DJ Durkin addresses 'wrecking crew' label on Texas A&M defense

Texas A&M‘s defenses of the 1980s and 90s under R.C. Slocum were simply known as the wrecking crew for their sheer dominance. And in the past few seasons as the Aggie defense continues to improve, there have been conversations about if there’s a wrecking crew revival happening in College Station, which new defensive coordinator DJ Durkin was asked about this during fall camp.

“Those are things I think obviously the fans and people that follow the team, they decide that. Our focus is really about getting better today than we were yesterday and we’re taking it that way so I love our kids approach so far. They’ve done a great job how we’re working and we’re nowhere near any sort of titles or anything like that, it’s really about just getting better each day,” Durkin said.

Durkin is a veteran defensive mind who’s stops prior to A&M include Ole Miss, Maryland (as a head coach), Michigan, Florida, and even the Atlanta Falcons as a consultant. Durkin was also asked about his defensive philosophy, and described its malleability in relation to the players within the scheme.

“Really to me coaching is about being able to build your scheme your players, so we’re multiple, and if you look at where we’ve been, we’ve been a little different at every stop just based on who the players are. And so I think you got to play to your players’ strength, and just saying this is the scheme and learn this playbook and throw it out there I mean sometimes it’ll work, but sometimes it wouldn’t and I think our job as coaches is to make sure we’re evaluating our players. What do they do best, what do they do well and out them in those positions as much as possible,” Durkin said.

Durken is being handed the reigns to a defense that’s seen some serious improvement since the beginning of the Jimbo Fisher era began in 2018. Last season the Aggies ranked second in opponent points per game in the SEC holding their competition to 15.9 points per game, only behind the National Champion Georgia Bulldogs. This year Durken hopes to maintain that high defensive standard from last season and get the most out of their talented roster. But, he will have to do so without star defensive players like DeMarvin Leal, Micheal Clemons, and Tyree Johnson that came up big for the Aggies on many occasions last season.