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Aggies defense must earn “Wrecking Crew” label

By John Onan  |   Monday, March 06, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Texas A&M Aggies
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Former Texas A&M; defensive coordinator Carl Torbush said it best a few years back when asked if his defense would carry the moniker "Wrecking Crew", which was first used to describe the Aggies' stop unit in the late 1980's.
Torbush, who was fired this past season after his defense ranked last in the nation in pass defense in 2005 and 107th in total defense among 117 Division 1-A football teams, felt his unit had never earned the name.

With the hiring of former Western Michigan head coach Gary Darnell as Torbush's replacement, a few eyebrows in the Texas A&M; community were raised this past week by Darnell's declaration that he would use the "Wrecking Crew" label as long as his new defense wasn't the one getting wrecked.

Fans of the team want to see positive results first, and many in Aggie land are already skeptical of Darnell's planned change from a 4-3 to a 4-2-5 alignment, which is more of a nickel package. Darnell wants to field a faster defense that can get to the ball, make plays, and be more effective against multiple receiver sets, but whether he has the personnel is another issue as spring practices began last week.

While it's a nice thought that Darnell, along with his new assistants Bill Clay and Van Malone, are attempting to show respect for the school's tradition, this could become an unwise proposition if the squad comes out of the gate in 2006 bearing a striking resemblance to the previous years' edition.

Fortunately, Darnell and his staff have been around the college football block a time or two, so if they didn't believe a big turnaround was on the horizon, they wouldn't have mentioned the old "Wrecking Crew" in the first place.
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