Behind Enemy Lines: The Texas A&M Aggies with video

Jimbo Fisher was hired at Texas A&M on Dec. 4, 2017, after eight successful seasons at Florida State, which included the 2013 BCS National Championship. In his eight seasons in Tallahassee, Fisher established himself as one of the elite coaches in college football. He led the Seminoles to an 83-23 record, winning three Atlantic Coast Conference championships, four Atlantic Division titles and five bowl games.

Jimbo Fisher was hired at Texas A&M on Dec. 4, 2017, after eight successful seasons at Florida State, which included the 2013 BCS National Championship. In his eight seasons in Tallahassee, Fisher established himself as one of the elite coaches in college football. He led the Seminoles to an 83-23 record, winning three Atlantic Coast Conference championships, four Atlantic Division titles and five bowl games.

Fisher quickly turned around the Aggie program in the first year, as he led Texas A&M to a 9-4 record, which was the program's first nine-win campaign since 2012.

The Aggies enter 2019 with their eyes on bigger goals, namely the College Football Playoff, and a win over the Tigers could go a long way toward helping them achieve those goals.

However, this week's game will be as big of a challenge as the Aggies have faced in their two years.

"The venue. It's one of the best places to play college football. It's Death Valley," Fisher said. "It'll be loud. A lot of orange. If you like orange, there'll be a lot of that. A lot of happy fans. They're a great fan base, tremendous fanbase, classy fan base, but very loud and hard to go play. And, you know, it's just like in our league. It's like the venues you're going to and play in our league, and, it's 80 something or 90,000, whatever it is, and they love their ball and they're very good. 

'They're passionate about it, that's for sure. It's one of the places, being able to say you played there when you're a player, and one of the venue's you can say you were able to coach and you definitely want to have been to Death Valley. It's a great atmosphere.' 

Aggies on offense

Longtime offensive playcaller Darrell Dickey is in his first season as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator.

Dickey, who got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 1985, came to Texas A&M after five seasons as the offensive coordinator at the University of Memphis under Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell.

Dickey played an instrumental role in Memphis’ turnaround and rise on the college football national landscape. In the two seasons prior to his arrival in 2012, the Tigers won just three games, but Dickey helped change the program’s image quickly.

One of the keys to Memphis’ rise has been the consistently prolific offenses directed by Dickey.

Dickey’s 2017 offense — prior to the bowl game — averaged 47.7 points (No. 2 nationally), 548.2 total yards (No. 4), 339.1 passing yards (No. 8) and 209.1 rushing yards (No. 30). Memphis was one of six teams in the FBS to gain more than 6,000 total yards from 2015-17.

Dickey joined the Memphis program after serving as co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Texas State in 2011. Texas State’s rushing attack averaged 195 yards per game and scored 20 of the team’s 35 offensive touchdowns. In seven of 12 games, the Bobcats tallied at least 200 yards rushing, and the squad registered at least 40 carries in nine games.

But Fisher is not under any illusions as to the challenges that his offense will face.

"Defensively, really lost a lot of D linemen, but the same time it looks like just the same bodies in different numbers. I mean, guys running around making plays," Fisher said. "They were dominant upfront. They can rush the passer, they can play the run. The backers are active. Brent does a great job on defense. Multiple looks, different schemes, blitzes, Terrell leads the secondary back there, those guys are all very talented and do a great job. They play the ball, they're used to playing it, they see it in practice."

Aggies on defense

Mike Elko enters his second season as the leader of the Aggie defense.

Elko is one of a select group of defensive coordinators nationally having overseen a top-50 defense the past six seasons. Last season, Elko made the move to Texas A&M after one season of directing Notre Dame's defense.

Last season, Elko's defense held opposing offenses to 92.0 rushing yards per game, which is the best in the SEC and second in the FBS behind Michigan State (81.3).

In Elko’s "multiple" scheme, Texas A&M, which has faced four teams in the current College Football Playoff rankings including Alabama and Clemson, allowed nearly 80 less yards on the ground compared to the year before.

Elko and the Aggies’ defense held Kentucky’s Benny Snell Jr. to a season-low 60 yards and Clemson’s Travis Etienne to 44 yards. The year before, the Aggies allowed 35-plus points in six of their 13 games, while last season, Texas A&M only allowed 35 or more points in two games (45 at Alabama and 72 against LSU in 7 overtimes), and held five teams to 20 points or less.

In last year's game, Tiger quarterback Trevor Lawrence was not the same quarterback as he was as the season progressed and running back Travis Etienne was held under 100 yards rushing. But this season, the challenge is significantly greater.

"Everybody says where is their strength at, when you win the national championships and you're ranked number one, you're good in all three phases," Fisher said. "Offensively, extremely talented quarterback. We all know where it starts. But those wideouts are tremendously talented…the whole crew out there. The young guys they got, they brought in, you could just see those guys in what they do. Offensive line is very good. Replaced some guys up front, but, you know, even bigger and stronger. 

"Etienne, he's a very, very talented running back. He's big, he's strong. He's direct. Fast. Can run with speed, power. Catches the ball. Trevor is excellent. I mean, very, very talented team."