A couple of days after a discouraging loss to a Florida team, a Big 12 football coach stood behind the podium at his weekly press conference.
Up next on the schedule was a game against a team his squad should have no trouble with even on a bad day.
The coach didn't dismiss the next opponent, but he was quick to point out that the upcoming week of practice was about getting his team better, not so much preparing for an opponent.
The coach was Mark Mangino of then-No. 19 Kansas, who had just blown a 10-point halftime lead against South Florida on a nationally televised game.
Mangino, whose team had lost only twice in the past 15 games, believed his team needed to work on fundamentals. The unspoken assumption was Kansas would have no trouble beating Sam Houston State.
A week later, the same scenario played out at the Bright Complex. Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman summarized a loss to a Florida team (Miami) with a weaker opponent on the horizon (Army).
So even though the Black Knights run an offense the Aggies likely won't see another time this season, this week was about the Aggies getting better, not game-planning to stop the option.
A&M is a four-touchdown favorite at home Saturday. A victory should be a given, which means the Aggies have this week to practice trusting, under fire, what the new coaches are preaching.
It's a theme that dominated many of the questions when A&M players and coaches spoke this week, especially on the defensive side. Just by trusting the playbook and the new coaching staff's new way of doing things, this group of Aggies can show development.
Every coach believes his team can get better, and some of those improvements only a coach can see. For the Aggies, though, many of the aspects that need upgrading are obvious to even the untrained eyes in the stands.
Defensively, the Aggies have become more physical and aggressive under coordinator Joe Kines, a switch from last season's, read-react defense. Now that the Aggies are firing forward on the snap, gaps need to be filled at the right time, or offenses will continue to run right past them.
It's something the players have taken to but have yet to understand completely, evidenced by the holes Miami had on many of its long runs. Sherman described the dilemma as players wanting to help out others instead of making their own responsibility top priority. The domino effect is disastrous -- if one guy is out of position, another tries to make up for it, puts himself out of position, makes a third player try to make up for it, and so on.
Kines took responsibility for not having players in the right position against Miami. His track record would indicate if it's his fault and it can be fixed, it will get rectified. Time becomes the biggest factor, and another week of concentrating on assignments is definitely a good thing for the A&M defense.
Offensively, if you read between the lines, A&M's improvement must come with the physical component.
Sherman said the linemen were blocking the right guys, yet an average of 4 yards a pop by the running backs would suggest something is amiss. And the 10 sacks in three games would make one believe if they are finding the right defender, then the problem is staying in front of them. The word Sherman used was "finishing."
Kansas bounced back after losing to a Florida team, beating SHSU 38-14. But did the Jayhawks improve? Mangino wasn't convinced.
But if a ranked team that's gone 15-2 since the beginning of last season looks itself in the mirror after a loss, it can't hurt the Aggies to do the same.
Richard Croome's e-mail is richard.croome@theeagle.com.
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