Texas A&M Football: Suspensions Add to Aggie Defensive Question Marks

This is already destined to be a rocky year in College Station for first-year Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin.

His Aggies already have to replace a first-round draft pick at quarterback, their leading rusher and break in new systems on both sides of the football.

Oh, and there's that whole transition to the SEC—the nation's top football conference—too.

As if things weren't unstable enough, Sumlin added to it on Tuesday when Texas A&M announced that linebacker Steven Jenkins and defensive back Howard Matthews have been suspended one game each for violation of team rules, according to the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle.

Regardless of their transgressions, this is a big deal for Sumlin. This is the first real chance he has had as the head coach of the Aggies to set a disciplinary example. 

It's just another question facing a defense that's full of question marks.

The Aggies are switching from the 3-4 to the 4-3 under new defensive coordinator Mark Snyder, and are doing so without six defensive starters from a year ago. That switch was particularly big for Jenkins, who was impressive at the outside linebacker position this spring.

Matthews is also expected to be a starter at safety for the Aggies in 2012. He tallied 28 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks last season.

The suspensions may be for the opener at Louisiana Tech, or they may not be. It really doesn't matter. The fact remains that two potential impact defensive players for Texas A&M will miss at least one game.

The Aggie defense needs to gel, and for a defense that is going through a massive overhaul in a lot of areas like Texas A&M, the suspensions are a big deal.

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