TExas A&M defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill will do his work from the coaching box this season, and he thinks he has a solid reason for it.

“You can see everything. I’m a short guy. I can’t see anything,” he said. “If they got a crown on the field, I can’t even see the other sideline.”

Even though the Aggies ended up in the top 20 in total defense and had the nation’s best third down defense in 2025, Hemphill knows there’s a lot of work to do with a lot of new faces.

“Number one, we’ve got to stop the run consistently. Number two, we got to take the ball away, and number three, we got to we got to disrupt the passer,” he said. “We can never let a quarterback just sit back there and feel comfortable throwing the ball. Those three things.”

The defensive line, which lost three of its four starters from last year, has been revamped with a new group of quality players — especially in the middle.

“DJ (Hicks)’s been awesome. DJ’s playing hard. He’s running after the ball. He’s being physical inside. The other side’s been-it’s actually been really good. We’ve had a ton of guys with DJ, and then when DJ’s out, we’ve got five or six guys right now that we think can play in the SEC,” Hemphill said. “We’ve got Landon (Rink). You know, we’ve got CJ Mims, we’ve got Angelo (McCullom), you know, and then Brandon Davis-Swain … he’s come back and has done a really nice job. And then you got the other DJ (Sanders). So I mean we’ve got we’ve got some good depth there.”

There is a similar situation at defensive end, with All-American Cashius Howell heading to the NFL. Howell’s departure clearly leaves a big hole to fill, but Hemphill believes that Aggies have strength in numbers a the position.

“I think (Marco Jones and Anto Saka) they’ll both be out (on the field) at times,” Hemphill said. “The other guy that’s really started to push is Sam M’Pemba. We feel like we’ve got for our five defensive ends that can go in and play in the SEC. Throw any of them out there and we feel pretty comfortable with it.”

Even with the loss of Will Lee to the NFL, Hemphill believes the cornerback group also has more than sufficient depth for this upcoming season. Dezz Ricks is installed as one starter, while Julio Humphrey and Rickey Gibson continue to battle for the other starting job, though both will play.

“I look at a game like 140 plays … and how are you going to split those 140 reps up? You know, and I’d rather cut it in three than cut it in two … or four,” Hemphill said. “I think when you look at our season, you look at it’s a long season, and if you can just keep some of the tread on those tires as we get into the later part of the season, I think the better off we’re going to be.

Julio may not have had as good of ball skills maybe a year ago, but that is something that he has worked extremely hard on it, and it has improved. I mean, it’s crazy, really, what he’s done to be able to play the ball in the air. I mean, he’s really worked hard at it. Other than that, I mean, him and Rick, they’re both pretty good players.”

One of the most important players to the defense is middle linebacker Ray Coney, who led the nation in solo tackles last season at Tulsa. After a spring that required some on the job training, Hemphill said Coney has excelled this summer.

“I felt like in spring it was he was just he was trying to keep his head above water. Then we got to the summer, and then he really dug in, knew what he needed to get better at, and like worked his tail off at it. And then he’s came back in camp, and he’s just he’s had a great camp,” Hemphill said. “Things we were doing is very different from what he came from, scheme-wise. So he needed to learn and adjust, and he figured it out. He’s a very good linebacker. He’s a good tackler. Puts his body on people. I always talk about how I like tacklers that put a lot of surface on surface. We talk about he naturally just puts his whole surface on people when he tackles, and I love that.”