Texas A&M’s defense is deep enough up front that Lyle Hemphill thinks the Aggies can keep rolling bodies through the season without losing much, and that was one of the clearest takeaways from his media session Tuesday after the team’s 16th fall camp practice.
The defensive coordinator said DJ Hicks has set the tone inside, praising the way he has attacked the ball and played with force. But the bigger story for Hemphill is what sits behind him.
He pointed to Landon, C.J. Mims, Angelo, Brandon Davis-Swain and the other DJ, Sanders, as part of a group he believes can handle SEC snaps.
“We've got a ton of guys. With DJ, and then when DJ's out, we've got five or six guys right now that we think we can play in the SEC.”
Hemphill said he feels like Texas A&M has “four or five defensive tackles that can play this year,” and he wants that room to keep taking steps forward.
That push up front ties directly into the three things he says must define the defense in 2026: stopping the run, taking the ball away and getting after the quarterback. In his view, the whole operation begins with the line.
“Number one, we've got to stop the run consistently.
Number two, we've got to take the ball away.
And number three, we've got to disrupt the passer. We can never let a quarterback just sit back there and feel comfortable throwing the ball.
Those three things.”
He doubled down on that point later, saying that coverage only matters so much if the Aggies can’t affect the passer.
“I know I'm a secondary guy, but it's front to back for me. Everything starts up front.”
The secondary, though, has its own storyline, and Jordan Shaw is right in the middle of it. Hemphill called him “the most consistent” player in the group, the kind of corner who shows up the same way every day and does his job. He also made clear that he likes rotating corners to preserve legs over the long season.
“I love to be rotational. I love it.”
Shaw’s rise, Hemphill said, has been shaped by daily battles with elite teammates. He said going against KC last year and Mario this year has forced Shaw to strain on every snap, whether it’s one-on-ones, release drills, team periods or seven-on-seven. Hemphill said Shaw has embraced that pressure, and Mario enjoys the matchup too.
Julio Humphrey and Ricky Gibson are also drawing praise. Hemphill said both can run, and he highlighted Humphrey’s work on ball skills, saying that part of his game has improved after a year ago when it wasn’t as strong. He said the staff has had the defensive backs catch 2,000 balls before practice every day so far, and now he’s seeing that work show up in practice.
“The scrimmage was tough because it was more of a thud scrimmage. But catching the ball, it's starting to happen.”
Hemphill also said the second scrimmage gave him a better look at the defense’s execution. He said the staff wanted to see the players react faster when the ball came out and run out of the stack more cleanly, and he thought they got that “for the most part.” More than anything, he wanted the unit to keep sharpening its overall execution after spending time in the defense through spring and the first scrimmage.
On the edge, Hemphill said Texas A&M can turn to multiple options. He mentioned Sam M’Pemba as a player who has started to push and said the Aggies feel good about having four or five defensive ends who can play in the SEC.
Ray Coney has also made a strong impression after a slower start. Hemphill said he handled spring with some difficulty but used the summer to learn the scheme, work on what he needed to improve and return to camp with a much better grasp of the defense. He described Coney as a good linebacker and a strong tackler who brings a lot of surface on contact.
Daymion Sanford, meanwhile, has been taking team reps and continuing to progress.
Hemphill said the freshmen are moving in the right direction, though he noted the challenge of balancing patience with the urgency to get young players ready. He said the expectations are different now, but the need for them to contribute is real.
As for where he’ll watch it all unfold, Hemphill made that part simple.
“I'll be in the box. I'm a box guy.
You can see everything. I'm a short guy.
I can't see anything. If they had a crown on the field, I can't even see the other sideline.”
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