The safeties are making an impact as the Aggies prepare to host Auburn.
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin praised the play of his safeties, and in the same breath addressed the Aggies’ biggest concern.
“Donovan Wilson, Armani Watts and Justin Evans are all over the field, and have been since Arizona State,” Sumlin said of the season opener. “They’ve continued to play at a high level, and really clean up some things that are real issues for us.”
Specifically, the safeties are cleaning up for the linebackers, a position of preseason concern that’s at full-throttle trepidation for A&M with a third of the regular season to go. A&M, No. 25 in the Associated Press poll and No. 19 in the first College Football Playoff ranking, hosts Auburn at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
“You can’t put a finger right on it because if you could, we would have already got it fixed,” firstyear defensive coordinator John Chavis said of his unit’s primary problems. “It’s been a linebacker not being in his gap. It’s been a missed tackle here and there.”
Chavis clarified the Aggies “didn’t miss that many” tackles a week ago in a 35-28 victory over South Carolina.
“But it’s very noticeable when they go for long runs,” he said.
The Gamecocks had running plays of 66 and 43 yards by quarterback Perry Orth and running back Brandon Wilds, respectively, and a reception by Hayden Hurst for 47 yards.
“We have some things we need to clean up, no doubt,” Sumlin said.
The safeties have handled the cleanup duties quite nicely. Three of the Aggies’ four leading tacklers play the position, and free safety Armani Watts leads all tacklers with 75.
“We always make it a big competition in practice to see who gets the most tackles or turnovers,” Watts said of the friendly back-and-forth between the safeties. “We like to be competitive with each other.”
Injuries haven’t helped
Watts collected 20 tackles in the Aggies’ 23-3 loss at Mississippi on Oct. 24, the most by an A&M player since linebacker Dat Nguyen had 20 in the Cotton Bowl following the 1997 season. Watts ranks fourth in the SEC in tackles with 9.4 per game.
“Our safeties have played extremely well for us,” Chavis said. “I was glad to look at the stat sheet and see (Watts) made those plays, but I’ve challenged our linebackers … they’ve got to keep the ball off the safeties. We’ve got fundamental issues we’re going to keep addressing until we get it right.”
The Aggies have only two linebackers among their top 15 tacklers, with Shaan Washington at third and A.J. Hilliard sixth. A&M lost projected starter Otaro Alaka to injury early in the season, and Josh Walker has battled nagging injuries in trying to stay on the field.
Wilson plays nickel back in Chavis’ scheme, and with a lack of quality linebackers his playing time has increased. Wilson intercepted two passes against South Carolina, and his five interceptions are tied for the SEC lead — and match the total of the A&M defense in 2014.
“Coming into spring practice, a lot of guys on defense felt a breath of fresh air because of the change (at coordinator),” Chavis said. “I told them, ‘We’re not going to talk about last year, we’re going to move forward.’ We said there was going to be a competition, and that there are no starters.
“Donovan Wilson saw that, and he’s done a great job.”
Continue to improve
Should the players who line up between the defensive linemen and defensive backs, the linebackers, pick up their play late in the season, A&M should continue enjoying a defensive improvement after finishing outside the top 100 in total defense the past two seasons.
Through eight games the Aggies rank 69th in total defense, but are 106th nationally in run defense (allowing 207 yards per game). Going back to those fundamental issues …
“Auburn has a lot of talented players on the perimeter who have bigplay ability,” Sumlin said of his defensive concerns going into Saturday night’s game. “We’ve got to shore up our run defense, and we’ve got to eliminate the big plays.”