Tannehill enters spring drills as No. 1 for A&M

Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill was expected to spend last season at receiver and backing up senior quarterback Jerrod Johnson.

Instead Johnson struggled and Tannehill was promoted to starter midway through the season. He led the Aggies to six straight wins and a trip to the Cotton Bowl.

Tannehill and the Aggies began spring drills on Tuesday hoping to build on last year's progress. They return 18 starters to a team that went 9-4 last season for the school's best record since 2006.

''It's definitely different,'' Tannehill said after his first spring practice as the starting quarterback. ''It's exciting coming into the spring just knowing this is going to be my year the whole year and it depends on me and the rest of the guys what we can do this season. It's definitely a different feeling and a different leadership role to fill.''

Tannehill began the transition to starter a week after the Aggies had dropped their third straight game and the season looked to be doomed. He split time with Johnson in the first game that ended the losing streak and they kept winning until a 41-24 loss to LSU in the Cotton Bowl.

While Tannehill was happy to be the starter, he admits it was tough to do it at the expense of Johnson, who spent the last half of his senior year on the bench.

''It was difficult, but I have great teammates and great coaches that helped me,'' Tannehill said. ''The guys around me really stepped up. The defense played great. The offensive guys, the offensive line really came together as a unit. Any time you have your whole team step up around you it definitely makes your job a lot easier.''

Tannehill completed 65 percent of his passes last season and finished with 13 touchdowns, six interceptions and 1,638 yards. A goal for this spring is to improve his footwork and work on getting through his reads faster.

And although it's only the first day of practice, he and the Aggies have already set some lofty goals for the upcoming season.

''The goal is to win every game,'' Tannehill said. ''We have a great team coming back and we're just trying to get better every day. We have our goal set on a Big 12 championship and when we break it out every day we say: 'Big 12 champs' and we really mean it.''

Tannehill's top target last season was Jeff Fuller, who had 72 receptions for 1,066 yards and 12 scores. Fuller flirted with leaving school early for the NFL, but decided to return for another season. Tannehill thinks he might have had a little something to do with that decision.

''I was trying to convince him every day, just send him a little text or something to try to get him to come back,'' Tannehill said. ''I was really excited once he made his decision and he's a great playmaker to have on the field for us.''

Fuller raved about Tannehill's work last season.

''Tannehill came in and led us in a great way and we came out with a few W's with him,'' Fuller said. ''We just want to continue to get better and build on what we did last year.''

Fuller said it took a bit to get his timing down with Tannehill last season because the two almost never practiced together with Tannehill working with the second-team offense. He believes the work they did in the second half of last season and having the offseason to work together will make things much easier this year.

''We've got all spring to get our timing right and work on different things and kind of get a better feeling for each other,'' Fuller said.

Fuller isn't Tannehill's only returning weapon as the Aggies have two solid running backs in Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael. Gray had 1,133 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns last season and Michael finished with 631 yards rushing and four scores in an injury-shortened 2010 campaign.

Michael broke his leg on Oct. 30 against Texas Tech, but has recovered and looked to be at full speed as he ran drills on Tuesday, bursting through the line and dashing the far down the field several times.