Click here to view Texas A&M’s Saturday press conference.
Houston heard the proclamation.
And if it rings true, Aggies everywhere certainly won’t have any problems.
During a July 21 appearance at the Houston A&M club, head football coach Mike Elko boldly boasted about his defensive backfield.
“It starts with the secondary,” he said at that Coach’s Night. “For me, being the secondary coach, this is the best secondary I’ve had at Texas A&M.”
For a coach who has repeatedly urged his fan base to be unafraid with their excitement, Elko is also unafraid to speak his mind.
“We’re going into a season with an SEC-level secondary, and there have been times in the past where that maybe wasn’t exactly where we were,” he reiterated on Tuesday. “When you look at the pieces we have back there, you feel really good about rotating. You feel really good about holding up for 12 games. So much of what this year will be is a war of attrition. … You feel comfortable with depth and the amount of guys you have that you feel good about going out there and playing.”
Of course, Elko also has his reasons.
There is experience. Safety Dalton Brooks enters his senior season with 20 starts across 37 games. Fellow team captain Marcus Ratcliffe is entering his third year in Elko’s system.
At cornerback, Dezz Ricks, Julio Humphrey and Rickey Gibson III have multiple years under their belts across the SEC.
Nickels Bryce Anderson and Bravion Rogers are entering their fifth and fourth years, respectively.
Then there’s the depth component.
Safety Tawfiq Byard, a transfer addition from Colorado, earned All-Big 12 honorable mention in 2025. Corner Jordan Shaw appeared in 11 games for the Maroon & White last fall. Don’t forget about Adonyss Currie, Jamar Beal-Goines or Myles Davis, either.
Each of them is talented, as is five-star true freshman Brandon Arrington and plenty of others.
It’s easy to see how the combination of experience, depth and talent equates to “best,” as defined by Elko.
“We have an older secondary, so it kind of means more this year,” Brooks said on Tuesday. “We have a lot of the same people coming back, so we kind of have a stronger bond, even more than last year. With that, it just means more this year to us.”
The biggest knock against the secondary, and perhaps A&M’s defense as a whole, was the lack of turnovers, specifically interceptions.
Last fall, the Aggies forced only three. Of that trio, a DB came away with one — Brooks vs. South Carolina.
Needless to say, getting their hands on more and actually securing the ball has been a point of emphasis this offseason.
Each defensive back catches 25 balls off the Jugs machine before each practice.
According to Humphrey, defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill is always preaching, “The ball, the ball, the ball.”
Through harping and habit-forming, the takeaways should increase, which would also elevate the secondary’s stature.
“They all say, ‘We believe that we can be the best DB group in the country,’ and we have the people,” Humphrey said Saturday. “We had a lot of people that transferred in, a lot of people that have stepped up and even young guys.
“Now we’re working hard so that we can actually be that best group in the country and show it on the field.”
But how many more picks will be needed to match Elko’s definition of “best” to the nation’s?
Southern Miss led the country with 23. LSU was tops in the SEC with 17.
Meanwhile, A&M finished tied for 129th nationally in addition to being dead last in the league.
“We talk about it every day,” Brooks said. “Punching at the ball. Going for the ball. Stuff like that. That’s something we’re going to emphasize a lot this year, and we’re going to emphasize it a lot during camp, and we’re going to crack down on it as players more than coaches.”
Each day, the secondary is testing itself against one of the best receiving corps in the nation.
It’s not just iron sharpening iron. It’s also dog vs. dog.
“Our safeties are real poised and real smart. Real, real smart,” receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman said Saturday. “They know how the game works, and our corners, all of them are fast. That might’ve been something we’ve not had a lot last year, but all of the corners now, they’re fast, and they’re real, real physical.
“They got some dogs on the other side of the ball. Not as much as us, but they got some dogs.”
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