Texas A&M Football

Legends Series: Former A&M defensive back Derrick Frazier

By Gabe Bock

May 2, 2017

9,044

It was fun, it was a great environment at Kyle Field week in and week out and even going on the road for away games. We had some great players and we had a great scheme with Coach Davie and Coach Slocum. We had Quentin Coryatt, Kevin Smith, Sam Adams and Aaron Glenn. I think my junior year, nine or 10 of us got drafted. It was awesome, we had a great time playing for each other.

Early on we had William Thomas coming off the edge, but I have to agree the 1991 team, even just by the numbers was the best defense. Quentin Coryatt really came into his own that season, Kevin continued to do what he did the previous year. We didn’t blow many coverages, we didn’t miss many tackles and we dominated at the line of scrimmage. That team to me was probably the most special defense I was on. That being said, the other ones were pretty good as well.

Jackie was my primary recruiter, but R.C. was the defensive coordinator so I spent a lot of time with him. I really didn’t think about going to A&M until my high school coach head coach, Bob Boyd, became the tight ends coach at A&M. I played quarterback in high school so they weren’t really recruiting me very hard. I always said if I was going to stay in Texas, it was going to be A&M. I can’t think of a better college football experience than Texas A&M and I have played at LSU, been in different stadiums across the country and I just can’t imagine another place like Kyle Field on a Saturday afternoon.

I was actually very nervous going into my first game against LSU, they were highly ranked coming in. That was my first game playing in front of 80,000 people, so I was a bit nervous but after the first series it just turns into football. I remember them being the favorite, it was R.C.’s first game and I remember Larry Horton returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. That’s what I remember most, Larry Horton returning the kickoff and Kevin Smith’s interception.

My last game against Notre Dame, we were pretty even in the first half, i think they broke a screen pass at the end of the half and took a 7-0 lead. We just didn’t play our best football that day and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. You can’t take away though what we did in our time at Texas A&M. That last game left a bad taste, but it was always great to put on that uniform.

I enjoyed one year when we played Texas, I had a fantastic game even though we lost. I had a couple interceptions, blocked a kick and had multiple tackles, that was probably my best individual game. My favorite moment on the field though was that hit from Quentin. He usually blitzed on the empty backfield but this week we had him sit in the middle. Coach Davie told us to force the receiver inside and then the hit happened. That was one of my most exciting moments.

I think defense really starts with corners and pass rushers. I don’t think you can have a great defense without people who can cover, now a days you probably need three great ones. Now I would say you need three good cover corners and some edge rushers. I haven’t seen, in the past couple years, the dominating linebacker play that we had when I was there. We need to have some dominating linebacker play.

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