Texas A&M has heard enough of the game of the year talk surrounding last Saturday's 49-42 loss to top-ranked Alabama.
The Aggies (2-1) have turned the page and are now focusing on the final nine games of the season, starting with SMU (1-1).
"A lot's been said about last weekend," Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. "It was a heck of a football game but we've regrouped. We gave players off Sunday, came in Monday and talked about the good and bad things that happened Saturday. We're going to accentuate the good things, put it away and move on. We've got SMU this weekend and all our energy and all our focus now is moving on the rest of the season."
Last year's 48-3 win over SMU marked the first victory for the Aggies with Johnny Manziel as the starting quarterback. It was also the first time Manziel's teammates mentioned the Johnny Football moniker to reporters.
In that game Manziel accounted for 418 yards and six touchdowns. While those numbers are gaudy, he topped them in last week's loss to Alabama as he rolled up 628 yards of total offense, including a school record 464 passing.
The Alabama game earned Manziel the Davey O'Brien Quarterback of the Week award, as well as the National offensive player of the week by the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, a Manning Award star of the week and the weekly honor roll for the Paul Hornung Award.
Sumlin isn't surprised by the start the reigning Heisman Trophy winner has gotten off to.
"Anybody who's watched any of the games this year has seen his improvement in the passing game, mechanics and understanding the complete offense," Sumlin said. "He's right on track as to what we saw in the offseason, what we saw in fall camp and I think he'll continue to improve."
