26.3 | Texas A&M 2026 Defensive Preview (feat. CoastAg)

We'll start off, we're going to start off talking about the interior D-line.

And before I let y'all talk more defensives, X's and O's and those sort of thing, I just, I think we have to take a deep breath and give Elko some leeway because...

I hear all this conversation of, oh, man, we graduated these guys, and what do we have? These are unknowns and this and that.

And there's a lot of truth in that.

I mean, obviously, we've got DJ Hicks.

Mims is a transfer in.

I don't know if you want to put up that depth chart, Seth, so they can kind of see what you put together there.

But Mims is a transfer in, so he's new to us.

And then you've got Rink and some other guys that got to play last year a little bit in cleanup duty.

So I get it, like these aren't names that maybe we know, but just a little perspective.

In 2024, we had a first-rounder Levis and Shamar Stewart and two second-rounders Nick Skorton and Shamar Turner.

And what did they do? They actually decreased points per game, decreased yards on the ground per game, and almost doubled sacks for the season last year compared to the previous year.

So, yeah, we graduated Cassius Howe.

We know how good he was, Albert Regis, and all those guys.

But I think we've got to have some confidence that Elko is going to reload and give him that grace to do that because that guy, in my opinion, has earned that.

So what do you all see on the interior D-line?

I'll throw in before we let Coast roll here.

This is interesting.

I hadn't dug into the interior guys until this week prepping for this and went and watched a lot of film on them from last year.

And Mims and McCollum both, first off, McCollum, he reminds me of Onyedem and Regis.

He's a very similar player.

He's very crafty.

Saw multiple times him use a nice little push-pull technique to get off of a blocker and make a play.

Very crafty, good at the slanting and running, you know, lever, sideline to sideline, pursuing the play, which Regis was good at, too.

When I watched Mims, though, I have to admit, I didn't think we had a guy like Mims last year.