they want to play a team that runs or throws the ball 50 times, all of them would say throw the ball. I don’t want to be in a position where we have to throw the football. If you just run that ball, possess it and don’t turn it over, you have a good shot at winning this game.
   
• A&M has a chance to be better than last season. If there are question marks, it might be defensive. You lost some great linemen in Nic Scourton, Shemar Turner and those guys. We still have depth that has remained. They’ve brought in good talent. But you really don’t know. Neither team’s O-line has new players from the portal. The D-line, both brought in portal guys. You want cohesion. Of course, you want a great O-lineman, but you’re not looking for him. You want to get him through normal recruiting. I think the offense, overall as a team, you will find out on Saturday.
   
• Le’Veon Moss is a great back. He is talented. He hasn’t proved everything yet because he hasn’t had the time and got hurt. I believe what I’ve seen to this point. If they handed him the ball 30 times, he would’ve scored a million times. Those games are hard to coach, and you don’t want to get him hurt. You want to let other guys play. That to me is a great decision. In this game, if I were coaching him, I would say, “This is you against the other back. This is your time on national TV.” I would keep him in that game and hand him that ball.