When can we expect to see one? It's been years and years and multiple coordinators yet nothing changes. Now Elko is in full control and it's still not good.

1st game. Let's see how we look next week. If bad again then sound the alarms.

vander54 said:

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1st game. Let's see how we look next week. If bad again then sound the alarms.

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I agree but we may have to wait till the week after to know what kind of team we have.

True. ND will tell as the most

I felt like we saw some freshman DL (Rink, Sanders for example) on the field before the game was in hand. At least it felt that way to me. That would suggest they are still trying to figure out who the men are. Im guessing we see several combos up there before they settle on a front. Those freshman looked pretty good too, considering where they were this time last year. I actually came away feeling cautiously encouraged watching those guys.

There are, obviously, several issues with our run defense. I, personally, believe that several issues will improve with coaching and game reps. But the one that bothers me the most is when a running back hits the line of scrimmage and bounces outside. Seems like it is usually to the left side. Once he bounces outside the sideline is clear because all levels of the defense have bit inside on the inside run.

The good news is that it should be an easy fix. Be sure all 3 levels know who is responsible for outside containment on each side. But it was an issue last year and game 1 this season so who knows if it gets cleaned up.

Dont buy any first game nonsense.
Ohio State and Texas had first game and both showed great DL play.

Like last year we had a lot of interesting formations that would appear to make it really hard to stop run. Like when we have one DL to left of center and one LB in middle of field. They run to that side, one of OL gets to second level to block LB and poof, giant runs. Im not sure what the palyers are to do in that situation.

I liked our DB play. Perhaps our coaches will trust them a bit more (like LSU coaches) and allow for a more normal allotment of players near the line. Tired of 3rd and plus 10 with not enough beef up front turning into first down run up gut. That should never happen.

Our run defense was in the bottom half of the conference last year. We lost 3 NFL defensive lineman who were really strong at taking up blockers and gaps and stopping the run. We replaced them with nobody talented or no game changers. We return the same atrocious linebacker core who couldn't fit the run and couldn't tackle. We lack strength to contain the edge and we lack speed to control it. Our secondary can't tackle well in space either. We didn't upgrade the front 7 at all and I got flamed by posters for saying we won't be able to stop the run all off-season, but it's going to be even worse than i thought. With a weak d-line and the same linebackers who struggle, teams will run all over us.


Henry has a quarter of the amount of rushing yards he had all of last season. In one game against Texas A&M… He's an average back, he just went up against a horrible defense

It's " an easy fix" Yet the same issues with the run defense continue.

Some of our favorite things about Elko's defense in inexperienced hands can be the worst thing about it.

Take the big run. York over pursued the RB, which allowed for the easy cut back to take it to the house. Even then, he almost made a tackle in the backfield.

Moral of the story, it's not enough to just be aggressive; there has to be controlled aggression. This is why they had such limited production afterwards (along with shooting themselves plenty in the foot) is that d-line didn't just crash the backfield but started controlling the LOS.

Elko's defenses were defined by the dline controlling LOS to allow the safeties and LBs to provide a controlled attack on the runners at the gummied up LOS. I saw that in the 2nd half, which led to all the TFLs we're used to seeing with him. Now, occasionally, you'll still get burned because of the overall more aggressive nature of it, but definitely not to the level that we saw in the first half.

On top of that, when you actually have faith in a secondary to cover, it allows your run defense to get more aggressive.

I'm not saying I'm a believer yet (that 75 yard run was inexcusable), but I saw some hope of Elko's run defense returning to the caliber that we were used to.

Gotta love the 4-2 and 4-1 defense.

After the 75 yard td run the next 6 drives for UTSA went 19 plays for 14 yards. It's very fair to say the TD run was a mistake by our defense.

Will be J. Love's Heisman launching off pad when he goes for 250+ and 4 TDs.

jsc8116 said:

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Will be J. Love's Heisman launching off pad when he goes for 250+ and 4 TDs.

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You only hope thats true

What about the missed tackles and failure to set the edge on numerous plays?

Rink may play a bigger role as the season develops

Impressively, A&M freshman Landon Rink recorded three tackles and two defensive stops in 10 snaps last night.

— 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕤 𝕃. 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕟 (@Travis_L_Brown) August 31, 2025

AgFan1974 said:

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I felt like we saw some freshman DL (Rink, Sanders for example) on the field before the game was in hand. At least it felt that way to me. That would suggest they are still trying to figure out who the men are. Im guessing we see several combos up there before they settle on a front. Those freshman looked pretty good too, considering where they were this time last year. I actually came away feeling cautiously encouraged watching those guys.

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Rink and Sanders looked decent. Dealyn Evans(RS freshman) did not look ready at all. Saw him getting pushed back and owned by the UTSA guard.

At least one FR LB played, #16, and he was bad.

LB is the biggest problem with the defense. York is just not a MLB. I like him as a player and his attitude and commitment, but he is a LB2 playing next to a good LB1. York looked great playing next to Cooper.

So many of the outside runs there is no edge set and the LB gets trapped inside (see USC game last year) and too many run misfits and missed tackles in the hole or at point of contact (75 yard TD run by UTSA).

rootube said:

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vander54 said:

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1st game. Let's see how we look next week. If bad again then sound the alarms.

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I agree but we may have to wait till the week after to know what kind of team we have.

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If it is bad against another cupcake, that will be a huge concern. But yeah, the game against ND will show us a lot more about the state of the defense and our tackling.

Jarrin Jay said:

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At least one FR LB played, #16, and he was bad.

LB is the biggest problem with the defense. York is just not a MLB. I like him as a player and his attitude and commitment, but he is a LB2 playing next to a good LB1. York looked great playing next to Cooper.

So many of the outside runs there is no edge set and the LB gets trapped inside (see USC game last year) and too many run misfits and missed tackles in the hole or at point of contact (75 yard TD run by UTSA).

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Number 16 is Jamar Beal-Goines. He is a corner.

If tuSA would have sent their wide receivers split out and run them crossing, they would still be catching that short cross pattern on us !

jsc8116 said:

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What about the missed tackles and failure to set the edge on numerous plays?

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Well of course that was a problem, which is why I didn't focus on that. I would basically throw out the 1st half as it was all bad and they obviously didn't practice to do that. The 2nd half (after the 75 yard run) is what I focused on. While it wasn't perfect, like I said their rush was much more controlled, so they set the edge and didn't get gashed for big yardage runs.

One reason we gave up a lot of yards was Chappell.
He had a horrible game. I'm hoping some of the issue was rust from having not played in a year.
But he took horrible angles on a few plays that took him completely out of the play and allowed a lot of extra yardage when he should have made the stop. And then there were several plays where he tried to rip the ball out instead of tackling the ball carrier which resulted in a lot of extra yards. His play alone was probably responsible for at least 60 extra rushing yards.

If he can get back to his pre-injury form, that would help a lot.

Also, Looch has been raving about Dalton Brooks and he didn't play. Was he held out for his off field issues this summer?

On the explosive 1st play of the second half, Scooby ran up to fill the gap, then immediately got reached by the oline. York almost made a spectacular play in the backfield but couldn't make the tackle. Then Bryce Anderson whiffed and it was off to the races.

2 sweeps that ended up being big gains for UTSA (one of them a TD) were on Cashius Howell for willfully giving up contain.

Are we still running out of a weak eagle front on defense?

Thought that was supposed to be corrected with players back from injury

Upon rewatch, Hicks got absolutely owned by the UTSA OL. He had one decent series in the 4th quarter where he was in on a couple of tackles. Otherwise, he was getting blown off the ball and/or blocked out of the play on running plays, and completely stoned on passing plays. We need somebody more effective starting on the interior IMO. Regis and Onyedim were both significantly better.

the most cool guy said:

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Upon rewatch, Hicks got absolutely owned by the UTSA OL. He had one decent series in the 4th quarter where he was in on a couple of tackles. Otherwise, he was getting blown off the ball and/or blocked out of the play on running plays, and completely stoned on passing plays. We need somebody more effective starting on the interior IMO. Regis and Onyedim were both significantly better.

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Agree that the Regis/Onyedim was much better than either with Hicks.

Regis was good throughout, nothing spectacular - that's not his game - but consistently holding ground against doubles and occasionally splitting. Onyedim, OTOH, was inconsistent as hell, but made a few athletic splash plays. Trouble is, he also jukes and swims his way out of gaps, A LOT. If Onyedim gets more disciplined, things should improve quickly, as he actually posts up and sheds blocks well. That said, not impressed with the DT depth. Rink and Sanders both looked better than Hicks, but I assume they also played against second teamers. Hicks has the athleticism and strength necessary, but he often stops chopping his feet and gets stuck in concrete.

Everything I saw on run defense is fixable biggest problem is lb!s need to play run fits way better in the next game but in all the second half started to look lil better minus the big run to start second half. I can see things looking better in game 2. But in all I was really impressed with any ranked team this week I watched.

I don't study film after games and look for how the front 7 is "run fitting", but all the comments about how poorly we do it and the lack of discipline makes me wonder why. How does this happen? It seems fundamental to how to coach and play run defense.

When I see a RB run like he's going between the tackles then break outside and there is no one there to contain, I just have to wonder how that happens. Do we have defensive calls that have no one assigned to outside contain? If not, if a player is assigned to prevent a run going outside, how is he not there? I can maybe understand being in position to make a play and getting blocked, but often - and this has been going on for years - there is no one there.

npc said:

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the most cool guy said:

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Upon rewatch, Hicks got absolutely owned by the UTSA OL. He had one decent series in the 4th quarter where he was in on a couple of tackles. Otherwise, he was getting blown off the ball and/or blocked out of the play on running plays, and completely stoned on passing plays. We need somebody more effective starting on the interior IMO. Regis and Onyedim were both significantly better.

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Agree that the Regis/Onyedim was much better than either with Hicks.

Regis was good throughout, nothing spectacular - that's not his game - but consistently holding ground against doubles and occasionally splitting. Onyedim, OTOH, was inconsistent as hell, but made a few athletic splash plays. Trouble is, he also jukes and swims his way out of gaps, A LOT. If Onyedim gets more disciplined, things should improve quickly, as he actually posts up and sheds blocks well. That said, not impressed with the DT depth. Rink and Sanders both looked better than Hicks, but I assume they also played against second teamers. Hicks has the athleticism and strength necessary, but he often stops chopping his feet and gets stuck in concrete.

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Id have to go back but I felt like Rink and Sanders were in early enough to be facing the 1s. And I too thought they had solid snaps.

Dimond1968 said:

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When can we expect to see one? It's been years and years and multiple coordinators yet nothing changes. Now Elko is in full control and it's still not good.

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I think most the fan base is overreacting in our modern world of NIL football and our "must have it now" fast food mentality.

Look, defense had 5 bad plays. This accounted for 80% of their offense. Elko shut it down in the 2nd half and stopped everything UTSA was trying to do (after 1st run in 2nd half).

So I take that as VERY positive signs and something that can easily be addressed and fixed before we match up against ND.

If you reactionary fans that Elko isn't going to have a huge impact on our defense this year, you don't know much about Mike Elko. I have 200% confidence in him as our true DC this year.

Team is going to improve week by week. All the fans wanting instant perfection....gonna be a lot of moaning.

Take the good for what it is and live a much happier live as a fan. This team is gonna contend for the SEC and a CFP spot this year.....no doubt.

Look around the SEC and football as a whole, virtually every team has a lot of ground to cover and improve upon. A&M played a good opponent and we came away with an offense we haven't seen in over a decade.

Wonderful season start and a ton to be optimistic about.

As much as people want to talk about run fits, gaps, or alignment on the long play, the real issue here was tackling and containment.

The amount of ankle-diving on tackles was incredible, especially from one player in the secondary (no need to name names).

Unless I'm wrong, the corner's job against the run is to force everything outside back inside to the linebackers and safeties. On multiple 10+ yard runs, we lost contain because a corner jumped inside, got stuck, and the play busted wide open. Just stay on the outside hip of the ballcarrier, easy fix!

I do think the tackling is fixable as well. Full speed tackling after not playing in a real game since the Vegas Bowl can be a challenge. I think there should be added emphasis on tackling drills. I want our defensive back and LB's thinking about wrapping up, heavy hands, and driving their feet when they go to bed at night.

At the end of the day, football is simple: "Football is only two things. It's blocking and tackling. I don't care about formations or new offenses or tricks on defense. You block and tackle better than the team you're playing, you win." Vince Lombardi

Run defense improved greatly after the 75 yard run . Albert Regis came in, then Kennedy. Both should start. UTSA rushing yardage, between the 75 yard run and their last drive against our subs, was minus 3 yards.

4-2 is designed to limit the modern passing game. It is not.a great defense against the run. I prefer the 4-3 as a base defense. An outside backer can drop and it becomes 4-2. A DE like Kennedy can move back and it becomes a 3-4. I don't like the 4-2-5.

With only 2 LB. It is easier to wall one off.

Thw most improvement is between game 1 and game 2........been hearing that since 1970.