Aggies focused on fixing 'terrible' run defense as SEC opener looms

Coming into the football season various adjectives could have been used to project Texas A&M’s performance in run defense.

Terrible wasn’t among them.

Yet, that’s how coach Mike Elko chose to define A&M’s run defense on Monday at his weekly press conference.

“It’s been terrible, if we’re being honest,” Elko said.

After two games, the Aggies are ranked 110th in the nation. They’re allowing an average of 189 rushing yards. Notre Dame gained 198 yards in the season opener. Last week, McNeese State had 180, though most of them were gained against backups in the fourth quarter.

That fact did not provide much solace for Elko.

“It’s not been what we want it to be,” he said. “I think, obviously, it didn’t start going south (against McNeese) until we really started getting in some guys who haven’t played a lot of football. I think that was good for them.

“The first group handled last week the right way. Certainly, giving up 185 yards a game on the ground is not where we want to be. Certainly, there’s a lot of strides we’ve got to make to get that where it needs to be.”

The Aggies aren’t where they need to be, but might not be quite as bad as the numbers suggest.

Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price scored on a 47-yard touchdown run. Also, Jeremiyah Love had a 21-yard touchdown run and another run for 29 yards.

McNeese, which rushed for 52 yards in the first half, got a 26-yard run from TreVonte’ Citizen and a late 47-yard run by Bryce Strong.

Subtract those five runs and A&M has allowed 208 rushing yards on 67 attempts. That’s a 3.1-yard average.

Following the loss to Notre Dame, sophomore linebacker Taurean York, a team captain, accepted blame for the big running plays that were allowed.

Elko, though, said there was plenty of blame to be shared.

“There’s been times when the D-line hasn’t fit a play or been as stout as you would have liked,” Elko said. “There’s been times where the linebackers’ angles and fits haven’t been as clean as you would have liked.

“There’s been times where the safeties haven’t shown up the way you would have liked. You have one guy do something wrong in the run game and you have the potential of it becoming a big play.”

Defensive end Shemar Stewart indicated the defensive line was willing to accept its share of the blame.

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Texas A&M has allowed two rushing touchdowns so far this season, both coming against Notre Dame.

“It all begins up front with the defensive line,” he said. “We pride ourselves on not letting the ball be run on us. We always put it on our backs. We don’t ever want the ball to get to the second level and have the other people try to make a play when we’re able to make a play.

“We’re trying to emphasize being more physical in the run game to try to cut that down a little bit.”

They need to cut down the yardage allowed. The Aggies next face Florida, which features running back Montrell Johnson, a big-play threat, and elusive freshman quarterback DJ Lagway.

Further, upcoming opponents Bowling Green, Arkansas and Missouri are all ranked 31st or better in rushing offense.

Elko seems to feel the issues can be fixed.

“I think it’s maybe just getting completely comfortable with the lines, the angles that this defense requires and just tightening some of that stuff up,” he said.

Double trouble

The A&M defensive staff figure to be working double time this week. That’s because they have to prepare for two Florida quarterbacks.

Florida coach Billy Napier said at his weekly news conference both Lagway and Graham Mertz would play against the Aggies.

Mertz, who last season passed for 2,903 yards and 20 touchdowns, entered the season as the starter, but sustained a concussion in an opening loss to Miami. Mertz sat out last week.

He still must pass concussion protocol, but that’s expected to be the case.

Lagway, a five-star recruit from Willis, Texas, started last week against Samford. He passed for 456 yards and rushed for 16.

“They’ve got two extremely talented quarterbacks who kind of have some different skill sets,” Elko said. “It’ll be a challenge for us, defensively, to prepare for both and make sure we’re ready for both.”

Elko said the Aggies will prepare for both within the same gameplan.

“You certainly can’t come up with two different gameplans because, I think, your kids will get paralyzed by volume,” he said. “I think you’ve got to figure out the rhythm that you want to get into to handle both kids. Similar to an opener. When you go into an opener you just know there’s going to be adjustments that have to get made as you’re going through the game.

“I think it’s similar as you figure out, ‘OK, here’s how they’re managing this thing.’ Maybe it’s DJ plays the whole game. That’s one game. Maybe Graham plays the whole game. That’s another game. Maybe it’s Graham with DJ sprinkled in. There’s a lot of different ways this thing can go.”

Productive pass rush

The Aggies anticipated having one of the nation’s fiercest pass rushes.

They only have one sack through two games, but Elko said the pass rush is as good as projected.

“I’ve been happier with the pass rush than the stats would lead you to believe,” Elko said. “We’ve pressured the quarterback. I think we hit the quarterback at Notre Dame (Riley Leonard).

“I think he’s a really difficult kid to sack. We sped up his timing quite a bit.”

Elko pointed out that pressure led to two interceptions last week against McNeese.

“I think we’re pressuring the quarterback,” he said. “The sacks will come.”

NOTES

• Receiver Jabre Barber, once thought to be out for the season with an injury, played a few snaps against McNeese. Elko said they’re not yet expecting Barber to make a major contribution. “He’s probably still a couple of weeks away. We kind of targeted that Arkansas game (on Sept. 28) as when we thought would be the right timing. It’s probably still that,” Elko said. Last season Barber had 999 receiving yards at Troy.
• Team players of the week for the game against McNeese included guards Ar’maj Reed-Adams and Chase Bisontis (Offensive Linemen of the Week), defensive tackle Albert Regis (defensive lineman), running back Le’Veon Moss (Offensive Player of the Game), defensive end Rylan Kennedy (Defensive Player of the Week) and the 12th Man Kickoff Team (Special Teams Player of the Week).