Texas A&M’s defensive front is spending fall camp doing more than just learning a new system. It’s battling, and that fight for snaps is becoming a defining feature of the room as the Aggies prepare for 2026.
That matters because this group is being asked to help replace a defense that lost multiple significant contributors after a historic 2025 season, one that ended with Texas A&M’s first-ever trip to the College Football Playoffs. Head coach Mike Elko had roster work to do, and after using the transfer portal and leaning on player development, the Aggies believe they’ve put themselves in position to reload.
Defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill, in his first year on the job, pointed to the competition along the line as a major reason for optimism. Texas A&M led all of college football in sack percentage last season, and the standard set by that disruptive front is now the benchmark for the next wave of players.
DJ Hicks is at the center of that picture. The veteran defensive tackle has been in the program long enough to know what the Aggies want from the position, and Hemphill had plenty of praise for what he’s seen so far.
"DJ (Hicks), I think last year he had a really good season. He's had a really good fall camp so far; he's gotta be one of the better defensive tackles I've ever seen, ya know," Hemphill said. "He's twitchy, fast, strong, all that stuff."
Hicks is not working alone. Texas A&M brought in several transfers who are expected to push for playing time, including CJ Mims, Angelo McCullom, T.J.
Searcy, Ryan Henderson, and Brandon Davis-Swain. That influx has raised the level of the room and made every rep matter.
"We've got some good competition, and we have some really good depth," Hemphill was saying of the defensive front and how transfer players have impacted the room. "Everyone we took from the transfer portal ended up being what we hoped they would be, they are good players who can play in this league, so I think we are in a pretty good situation."
There wasn’t a fixed rotation heading into camp, and the depth chart still has time to sort itself out. But the early signs are clear: the Aggies have built a defensive line room where competition is the engine, and that could help push the unit back toward the level it showed a year ago.
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