Sliding a crucial skill for Murray
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s Kyler Murray has plenty of room to improve in his running, passing and overall quarterback acumen, but there’s one aspect of playing the position the freshman has had down pat: A smooth slide at the end a scramble.
“We don’t have to have slide drills here,” coach Kevin Sumlin said, smiling. “He’s also a great baseball player, so he knows how to slide.”
Murray is minute by most college quarterback standards — and his official listed height (5-11, 188) is considered generous — so it’s been ingrained in his psyche from the start that a means of long-term survival is a suave slide.
Defenders aren’t allowed to tackle a runner once his legs are on the ground (although it happens infrequently for a penalty), and while the slide typically costs the offense a few yards, it at least helps preserve their quarterback.
“It keeps him safe,” receiver Ricky Seals-Jones said of Murray’s slides.
Timing could be better
Typically. Murray also learned a lesson about the slide a week ago in the Aggies’ 26-10 loss to Auburn. The timing better be good, or there could be more trouble than if he’d stayed upright.
“It was kind of a bangbang play,” offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said of an incident that sidelined Murray in the third quarter. “The (defender) was going to make a normal tackle, and it ended up a lot more violent than it was meant to be. A lot of that had to do with being late with the slide.”
Murray didn’t play the rest of the way against the Tigers, but he’s expected back for the Aggies’ 6 p.m. Saturday game against nonconference opponent Western Carolina, in his third career start. Sumlin doesn’t allow first-year players to visit with the media, but it’s a safe bet Murray will be wary of the timing of his slides moving forward.
On the educational play, the Aggies faced a firstand-goal from the Auburn 4-yard line, when Murray scrambled around the right side and at the last instant, instead of trying to punch the ball into the end zone, dipped into the slide.
Auburn defensive back Blake Countess was in the process of a by-the-book tackle, in aiming for Murray’s waist and legs on a dive. But when Murray slid and turned a bit in anticipation of a collision, Countess smashed helmets, and a dizzied Murray headed to the locker room.
“He was in the process of sliding, he just needs to get down a little quicker in that situation,” Spavital said. “With all quarterbacks, I don’t want them running the ball all the time, but when they do you just have to get as many yards as you can, and then make a decision whether to throw it or get down immediately and avoid the hit. He learned a lesson from that play.”
Learned what not to do
While he was leading Allen High to three consecutive state titles in the largest division, Murray also watched then-A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel take plenty of hits in failing to slide — at least in his freshman year of 2012.
The next season, the coaches had ingrained in Manziel’s psyche that he needed to slide at the end of a scramble in the interest of self-preservation, but it wasn’t in his nature and he occasionally appeared awkward doing so. Murray
arrived at A&M with the intent of sliding from the start.
“Kyler learned from Johnny not sliding,” said senior running back Tra Carson, who played with both at A&M. “He has to make sure and get down and protect himself.”
As long as his timing is good, anyway.