Gary Darnell breaks down A&M's '4-3 under' defense & more

Notes from Gary Darnell Interview

* After leaving Texas A&M, he stayed in College Station and got stuck in the real estate crunch. He wasn’t in any hurry to leave and had problems selling his house and ended up staying in College Station.

* Has attended some A&M sporting events and does his best to stay out of the way of the people currently in charge.

* Working with a public speaking group called The Promentum Group, giving speeches on team building and leadership. Enjoys speaking about team building not only athletically, but corporately as well.

* Played football at Oklahoma State with Von Miller’s high school coach. That connection helped land him as a recruit and ultimately helped start the DeSoto pipeline that A&M currently has. Was able to see the hard work and unselfishness that Von exemplified while he was still in high school and knew he would become a great player. The character of a player adds so much to a team and Von is the epitome of that statement. Von has shown how great of a team player he is on all levels of competition.

* Had a two year run where, with the help of great recruiters, he was able to pull some good players out of DeSoto. With the familiarity of the DeSoto and A&M staffs, he was able to have a good audience of players to talk to and had open ears to listen to him sell Texas A&M.

* One thing he really appreciated about Coach Sherman’s time at A&M was the character he taught to his players. Sherman was able to inject good character into his players in a quiet way. Had a good perspective of Sherman through different connections including the General Manager of the Green Bay Packers while Sherman was the head coach there. Offensively Sherman was able to get his guys rolling really well, but it was hard to get his defense where he wanted it to be. Sherman understood what talent was and had his schemes to fit that talent but, that’s not all he is worth to a program. Really appreciated watching him work with players and seeing that character remained a primary emphasis of his coaching.

* Only met Coach Sumlin briefly a couple of times. Sumlin has a history of taking his “band of merry men” into the big leagues and beating them. It’s important to point out the success that the University of Houston had this year under his watch. Sumlin and his staff’s ability to recruit is going to be key to success in the SEC. People talk about head coaches these days recruiting the recruiters and Sumlin has done a great job of doing just that. Sumlin is going to reach out to the highest level of players, and enough of those players are going to respond to his offers.

* Now-a-days, the most successful defensive coordinators are older guys. Look at someone like former Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp who specifically built his defense to stop the spread attack of the Big 12. The only problem with that is, what if you have to play Stanford or a school that doesn’t operate with that spread attack? From week to week a defense needs to be able to deal with different offensive attacks at a very high level, and that’s where the older guys are more experienced and can do a better job. You have to be able to recruit different types of players in order to succeed at the highest level. You aren’t going to be able to do well in a national championship game against Alabama solely with a defense geared against the spread. Now it’s as much about needing a variety of players as it is the specifics.

* Finds it interesting that in this day, the get-in-your-face toughness has switched to the defensive perimeter players from the players in the box. It’s extremely hard to get a guy mentally tough when he has to play in open air as opposed to a linebacker who plays in a telephone booth. In the secondary, it takes mental toughness to get to the right place on the field and then once you’re there it’s even harder to persist and keep the best technique.

* He breaks down the Xs and Os and technique needed in the 4-3 under defense. He also uses some visual aids which can be found in the video.

* Believes in Coach Sumlin’s judgment and believe he has hired a solid defensive coordinator in Mark Snyder. Having spent time in the south, Snyder will not be blindsided when it comes to the way football is played there.