In a pivotal season, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin will rely on a former UGA head strength coach to get Aggies 'tougher'

HOOVER, Ala. - Mark Hocke's one season as Georgia's strength and conditioning coach turned out to be head football coach Mark Richt's final one with the Bulldogs.

Kevin Sumlin is banking on Hocke making a change for the better at Texas A&M in what is a crucial season for the sixth-year Aggies football coach.

Athletic director Scott Woodward hasn't been shy about putting out publicly what he wants to see from a team that has gone 8-5 three years in a row after 11-2 and 9-4 seasons in the first two years in Sumlin's first two years in College Station.

Sumlin brought aboard Hocke after the Aggies lost four of the last five games of last season.

"We made some tough decisions about last year," Sumlin said Wednesday at SEC Media Days. "One of our emphasis has been, to finish and be a tougher football team. Going out and hiring Mark Hocke as our head of strength and conditioning I think has made great strides to that. And that didn't start in the season. That started in January along with the 15 practices that we had in the spring."

Hocke, an Alabama strength staff member for six seasons, wasn't retained at Georgia after a 10-3 season by new coach Kirby Smart, who ended up hiring Scott Sinclair from Marshall.

Hocke spent 2016 at Florida State as co-associate strength and conditioning coach.

"He's high-energy, man," offensive lineman Koda Martin said. "He loves the game, has a passion for football and for work. He's encouraging. He constantly is giving us words of wisdom. We have themes of the week."

Like competitiveness. This week, it's toughness.

"We love coach Hocke and the strength coaches," safety Armani Watts said sounding like many a player when talking about offseason changes. "It's just fun working out with those guys. They have experience. They've been places that have been won games."

Hocke shows boxing videos in the weight room.

"We're training to win, to compete," Martin said.

The Aggies need to win for Sumlin to stick around.

"Coach Sumlin knows he has to win," Woodward said on the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network at the league's spring meetings. "He has to win this year. He has to do better than he has done in the past."

Those comments drew a lot of attention, but Sumlin insists it doesn't change anything for him.

"The pressure I'm feeling is the same pressure I feel all of the time," he said. "And so nobody puts more pressure on me than me."

All-SEC wide receiver and returner Christian Kirk is back with his big-play ability. Returning starting quarterback Jake Hubenak could be pushed by freshmen Nick Starkel and Kellen Mond. The Aggies won't have defensive end Myles Garrett, the NFL No. 1 overall draft pick.

"My job is every year, I look at what we do and what we do well," Sumlin said. "We want to stay ahead of the curve. When we're not doing well, it's my job to analyze it and try to fix it."