While the Texas A&M Aggies have been, to put it bluntly, an abject disaster on offense in 2026, their defense has been markedly better. They shut out their two cupcakes and held Arkansas to only 7 points. On the other hand, they gave up 31 to Kentucky, 35 to LSU, and 27 to Missouri in their three losses. Not terrible, but not good enough, either.
Overall, though, they’re averaging 17.1 points per game – good for 27th in the nation. Head Coach Mike Elko is a long time respected defensive mind in the sport. He’s what I would consider an amorphic scheme, and I would argue is the very first coach to start the downfall of the Alabama offense back when he figured out how to crowd the line of scrimmage and blitz the fire out of Bryce Young in 2021. Since then, it’s felt like every team for the last 5 years has copied that approach when playing Bama.
Any time a coach gets a feature piece in Cody Alexander’s MatchQuarters blog, you know its a coach who is doing something cool (which, by the way, I highly recommend MQ as a place to really learn about defensive football).
In his ‘22 Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, Elko explained his philosophy for 3rd Down. First, attack the offense and make the QB uncomfortable. Second, crowd the line of scrimmage (LOS) with multiple defenders so the OC and QB can’t identify where the pressure is coming from. Finally, Mix man and zone pressures as well as alignments (Where are the non-bigs aligned?) to keep the offense guessing. The Split Front lends well to Elko’s philosophy.
Along with being multiple in where the off-ball players are located, Elko uses multiple pressure designs in a game to maximize the Split Front and to keep the offense guessing. One way to describe Elko’s philosophy in terms of pressure selections is that he has a Hot (6-man/Max), Warm (five-man/Fire Zone), and Cold (Simulated/Drop-8) call for each 3rd Down. Each pressure is pre-designed and can overlap in concept or be completely different depending on the plan for the week.
Having a pre-planned pressure menu prior to a game allows Elko to keep track of how he is attacking the offense while keeping the OC guessing. Plus, Elko can then use his Hot, Warm, and Cold calls to manipulate future opponents by using similar looks but changing the pressure path. The menu also allows Elko to match the situation and need of the specific field zone and 3rd Down.
Now, interestingly, Elko actually gave up doing double-duty as a head coach and a defensive play caller a few weeks ago, with long time assistant Lyle Hemphill getting his first shot at play calling against Arkansas.
“I gave up play-calling a few weeks ago on defense just so that I could function and focus more as a CEO and be able to try and be involved as much as I can to be helpful and try to create different things in practice,” Elko said after the Missouri game. “You try to create different scenarios. You try to create different situations. You try to just create opportunities to find success. That’s the role and the job that I can play and try to do the best I can to help and be involved.”
So, what has that meant for the defense in A&M’s last two games?
On the scoreboard, the Aggie defense held Arkansas to seven points but allowed Missouri to post 27. Missouri quarterback Austin Simmons, one of the FBS’s most explosive passers, was held to 147 yards, a low mark this season in a power conference matchup.
Arkansas was held to 103 rushing yards, but Missouri posted 247 on the ground against the Aggies. The 214 total yards the Razorbacks posted against the Aggies was the second-lowest this season. Missouri tallied 394, which ranks third on the season in six games.
A&M gave up a combined 66 points to Kentucky and LSU.
A&M’s pass rush hasn’t seen much change in frequency but has been more successful in the Aggies’ last two games.
Against Kentucky and LSU, the Aggies tallied 18 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. Kentucky quarterback Kenny Minchey recorded five blitzed dropbacks, in which he completed 2 of 4 passes for 35 yards and a touchdown. LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt was blitzed on 12 dropbacks, in which he completed 8 of 11 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown.
It has really been a weird statistical season for the Aggies on defense as a whole. On one hand, their points per game results are really good, and their pass defense has been really solid as well, only giving up 164 yards per game. But at the same time, they’re giving up 142 yards per game on the ground, one of the worst in the SEC.
And yet, they’re one of the tops in the league at getting tackles for loss in the run game, but only have 3 sacks on the whole year. Just weird.
On the defesive line, senior nose tackle DJ Hicks had an impressive 6.5 TFL season a year ago and is pretty much the leader of a veteran group, though his stats aren’t showing it so far this season. He’s partnered up with defensive end T.J. Searcy, a former All-SEC freshman a few years ago with Florida and a multi-year starter for the Aggies.
At linebacker, Ray Coney was a 2025 American All-Conference player for Tulsa and has looked to be a good pickup for the Ags, as he leads the team with 37 tackles.
The secondary has probably been the strongest group for Texas A&M. Dalton Brooks and Marcus Ratcliffe are both excellent safeties with plenty of SEC starting experience, and former Alabama cornerback Dezz Ricks has won a starting role and has been solid so far this season, having only been targeted 15 times on the season and giving up 7 catches for 137 total yards.
I’m not totally sure what to think about this matchup. Elko is an excellent defensive coach and the Aggies have a solid roster, though not filled with stars. I don’t trust the Alabama offense whatsoever, but at the same time, the Aggies have been terrible at getting pressure and sacks on QBs, even with good pass defense overall. And their run defense seems very boom or bust.
I could see this being a game where the Alabama offense is very inconsistent at stringing together drives, but at the same time has a higher than normal number of explosive plays. It’ll be enough to keep us all frustrated at Ryan Grubb, but also just enough to inject a little optimism back into things.
Let’s go with 24 points for the Tide.