I’ve heard and read a lot of complaints related to D.J. Durkin and the 2022 Aggie Defense. My overall thoughts of Durkin’s defense in 2022 were it wasn’t as bad as most people made it out to be. I thought the 2022 Aggie Defense played much better than the 5-7 record showed. I felt the anemic offense was a MUCH bigger issue and the defense got unwarranted blame because the offense was just so putrid.

I went back and looked at each game looking at high-level stats to see if I could put some level of objectivity to grading the 2022 Aggie Defense. You can find those here.

Beyond those raw stats above I went back and looked at details from each game via the box scores. Mainly I was looking at scoring rhythms and what stuff lead to scores along with a few stats of specific players.

This is in no way a scientific analysis but more looking at the whole body of work by the Aggie defense in 2022. I felt there were some obvious imperfections but as a whole it was a decent enough defense to win more games than the 5-7 record showed.

Before I get to reviewing the 2022 Aggie Defense I need to point out we were spoiled for 4 years with Mike Elko at the helm. Mike Elko is a defensive genius. That dude can run circles around any other defensive coordinator in college football. Some are close to being as good as Elko but not many.
There was no way the 2022 Aggie Defense was going to be as good as what we’d seen in Jimbo’s first 4 seasons. It was going to drop off but the question was how much.

I knew that going into 2022 so maybe that’s a factor in my analysis. Mike Elko isn’t walking back through that door. At least not as Defensive Coordinator…

Let’s get to the games…

Sam Houston State:

Not much to say here due to the competition and weather. The defense got to play one-half of football against an inferior opponent. It did fine holding Sam Houston to below 200 total yards, getting 2 turnovers, and shutting them out. Not much more you can ask for.

Appalachian State:

Ugh. Yes, this has to be discussed. I can’t put into words the disappointment of this loss.

This is the game where I think the defense gets a HORRIBLE rap. You hate to see the defense give up 181 rushing yards to an opponent of this level. Because of the anemic Aggie offense that day Appalachian State smartly decided to see if they could keep the ball away from the Aggie offense. It made perfect sense as the game wore on. Just hold onto the ball so the Aggie offense won’t have more chances to get going.

App State wasn’t ripping off big runs or plays. They were churning out 3-4 yards a carry burning clock. When it was all said and done App. State ran 82 plays compared to the Aggies’ 38 plays. That’s right, App. State ran over twice as many offensive plays as the Aggies.

From a time of possession standpoint, App State held the ball for 41:29 while the Aggies only held it for 18:31. The Aggie offense only converted 8 first downs and gained less than 200 yards of offense.
Jimbo’s vaunted Aggie offense put Durkin’s defense in a massive hole.

I don’t see how anyone can put any level of blame on the Aggie defense for this game.

While the defense could have stopped App. State on key 4th downs the Aggie defense should have never been put in the position where late 4th down conversions were so meaningful.

This loss is TOTALLY on Jimbo and his offensive blindness.

Miami:

This is a weird game to analyze because the Miami team wound up being so bad.

The Aggie defense gave up almost 400 yards to the Miami offense but kept them out of the endzone while the Aggie offense broke in a new starting quarterback.

The defense did plenty for the Aggies to win and the Aggie offense did just enough.

No issues here for me.

Arkansas:

Arkansas had a little over 400 yards of total offense. The Aggie offense would only muster 343 yards of offense.

This one is weird to analyze because if it wasn’t for the fumble return for a touchdown the Aggies lose this game and the defense looks horrible. That was a massive 14-point swing right before the half.

By far the worst part of this game was the 4th quarter touchdown given up to Arkansas and then letting Arkansas get in range for a chance to win the game with a field goal.

I do think the Aggie defense outplayed the Aggie offense in this game. While I’m disappointed in some things they did I’m not going to rail on them for a horrible performance.

They played well enough to win while the Aggie offense struggled to get and keep any momentum.

This is by far the luckiest win of the Jimbo era getting the key breaks in a game to go our way.

Mississippi State:

This is such a tough game to analyze from a defensive standpoint. Mike Leach pulled Jimbo’s pants down from the get-go and the entire Aggie team never had a chance of winning this game. Jimbo will tell you we were just a few plays away from winning this game but that’s pure denial on Jimbo’s part.

Mike Leach and his staff knew exactly what to expect from this Aggie team and exploited it.

Jimbo’s vaunted offense did nothing in the first half while Mississippi State scored a couple touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. We went into the half down 14-0.

We opened the second half with a long drive that resulted in an Aggie field goal. The score is 14-3 so there’s a chance the Aggies can come back.

Mississippi State gets the ball back and the Aggie defense forces a turnover on Mississippi State’s second play of the half. The Aggie defense gives the ball to the offense at the Mississippi State 32-yard line. VERY favorable field position for Jimbo and his offense to make a statement we’re back in this game.

What does the offense do? Fails to get a first down resulting in a 44-yard field goal attempt. A little deflating but at least we have a chance at some points to make it a one-score game.

What happens next? Mississippi State blocks the field goal and returns it for a touchdown. Instead of it being 14-6 it’s now 21-3 in Starkville. Game. Over.

The Aggie defense would give up 473 yards but the Aggies turned the ball over 4 times that game. That’s not exactly helping the defense. The final score was 42-24 but 14 of those points came off a blocked kick and a Haynes King interception return.

By far the worst moment for the defense that day was the Aggies scored a touchdown halfway through the 4th quarter to make it a 28-17 game. 11 points isn’t impossible with half a quarter of football.
Unfortunately, the Aggie defense gave up a 75-yard touchdown on Mississippi State’s very next offensive play and any hope of a comeback was dead in the water. Dead.

I’m giving the defense an “Incomplete” in this game. The offense didn’t help turning the ball over 4 times including a Pick 6 along with the special teams getting a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown.

However, when the team needed a stop the Aggie defense couldn’t come up with one so they’re not clean in this game.

It was just another nightmare in Starkville where Mike Leach pulled down Jimbo’s pants because the game plan for the Aggies was so obvious.

R.I.P. – Pirate.

Alabama:

What everyone thought might be the game of the year in college football thanks to Jimbo’s offseason press conferences wound up being a big dud as both teams started their backup quarterbacks. The Battle of the Backups if you will.

Alabama started true freshman Jalen Milroe. I don’t think Milroe had taken 10 snaps all season before this game.

Milroe came out of high school as an exceptional runner and athlete but had questions about his passing ability. Similar to Jalen Hurts.

It was no secret that Saban and his offensive staff weren’t going to let Milroe throw much. Anybody with half a brain knew that Nick Saban was going to grind out an ugly game against a very questionable Aggie offense.

That’s exactly what Alabama did where they rushed 51 times compared to 19 passes. They ground out 288 yards on the ground and their passing game was VERY effective completing 12 of 19 passes for 9.3 yards per completion and 3 touchdowns. Ironically they didn’t score any touchdowns running the ball.
This was a much tighter game than anyone expected thanks to one reason – the Aggie defense forced the Bama offense to turn the ball over 4 times. In doing so they held the Bama offense to under 400 total yards and only 3 touchdowns. That’s not super impressive considering they were playing a true freshman making his first start with very limited starts. However, it was a night game in Tuscaloosa so you take it all day long.

This was in no way a dominant effort by the Aggie defense but they did take advantage of that young quarterback with 4 turnovers. What they gave up in yards they took back with 4 turnovers.

There’s no doubt in my mind that if Bryce Young starts this game it’s a blowout win for Alabama. I’m not that naive. But I do have to give credit to the Aggie defense as their play that night gave the Aggies a chance to win on their final offensive possession.

I’ll go to my grave believing two things:

1) If A.J. Hinch doesn’t pull Zack Greinke when he did in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series the Astros win that game.
2) If Jimbo Fisher gives Devon Achane the ball on the final possession the Aggies beat Bama in back-to-back years.

As it was the Aggie defense did enough to win that game that evening and Jimbo Fisher squandered it by getting too cute on the final play. That loss wasn’t on Durkin and his crew. It was on the man who wears the main headset and calls the offensive plays.

South Carolina:

Another tough one to truly judge the Aggie defense. Coming off a bye week Jimbo spotted the Gamecocks 17 points thanks to an opening kick return for a touchdown and turnovers on our first two offensive possessions.

In the first five minutes of the game Jimbo’s special teams and offense spotted the opponent 17 points. Unreal. What a damn hole to dig out of.

This wound up being a pretty close game and the defense did PLENTY to win this game. They held the South Carolina offense to under 300 yards and even got two turnovers.

This game was all on Jimbo for not having special teams and offense prepared coming off a bye week. The fact this was a 6-point game despite spotting the opponent 17 points in the first 5 minutes is a testament to the defense.

This loss wasn’t even close to being on Durkin and the Aggie defense. Once again, it was 100% on Jimbo Fisher.

Ole Miss:

I believe this to be the game where people decided to turn on D.J. Durkin.

I get it. Ole Miss rolled up 390 yards on the ground. There’s ZERO defending that. We flat-out dared Ole Miss to run on us and that’s exactly what they did.

I’m not going to rehash this game but this is where I think Jimbo as the struggling OC has to take some blame for the struggles on defense as well. At some point, the head coach has to tell his defensive coordinator to stop the damn run. Get out of the 3-man front and stop the damn run.

I think Jimbo was so caught up in his fist full of plays and notes he wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on the field when Ole Miss had the ball. I’m not absolving Durkin but I’m curious what would have happened if Jimbo had given him more direction on shutting down the run.

It didn’t help the Aggie offense didn’t score in the 2nd and 3rd quarter but that wasn’t the biggest issue.
Letting Ole Miss roll up 390 yards of rushing at Kyle Field was the biggest issue that night. This defensive outcome is on Durkin and I get it.

Florida:

A week after the Ole Miss game a very bad Florida football team would roll into Kyle Field and thump the Aggies 41-24.

This is the infamous Flu Game where it seemed like half the team was out. Still, this should have been a winnable game for the Aggies.

It wasn’t. The Aggies went into the half leading 24-20. Things were looking okay as the Aggie offense was moving the ball and scoring. Anthony Richardson had a couple of frustrating touchdown runs but he’s an exceptional athlete so you knew you weren’t going to shut him out.

For whatever reason the entire Aggie team failed to show up in the second half. Florida outscored the Aggies 21-0 in the second half. 21 unanswered points at Kyle Field by an inferior team.

The Aggie defense gave up 492 total yards including 291 rushing yards.

In back-to-back games at Kyle Field the Aggie defense gave up 390 and 291 rushing yards. That’s embarrassing and that’s on Durkin. Teams shouldn’t be able to roll up 300 yards of rushing against any Aggie defense at Kyle.

Durkin and his defense didn’t show up this day.

Auburn:

For me, this is the most frustrating game of Jimbo’s time in Aggieland. Yes, more than App State. This was a VERY beatable Auburn team who had an interim coach and no quarterback. This was the 10th game of the year and Jimbo should have had the issues worked out by this game.

There was no doubt that Auburn was going to try and run on the Aggies. Auburn did a pretty decent job rolling up 270 yards on the ground but the Aggie defense didn’t allow a rushing touchdown.
They limited the Auburn passing game to 60 yards passing while getting two interceptions. The Aggie defense also recovered a fumble for a total of 3 turnovers for the game.

Meanwhile, Jimbo’s vaunted offense spent their first 10 possessions punting the ball. Read that again – in their first 10 offensive possessions they had to PUNT the ball. Not even a field goal attempt. That is completely anemic and that’s totally on Jimbo. I didn’t even know that was possible in this age of college football where the worst teams still put up points.

10 offensive possessions and 10 punts. Even R.C. Slocum knows that’s an embarrassing offensive effort.
The Aggie defense did everything they could to try and win this game. Jimbo’s offensive did nothing but sputter around the whole damn game.

This loss wasn’t on Durkin. Not even close.

UMass:

One of the most miserable games at Kyle Field in the stands and on the field.

The defense held the UMass offense to 168 total yards and no touchdowns.

They were fine in this game.

LSU:

In a classic Jimbo big win at Kyle Field, he finally pulled his head from his ass and ran some offensive plays the opposing defense wasn’t expecting. The Aggie offense FINALLY moved the ball and scored some points.

The Aggie defense wasn’t dominant that night as LSU still compiled 384 yards of total offense including 3 rushing touchdowns.

They did however come up with the biggest play of the game when Edge Cooper sacked Jayden Daniels who fumbled the ball and Demani Richardson scooped it up for a touchdown. LSU was getting a little momentum but that play squashed it.

The Aggie defense stepped up and swung all the momentum back to the Aggies who would walk away with a convincing win over the SEC West champ.

There’s no doubt I would have liked to have seen a more dominant defensive effort but they did plenty enough to win so I’m not going to dog them at all.

This LSU game is what the whole season should have looked like. We weren’t going undefeated in 2022 but it’s much easier to play defense when you have a competent offense that can score points and not turn the ball over.

Summary:

If Jimbo had pulled his head out of ass at the beginning of the season things would have been different from a defensive perception I believe.

D.J. Durkin is no Mike Elko but I think he got a bad reputation in 2022 due to the Ole Miss and Florida games. There’s no defending him in those games but I felt the Aggie defense did enough to win plenty of other games if Jimbo Fisher had just pulled his head from his ass running a competent offense.

That 5-5 record in those other 10 games could have EASILY been 8-2 as we had plenty of defense to beat App State, South Carolina, and Auburn.

While 8-4 would have still been a disappointing season it would have been MUCH better than 5-7. The Aggie defense did plenty to get to that 8-4 record. Jimbo failed the team and the fanbase. It wasn’t totally on D.J. Durkin.

This could have been a 10-2 team with a little more offensive production. Ole Miss was a very winnable game even with the defense giving up almost 400 yards of rushing. The Aggie offense went absent for almost 2 quarters of football so just a little more offense would have won that game. It’s shocking the Aggies only lost by 3 points.

The Florida flu game could have been different as well had half the team not been out but that game was just a perfect stamp on the 2022 Aggie football season.

10-2 was the absolute ceiling with this defense but 8-4 was easily attainable with how the defense played in most games.

I do expect better things from Durkin and the Aggie defense in 2023. It won’t be Mike Elko level which spoiled us for 4 years but it doesn’t mean it’ll be bad. Durkin is a decent enough coach and will have more mature talent so I think we’ll see a leap in performance.

When you take away the Ole Miss and Florida game from the 2022 slate the defense really doesn’t look that bad.

Durkin will have 12 games in 2023 to prove me right or wrong.

I just hope the hire of Bobby Petrino contributes to Jimbo pulling his head out of his ass to do some head coaching. That’s what we pay him $9.5 million a year to do.