i dont get the A&M love, the same hype was there for them before last season and imo they failed. they will be lucky to get 7-8 wins.
I'm thinking the A&M love is due to the fact they have arguably the best QB in the conference with dual-threat Jerrod Johnson. And now the Aggies D is led by one of the best coordinators in the country - Tim DeRuyter. Check out these accolades highlighted on the Aggie site...
DeRuyter served the previous three years as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the Air Force Academy. DeRuyter added the title of associate coach in 2008 and 2009 at the Colorado Springs campus. This past season, the Falcon defense finished 11th in the NCAA in total defense allowing 288.31 yards per game. The Air Force pass defense was ranked 5th in the country allowing only 154.31 yards per game while the scoring defense was 10th in the land. The air defense intercepted 20 passes to rank 7th in the country and the overall defense caused 34 total turnovers to ranked 5th in the country. The stingy defense also allowed only 14.62 first downs per game to rank 4th in the NCAA statistics. The Falcon defense was 13th in the NCAA in third-down efficiency allowing teams to convert only 30.86 percent of the time.
Sure, it might take a little while before the Aggie D puts up numbers like AF did last year. But at the same time, it only took 3 years for DeRuyter to do that at AF, and now he's with the Aggies, whose talent & recruiting is far better.
i cant see him as even the 3rd best qb in the conference, i mean you betcha they scored a lot against iowa state, ttech , and baylor but thats not exactly a huge accomplishment (yes i know we lost to two of those teams, still not a huge accomplishment). they only scored 23 points per game in their losses against good competion and the only time they were really dominant in conference was against ttech.
as for their defense, im sorry but building a defense at air force and building a defense in the big 12 are two entirely different things. he is a decent coordinator at the lower level but that doesnt mean he is one of the top defensive minds in the country. add to that the fact that he is swithching to a 3-4 defense which you really need time to recruit for because you use a different type of player in that system than you do in a conventional 4-3, so the odds of him making that a better defense this season are slim to none and they were horrible last season, ie giving up 62 to KSU.
count me in as someone that thinks they will be our easiest south team this season behind both OSU and texas. we win by no less than 3 scores if our offense is even minutely better.