SECMD12: Swope Talks Teammates

At this point Aggie fans know about all there is to know about senior receiver Ryan Swope. The Westlake product is within reach of every major receiving record at Texas A&M this fall. But on Tuesday, Swope sat down with the SEC media to talk about his teammates, and what he’s looking forward to this year. According to Swope, the young quarterbacks have come a long way since the spring ended.

“They’re doing a great job. I can really tell the leadership has kind of taken over,” he said. “They’re feeling almost like a senior quarterback. They kind of have to have that role. They’ve got big shoes to fill obviously but they’ve done a great job this summer with workouts, and a great job in seven on seven. They’ve been doing a great job with the little things that win football games.”

Swope also talked about the progress of his teammates that receiver position.

“First guy that comes to my mind is Mike Evans,” he said. “He’s a sensational receiver, a very physical guy, one of the younger guys. I look forward to watching him succeed. He puts in a lot of hard work and he’s a very physical guy, I just hope for the best for him. But there’s a bunch of guys. Malcome Kennedy is one of those guys that’s been working hard, he had a good spring. Like I said there’s so much depth at receiver right now it’s good to have. Nate Askew, look for him on the radar but there’s a lot of young guys that are making flashes.”

One thing that all of the offensive players are adjusting to is the tempo. Swope said the tempo is so fast at practice that they don’t even do conditioning afterward.

“Coach Sherman had a fast offense. At least I thought it was fast until I got here and played for Coach Sumlin,” he said. “We go out to practice and we don’t stop running. The tempo is incredible, we don’t even condition at practice because our conditioning is in the course of the practice. We run that much. It’s great, I’m excited to see how those SEC teams’ defenses react to that kind of offense. I feel like as much conditioning and what Coach Jackson has done with us this summer that you can’t really get ready for that kind of speed in a week. It takes a little bit of time to get conditioned and ready for that speed of the game.”

“I hope it gives us a huge edge. Whatever it takes. I think they’ve done a great job of coaching us and we just have to soak all that in, soak as much knowledge as possible in from our coaches and just trust what they’re doing. I think it’ll really help us.”

One thing Swope mentioned today that is starting to become a trend, is the constant emphasis by the media on A&M preparing for the SEC. Swope talked about the SEC having to prepare for A&M as well.

“You definitely have to have that swagger about yourself, about your football team, like you said that chip on your shoulder,” he said. “You have to have that mentality of winning football games. You have to have that edge. Obviously it’s the best conference in the country and you have to have that edge on wanting to win and compete and just working hard in practice to be the best that you can be.”

With just a few weeks until practice starts for his senior year, Swope took a minute to talk about his career and how far he’s come since coming to A&M as a running back out of Austin to now, a receiver on the verge of becoming the best in A&M’s history.

“I’ve thought about it before,” he said. “It’s very humbling to be a part. Playing running back in high school and making that transition to receiver and now joining the SEC. I’m very humbled about it and it’s a great opportunity. I’ve learned so much from so many different coaching staffs and coaches, it’s just been a great experience.”