Texas A&M hiring Sean Spencer as new defensive line coach, per report

The Texas A&M Aggies are hiring Sean Spencer as their new defensive line coach, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN. The news broke late on Sunday evening. He was recently dismissed as the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach for the Florida Gators. On December 2nd, he made a lengthy post via social media, his first one since the dismissal.

He’ll be joining the new coaching staff in College Station, led by their new head coach, Mike Elko. The Aggies just lost their old defensive coordinator, Elijah Robinson. He decided to move on from College Station and join the Syracuse Orange earlier on Sunday.

From 2020-2021, Spencer spent time with the New York Giants as their defensive line coach. Before joining the Giants, he worked with Penn State, first as their defensive line coach and then from 2018-2019 as their run game coordinator and defensive line coach.

Spencer earned praise from Matt Zenitz for his recruiting acumen back in August of 2022, when he was named the On3 National Recruiter of the Month.

Surely one of the first phone calls he’ll be making after getting hired will be to Aggie defensive lineman Walter Nolen, who happened to be the No. 1 overall player in the country in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. Nolen announced his plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal on Sunday evening. It’ll be fascinating to see where he ends up.

Spencer also served as the defensive line coach at Vanderbilt (2011–2013), and Bowling Green (2009–2010), among other schools.

There were two years when he worked at Penn State (2015 and 2018), the Nittany Lions led the nation in sacks, first with 50, then with 47. In 2014 at PSU, Spencer’s defensive line unit led the country in sacks (3.54 sacks per game), and they also ranked sixth in tackles for loss (8.2) and 14th in total defense (324.5 yards per game).

Prior to his time with Penn State, Spencer spent three seasons with the Vanderbilt Commodores (2011-2013). During his time there, he helped the Commodores finish in the top 25 in the country in total defense all three seasons. Vanderbilt recorded 28, 31, and 28 sacks under Spencer. Their defensive line racked up 42.5 tackles for loss in 2013.

Spencer also spent time at Bowling Green, Massachusetts, Hofstra, Villanova, Holy Cross, Trinity College, Shippensburg, and Wesleyan.

Spencer’s contract with Florida was set to expire at the end of January.

As a player, he was a three-year starter at the safety position at Clarion (Pa.) University, where he graduated with a degree in political science in 1995.

On3’s Nick de la Torre also contributed to this article.