Linebacker position no longer main focus
Seventh in a position-by-position series looking at the 2022 Texas A&M Aggies after spring workouts.
Today: Linebackers
Who’s back: Andre White, senior; Chris Russell, senior; Tarian Lee, junior; Edgerrin Cooper, sophomore.
Who’s gone: Aaron Hansford, Antonio Doyle.
2022 signees: Ish Harris, Martrell Harris.
What to expect: A&M was so into linebackers under former coaches Jackie Sherrill and R.C. Slocum the school dubbed itself Linebacker U of the South (in avoiding any head-on collision with Penn State).
With the evolution of spread offenses, however, the position has lost its luster at A&M and plenty of other college football hotspots. That’s not to say linebacker is not still important — there are just fewer of them as defensive coordinators employ 4-2-5 schemes (four defensive linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs) to keep up with more speed on the field.
Two of A&M’S top seven tacklers last season were linebackers, with Edgerrin Cooper tying for fourth with 58 and Andre White finishing seventh with 57 tackles (oddly enough, three players tied for fourth with 58 tackles, including defensive lineman Demarvin Leal and safety Leon O’neal).
New defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin would love it if Cooper led the Aggies in tackles this season, that would mean the swift playmaker was all over the field. And, as the old football maxim goes, coaches never want a safety to lead their defense in takedowns — that likely means opponents are routinely getting the ball up field further than they should.
Last year Hansford, an undrafted free agent signee of the Dallas Cowboys this spring, led the Aggies in tackles with 89, 10 more than anyone else on defense. A&M only has six scholarship linebackers springing into 2022, a scary thought 25 years ago, but the Aggies don’t need any more than that considering they only play two at a time.
Projected depth chart:
Weakside linebacker
Edgerrin Cooper Chris Russell
Middle linebacker
Andre White Tarian Lee