boyfriend said:

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Need better talent at CB. Need better coaching for all defensive backs

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[Edit: also, need better personality evaluations for DB recruits.]

Nitro Power said:

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Yea, Durkin sucks..been saying it for weeks, but got shut down with "muh Top 10 defense"

The Aggie jokes write themselves

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I recall posting after the Miami game that if Durkin remained on Jimbo's staff going into next season, I was going to be officially done with Jimbo. Then Durkin did actually seem to improve the defensive performance in the front 7 such to the point that it is a highly rated defense. But that makes no sense to me, given that the secondary is also a part of the defense. And that part of the defense was ****ty. All those passing yards to Bama and LSU. I don't recall Ole Piss ripping us in the passing game, but maybe that's because I've already forgotten most details from that game.

I expect that Durkin will no longer be coaching at Texas A&M after the bowl game, and I also anticipate that he'll end up at Mississippi State. And Conner will rip him a new one next year.

W said:

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A&M went 0-5 vs. top 50 offenses

shut down the cupcakes

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So what you're saying is our admin and the SEC need to push like crazy for us to be in the Music City Bowl against Wisconsin (22.8 ppg) or Northwestern (22.8 ppg) and avoid the Texas Bowl against Oklahoma State (30.2 pgg), Kansas State (37.8 ppg), and Kansas (33.6 ppg) at all costs.

phatbc said:

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Our secondary has been a weak spot for a loooooong time

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Aaron needs to coach them

Noble Men said:

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I never want to see Durkin again.
Durkin will not be hired by another program.
One of the stupidest hires this program ever made.
And that is a bold statement.

It is a statement of stubbornness for Jimbo and the fact he kept running 3 man fronts out these last 3 games is the absolute definition of incredible stupidity

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Ever heard of an Addazio before?

Get'em Coach

pic.twitter.com/lESmaAAdkJ

— Elijah Robinson (@CoachE_TAMU) November 30, 2023

Our losses

Miami
#36 w/32.1 ppg, #25 w/441 ypg

Alabama
#18 w/35.8 ppg, #49 w/409.1 ypg

Tennessee
#42 w/31.5 ppg, #18 w/453.5 ypg

Ole Miss
#23 w/34.8 ppg, #16 w/455.4 ypg

LSU
#1 w/46.4 ppg, #1 w/547.8 ypg


Our wins

New Mexico
#60 w/27.3ppg, #48 w/410.6 ypg

Louisiana Monroe
#128 w/17.3 ppg, #112 320.9 ypg

Auburn
#68 w/27.3 ppg, #91 w/355.5 ypg

Arkansas
#72 w/26.6 ppg, #108 w/326.5 ypg

South Carolina
#77 w/26.0 ppg, #83 w/363.1 ypg

Mississippi State
#107 w/21.8 ppg, #104 w/328.6 ypg

ACU not listed b/c they are FCS and I didn't feel like looking them up

Posters upset about 3-man fronts…it can always be worse. You could be an Auburn fan right now mad about playing a 2-man front.

Just Tired said:

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...despite a gold-plated dl. lb actually played to it's paper but that secondary is gawd-awful especially compared to it's recruiting rankings.

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Did you watch tge LSU game? Those three second half touchdowns were thrown into tight coverage. Sometimes you tip your hat. Daniels is good.

Now the Bama game secondary was horrible

Haricougar said:

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Just Tired said:

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...despite a gold-plated dl. lb actually played to it's paper but that secondary is gawd-awful especially compared to it's recruiting rankings.

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Did you watch tge LSU game? Those three second half touchdowns were thrown into tight coverage. Sometimes you tip your hat. Daniels is good.

Now the Bama game secondary was horrible

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I don't know man. No matter how you slice it. Defense gave up 6 TDs in 9 possessions to LSU (excl end of half/game kneel possessions).

That is down right awful.

oneeyedag said:

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Get'em Coach

pic.twitter.com/lESmaAAdkJ

— Elijah Robinson (@CoachE_TAMU) November 30, 2023

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Amazing how we had the #10 overall defense and still managed to lose 5 games.

Nitro Power said:

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Yea, Durkin sucks..been saying it for weeks, but got shut down with "muh Top 10 defense"

The Aggie jokes write themselves

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With a half-way decent defensive play caller we could have had the greatest defense in all of CFB history. We could've won every game with three missed 30 yrd FGs, and probably more defensive scores than offense.

Newsflash: Jimbo and Durkin are no longer part of the program. We move forward.

Noble Men said:

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Durkin will not be hired by another program.

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Wanna bet?

Durkin will easily get another job.

Double Diamond said:

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Durkin will easily get another job.

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Easily. So many on here show their ignorance and/or blind hate for Durkin. It's funny.

We had our issues but he's still a great DC and will have a P5 job somewhere if it's not here.

It's blind hate because they hate Jimbo so much. The fact is Durkin is well thought of and has worked with many big name coaches.

We played the same number of crappy offenses as everyone else in the country, and the defense is #10. That is a good thing. The defense is good. Why can't yall just be happy about something?

I'd love for the defense to be able to shut great offensive teams out in the second half. That's not realistic though. So when you don't score in the second half you lose to good teams. That's 3 loses right there (and you could add LSU because the offense we fielded that day really had no chance of matching up with them although it was a good effort)

Jack Boyett said:

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We played the same number of crappy offenses as everyone else in the country, and the defense is #10. That is a good thing. The defense is good. Why can't yall just be happy about something?

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No! We are the only team that played cupcakes. Everyone else played only top 20 offenses. We suck

/s

W said:

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A&M went 0-5 vs. top 50 offenses

shut down the cupcakes

I bet if you analyze Elko, it won't be much different...

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The common thread here in all three games, and the Bama game as well, is DBs getting absolutely dominated in one on one deep coverage. The 50/50 jump balls are more like 80/20 against our guys.

agracer said:

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Onionman said:

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AggieMD95 said:

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W said:

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A&M went 0-5 vs. top 50 offenses

shut down the cupcakes

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Defense played well enough to win in 4 of those games tho. Offense was incompetent

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Did they play well enough when A&m grabbed the lead with a few mins left and let Ole Miss waltz down the field to score the game winning TD?

Did they play well enough in the 2nd half today at LSU giving up 21 4th quarter points?

Or did they play well enough giving up 48 to Miami? The same team that NC State almost completely shut out.

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Defense gave up 41 to Miami. At least get your facts straight. And 14 of those 41 came on egregious offensive penalties where the zebra's ate their flags on.

Remember when the defense ran back a TD on a blocked FG and was scoring as many points as the offense in the first half and the only reason the Ol Miss game was close? Or when the defense threw the INT in the endzone..oh, wait, that was the inept offense Or when ANOTHER A&M FG was blocked at the end of regulation that could have tied the game.

Remember when the offense scored 13 against Tenn (the same Tenn team that gave up 27 points to Duke) and the defense held them to...13 points but the ST gave up a TD on a crappy punt so Ags lost by 7. That same A&M offense had a chance to tie the game on their own 45 yard line with 2-minutes and...interception, game over.

We can play this "what if" game over and over, but the fact if the defense has played good enough to win all but 2 games thru 2022 and 2023 but the offense has continued to sputter and stop/start in SEC play (App State too!).

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Defense was good enough to win all but 2 games the past 2 years? You are funny. I love our talent. Not disputing that but Urkin was mediocre with it.

Which 2 games you talking about that the defense didn't play well the last 2 years? Because that means they played well in 3 of the games below?

2023
Miami - giving up 5 TDs to Qb who had 3 combined his last 5 games
LSU - giving up 6 TDs on only 9 possessions (excl end of half/game kneels)

2022
Ole Miss - giving up 530 total yards and 390 yards rushing (while offense was actually putting up some points)
Florida - giving up almost 500 total yards and 41 points to ultimately a 6-7 team
Miss St - giving up 473 yards and making Will Rogers look like a Heisman contender

You love to just blame the offense. We know the offense has not been good. But we have tremendous talent on the Defensive side but Urkin is totally mediocre. A good D coordinator would not let receivers like Burton and Watkins constantly do whatever they want and set career highs against us.

Primal scream therapy and is bogus. Just going to note that here…

I mean, ole miss and LSU both have great offenses. Were you expecting to hold them to > 30?

We were 10th in total defense

Lsu was no 1, ole miss no 16, and Miami no 25 in offense.

We were 53 right in between Louisiana and Colorado st

However, we were 18th in rushing defense, but 61 in passing efficiency defense

dabo man said:

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It isn't the defense. It's the officials. In this game, and the other two. Hell, in any game we've lost since joining the SEC. Always the officials.

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Hopefully this is sarcasm. If you really believe the officials are responsible for our lack of results the last three years, you are totally clueless.

Onionman said:

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amercer said:

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Miami inexcusable especially since it was obvious that what were doing was dumb.

Ol Miss and LSU are two of the best offenses in the country. Defense kept us in those games until the wheels fell off the offense

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You are so full of BS!

Ole Miss ran the length of the field at the end to score the winning TD. All Urkin had to do was get one stop to win that one.

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Remember the last game Elko coached at A&M by any chance?

Really tho, does it even matter ? Everyone wants a bowl win but the bowl games mean next to nothing other than the 2 playoff games. No one is going to remember.

#10 in total defense and #32 in scoring defense . Not all that bad. Agree that if the offense had been that high in yardage and scoring we'd likely have won 2 more games

To my surprise we were 25 in scoring offense and 54 in yards per game so our scoring offense was actually ranked higher than scoring allowed by defense .

Still, our defense was more competent than our offense and the main problem on offense was the performance of the OL which I absolutely believe was mostly coaching
Or rather lack of competent coaching. I think that's a combination of a hard system for the kids to pick up, lack of the coaching to teach same and poor technique . I think the talent was mostly in place to be way better than they performed.

I don't expect Elko is all that down on Durkin. He may have guys he wants to hire that he believes would be better but he may be hedging his bets in case he can't get them here. He may also believe he can make Durkin better with some guidance. I won't be all that mad if Durkin stays.