Strong up the middle? Elko constructing A&M's defense to fit strengths

Back in 2007, then-Florida football coach Urban Meyer stood at a podium during Southeastern Conference Media Days to opine about constructing a strong defense.

Once a shortstop in the Atlanta Braves organization, Meyer said building defenses in football was similar to baseball — be strong up the middle. In football, that means interior linemen, inside linebackers and safeties.

“In baseball or football, you will fail if you’re not strong up the middle,” Meyer said.

It should be noted that a year later, Meyer’s team won the national championship with a defense that was ranked ninth in the country.

Times change. Rules change. Philosophies change. Yet, the importance of strong defense endures.

In the last 15 seasons, 12 national champions were ranked among the nation’s top 20 in total defense. Eleven were in the top 10.

Those that weren’t ranked in the top 20 were Auburn (60th) in 2010, LSU (31st) in 2019 and Alabama (32nd) in 2020.

But while the need to field a strong defense remains, there may be disagreements on how to construct it.

For example, Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko doesn’t necessarily agree with Meyer’s plan.

“There’s probably not a correlation (to baseball) there because it’s not like you have the ability to move people into the middle,” Elko said earlier this week. "When you think about football, you know, we can’t have a really good outside linebacker and play him in the middle. We can’t have a really good defensive end and play him at nose guard.

“I don’t know that it translates.”

Elko knows defense. As a defensive coordinator, he supervised eight defenses that were ranked among the nation’s top 40. Four were among the top 10. Two of those were during his first stop at A&M when the Aggies defense was ranked ninth in 2020 and 14th in 2022.

But if a defense’s strength isn’t in the middle, Elko won’t concede that it cannot be a strong defense. His plan is to accentuate the areas in which that defense is powerful.

“I don’t know if, in this day and age, you really go into it saying, ‘OK, we have to be strong here, or we have no chance’ because you have to win every year,” he said. “Every year, you better come up with a plan that’s going to give you a chance. So you evaluate where the strength of your unit is, where the deficiencies are, and you try to build your structure and scheme around that.”

Translation: Elko won’t go to a three-man front without personnel that’s conducive to success in that alignment.

Like almost everyone else, Elko views the overall defensive line as the strong point of the A&M defense.

Therefore, A&M plans to devise its defense to take full advantage of its greatest assets.

“We’re very strong in the defensive line, I think that’s well-documented,” he said. “So, similar to when I was here last time, you kind of rely on them to carry the burden.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Safety Bryce Anderson enters his junior season with 22 games of experience, including 11 starts for the Aggies in 2023.

“Maybe you play some more short boxes so you can put more people in coverage. Maybe you ask them to stop the run without having to always overload (the line of scrimmage) with numbers.

“There’s certain things you can do that would rely on a strong defensive line that maybe you wouldn’t do if you were weaker on the D-line and stronger in the secondary.”

Safety Bryce Anderson endorsed that approach.

“I don’t eat unless those guys (defensive linemen) eat,” he said. “Those are guys who make everything happen for me. All the tip plays, the rushed balls coming out, the balls bouncing out to the edge for me.

“Those guys are having a break-out year. People are underestimating them. But we know what we have. We’ve got the Shemars (Turner and Stewart), Cash (Cashius Howell), Nic (Scourton) and those type of guys. It’s going to be hard for quarterbacks this year.”

No doubt, the defensive line could be among the best in the country. The Aggies appear strong up front.

They also look strong in the middle with defensive tackles Turner and DJ Hicks, linebacker Taurean York and Anderson at safety.

A&M should be powerful up front and strong in the middle.

That looks like a defense Elko and Meyer both would love.