Guessing he will be Co DC/S like his last 2 stops.

Texas A&M is hiring James Madison defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill for a spot on its defensive staff, sources tell me and @chris_hummer for @CBSSports/@247Sports.

Hemphill led the way as JMU ranked 21st nationally in scoring defense this season. Previously worked under Mike… pic.twitter.com/8X3uYTaq0T

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 22, 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_Hemphill

Interesting. I wonder if he will be an analyst or we are letting a coach go?

vander54 said:

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Interesting. I wonder if he will be an analyst or we are letting a coach go?

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Currently we have Jordan Peterson Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs and Ishmael Aristide
Defensive Backs, Im guessing one of them won't be around next yr.

If we do go that route and my guess would be Peterson

BREAKING: Mike Elko adds a piece to the defensive puzzle, as James Madison DC Lyle Hemphill is set to join the Aggie coaching staff in a senior assistant role.

— Billy Liucci (@billyliucci) January 22, 2025

No co-Dc tag but I'm explaining how it all fits on the board now

— Billy Liucci (@billyliucci) January 22, 2025

Elko was pretty adamant about covering the zone, I'm assuming this is the guy to fix it! Someone is on notice pronto.

From JMU ? I watched their game against UNC their d was bad seems like shuffling chairs on a sinking ship.

TylerAg98 said:

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HoustonAg9999 said:

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From JMU ? I watched their game against UNC their d was bad seems like shuffling chairs on a sinking ship.

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There is a point where the talent gap can outweigh good schemes.

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A Sun Belt team (FBS in 2022) vs an ACC team.


Just looking at stats they only gave up over 30 in 4 games, one being against UNC and another in a 2 OT loss to Marshall.

4 worst points allowed

50 - UNC
35 - Marshall
34 - App state
32 - ODU

HoustonAg9999 said:

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From JMU ? I watched their game against UNC their d was bad seems like shuffling chairs on a sinking ship.

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They were 23rd in total defense this year. 22nd in scoring defense. At James Madison. UNC was the one game their defense was lit up this year. Concerning? Yes. Understandable? Also yes.

He was also part of the 2023 Duke defense that over achieved to their talent, too.

He may or may not work out, but the last two seasons, he's at least been a part of two defenses that have lived up to and/or arguably overachieved to their talent levels. That's what I want first and foremost. Just freaking have your talent playing at their talent levels. With Elko taking on a more direct role in 2025, there should be at least some confidence it will be better than our 2024 defensive talent to performance ratio.

We will see what happens. Could end up good, could be more of the same. But at least seems like a solid step in the right direction from keeping the status quo.

Yet they were pretty darn good. 23rd in total defense.

Considering the turnover, that's a solid coaching job. The UNC game obviously being the major eyesore. You can't just ignore it, but again, due to talent, it's understandable they'd get lit up a bit. But again, even giving up so many in that game, finished 22nd in scoring defense.

beerad12man said:

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Yet they were pretty darn good. 23rd in total defense.

Considering the turnover, that's a solid coaching job. The UNC game obviously being the major eyesore. You can't just ignore it, but again, due to talent, it's understandable they'd get lit up a bit. But again, even giving up so many in that game, finished 22nd in scoring defense.

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If you remember, that game was a shoot out for some reason, 70 - 50, with JMU winning.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401635556/james-madison-north-carolina

That game was a very strange game.

vander54 said:

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That game was a very strange game.

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Looks like a freaking basketball score.

James Madison still led the Sun Belt Conference in scoring defense (20.5 points per game), rushing defense (115 yards per game), passer rating defense (111), total defense (322 yards per contest), turnovers forced (29), and sacks (41).

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/stats/team/?sortStatId=POINTS_ALLOWED_PER_GAME&selectedTable=1&leagueStructure=ncaaf.struct.div.1.conf.90

Thanks. Good stuff. Very promising. He's basically our passing game coordinator on defense. Seems like he has a good feel for how to be sound in pass defense. Passer rating and turnovers forced via interception are very encouraging.

beerad12man said:

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Thanks. Good stuff. Very promising. He's basically our passing game coordinator on defense. Seems like he has a good feel for how to be sound in pass defense. Passer rating and turnovers forced via interception are very encouraging.

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Source on him being brought in to help DBs?

Hopefully he's not just another past friend of Elko's.

fightintxaggie10 said:

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beerad12man said:

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Thanks. Good stuff. Very promising. He's basically our passing game coordinator on defense. Seems like he has a good feel for how to be sound in pass defense. Passer rating and turnovers forced via interception are very encouraging.

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Source on him being brought in to help DBs?

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I personally haven't seen anything official except he will not be Co-DC but if you look at his history it's pretty obvious he is here for our secondary.

Will he workout? Have no idea but at least Elko is changing things up after a lackluster year on defense.

vander54 said:

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On another post jbob04 mentioned Elko is taking over the defense and Bateman will focus on the front 7 while Hemphill will focus on the secondary.

I'd be happy with that.

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The front 7 wasn't good. I think you could argue it was the worst part of the defense last year.

Seccondary was our worst. I mean Elko even said they don't understand zone coverage.

I was mainly zoned in on a replacement for Bateman, but I think a high quality addition works just as well. Especially if ncaa isn't going to enforce any rules on coach head count. Bateman couldn't handle it on his own, Elko can't run a whole defense and do all the CEO stuff, but extra hands make light work

Coaches hire people they know that do a good job and believe they will mesh will with them as to the style of football they want to play. So yes he's probably friends with Elko as are most of Elko's hires.

vander54 said:

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Seccondary was our worst. I mean Elko even said they don't understand zone coverage.

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Call me crazy but it's hard for me to entirely blame the secondary when the front 7 wasn't filling run lanes, let the QB get outside constantly, and the secondary had to make so many tackles (329 out of 798 total team tackles, that isn't counting LBs).

Whenever teams found out they can just run at the line it completely fell apart. Bateman didn't fix it then, so why would him focusing on it now fix it?

It was Bateman calling constant stunts at the line and inefficiently using blitzes that let the defense get exposed.

Tergdor said:

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vander54 said:

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Seccondary was our worst. I mean Elko even said they don't understand zone coverage.

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Call me crazy but it's hard for me to entirely blame the secondary when the front 7 wasn't filling run lanes, let the QB get outside constantly, and the secondary had to make so many tackles (329 out of 798 total team tackles, that isn't counting LBs).

Whenever teams found out they can just run at the line it completely fell apart. Bateman didn't fix it then, so why would him focusing on it now fix it?

It was Bateman calling constant stunts at the line and inefficiently using blitzes that let the defense get exposed.

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he's stunting and blitzing out of necessity.
if you wanna see exposed, imagine rushing 4 conventionally and trying to let our secondary execute in coverage.

better off trying to force the QB to get rid of it quick.
because with decent time, most any decent QB is gonna carve our secondary apart.

everything about stunts and blitzes is gonna be feast or famine.
but if we'd played more straight up, that's a near guarantee of famine.

we lost Chappell early. now imagine the clusterF we'd have if we'd also lost Will Lee early.
oh wait, that was the bowl game, nevermind....you saw it first hand already

Bill Superman said:

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vander54 said:

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On another post jbob04 mentioned Elko is taking over the defense and Bateman will focus on the front 7 while Hemphill will focus on the secondary.

I'd be happy with that.

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Definitely happy that Bateman's is getting downgraded.

My issue is that we've seen what happens when HC's try to take on coordinator duties as well as HC duties, it's just entirely too much for one person to handle. Hopefully Elko has enough defensive support to avoid that issue.

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There's a huge potential upside to this though....

If Elko is busy lining out the defense, maybe he won't override the OC & force feed all those god awful 4th & 1 plays where it was pretty obvious our oline wasn't capable of getting an inch going up the middle & Elko demanded it anyway

Mr. Fingerbottom said:

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Bill Superman said:

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vander54 said:

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On another post jbob04 mentioned Elko is taking over the defense and Bateman will focus on the front 7 while Hemphill will focus on the secondary.

I'd be happy with that.

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Definitely happy that Bateman's is getting downgraded.

My issue is that we've seen what happens when HC's try to take on coordinator duties as well as HC duties, it's just entirely too much for one person to handle. Hopefully Elko has enough defensive support to avoid that issue.

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There's a huge potential upside to this though....

If Elko is busy lining out the defense, maybe he won't override the OC & force feed all those god awful 4th & 1 plays where it was pretty obvious our oline wasn't capable of getting an inch going up the middle & Elko demanded it anyway

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Is this factual or conjecture?

TxAg76 said:

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Tergdor said:

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vander54 said:

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Seccondary was our worst. I mean Elko even said they don't understand zone coverage.

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Call me crazy but it's hard for me to entirely blame the secondary when the front 7 wasn't filling run lanes, let the QB get outside constantly, and the secondary had to make so many tackles (329 out of 798 total team tackles, that isn't counting LBs).

Whenever teams found out they can just run at the line it completely fell apart. Bateman didn't fix it then, so why would him focusing on it now fix it?

It was Bateman calling constant stunts at the line and inefficiently using blitzes that let the defense get exposed.

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he's stunting and blitzing out of necessity.
if you wanna see exposed, imagine rushing 4 conventionally and trying to let our secondary execute in coverage.

better off trying to force the QB to get rid of it quick.
because with decent time, most any decent QB is gonna carve our secondary apart.

everything about stunts and blitzes is gonna be feast or famine.
but if we'd played more straight up, that's a near guarantee of famine.

we lost Chappell early. now imagine the clusterF we'd have had if we'd also lost Will Lee early.
oh wait, that was the bowl game, nevermind....you saw it first hand already

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His blitzes were poor, infrequent, and slow. That's what I meant.

With the talent he had on the DLine, he would have been better playing them straight and pushing the OL back into the QB. Letting the QB run outside where the ends refused to play contain does not force the QB to get rid of it and does not help the secondary. Dropping the LBs back into coverage while also slowly stunting your interior OL out to the edges leaves a giant gap up the middle for the RB and QB. Playing straight up doesn't mean let the QB have a clean pocket.

The strength of the entire defense was the interior DL. Stunting them outside constantly and not having the ends play contain means you're refusing to use your strength. The SCAR game embarrassed Bateman's DLine scheme and everyone else afterwards copied it.

beerad12man said:

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He was also part of the 2023 Duke defense that over achieved to their talent, too.

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We sure have a lot of coaches that were connected at one time with Duke.