Texas A&M Football: Realistic Expectations for Aggies' New Coaches

The Texas A&M football team will have a new look on the sideline in 2015, with new coaches at five positions. The Aggies should expect improved play at all five.

Head coach Kevin Sumlin made a big splash this offseason when he hired John Chavis away from LSU to be the Aggies' defensive coordinator. In addition to his coordinating duties, he will also coach the Aggie linebackers.

Mark Hagen previously coached the linebackers but will now coach defensive tackles. Terry Price was the defensive line coach in 2014 but will now concentrate on defensive ends.

In addition to Chavis, Sumlin also brought in new coaches for the offensive line and at wide receiver. Dave Christensen will be the offensive line coach and coordinate the run game. Aaron Moorehead will take over as wide receivers coach after David Beaty chose to take the head coaching job at Kansas.  

There is something to be said for turning a staff over every couple of years and bringing new ideas into the program. These new coaches should offer a fresh approach on offense and defense.

This is a look at realistic expectations for each coach and his position group. 

Linebacker Coach John Chavis

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The biggest weakness of the Aggies' defense in 2014 was at linebacker. Some of those issues were resolved toward the end of the season when some of the younger players started, but some of them were never resolved. 

The main thing Aggie fans should expect and demand from the linebackers in 2015 is better tackling as a unit.

Playing great defense is not always about a defender blowing up a play in the backfield or making a tackle for loss. Sometimes playing great defense is as simple as hitting the offensive player three yards past the line of scrimmage and taking him to the ground. Sometimes it is allowing a six-yard reception but making the tackle immediately. 

More often than not, Aggie linebackers were in positions to make plays in 2014 but missed tackles and allowed extra yardage after catches or contact, resulting in a first down. String together a couple of those first downs, and instead of the defense getting off the field after three, four or five plays, you have a 10-plus-play drive and an exhausted defense.

Chavis has a nice core unit of linebackers in Otaro Alaka, Shaan Washington, A.J. Hilliard and Josh Walker, all of whom are coming back with starting experience. Aggie fans should expect the linebackers to get better at tackling in 2015.

There is no magic number of tackles or sacks they need to make as a unit. They simply need to improve their ability to take opposing ball-carriers to the ground. If they can do that, then Chavis will have a successful inaugural season.   

Wide Receivers Coach Aaron Moorehead

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No coach is stepping into a better situation on the Aggie staff than new wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead. The Aggies are absolutely loaded at wide receiver, and there's more talent coming in. 

Moorehead simply needs to tweak that talent with little adjustments here and there. He does not need to make a complete overhaul at the position.

The Aggie wide receivers struggled with drops in the middle of the season. Moorehead will be tasked with eliminating those drops and making the receivers run tighter routes.

He also needs to implement a plan to use Ricky Seals-Jones more effectively. The rising sophomore caught 49 passes in 2014 but only averaged 9.5 yards per reception and scored just four touchdowns.

Seals-Jones is a 6'5", 240-pound athlete with a great vertical leap. The Aggie offense was most effective in 2014 when Seals-Jones ran intermediate routes and caught passes 15-20 yards past the line of scrimmage. He should also be targeted more in the red zone because of his height.

With receivers like Seals-Jones, Edward Pope, Speedy Noil, Josh Reynolds and Christian Kirk at his disposal, Moorehead does not need to rebuild the automobile. He simply needs to fine-tune the Ferrari and then let it race.  

Offensive Line Coach Dave Christensen

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Dave Christensen was hired as the offensive line coach to replace B.J. Anderson, who was let go after the 2014 season. Christensen will be tasked with replacing a very talented left side of the O-line and improving the running game. 

Sumlin splits up the coordinating duties between the quarterbacks and offensive line coaches. QBs coach Jake Spavital is in charge of the passing game, while Christensen is in charge of the running game. 

Spavital calls the plays on offense and is ultimately accountable for its overall performance. Christensen needs to make the offensive line better run-blockers and tweak the running game so that it's more effective. 

He will have to sort out who is going to play left tackle from a list of candidates that includes Germain Ifedi, Avery Gennesy, Jermaine Eluemunor and Koda Martin. After the left tackle position is decided, then Christensen can figure out who will play left guard.

The Aggie offense only averaged 149.9 yards rushing per game in 2014. Part of that was due to issues on the offensive line, while part was due to an ineffective running back rotation.

Christensen needs to pick a running back and convince Spavital to give him the ball 20 times per game. If rising senior running back Tra Carson is given 20 carries every game, he will threaten the 1,000-yard mark.

With the wide receivers the Aggies have on their roster, they should face a lot of zone coverage in 2015. That should benefit the running game.

It is realistic for Aggie fans to expect the team to rush for 200 yards per game in 2015.  

Defensive Ends Coach Terry Price

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Terry Price is a lot like Moorehead in that he is going to coach a position with a lot of talent on campus. Unlike Moorehead, Price recruited most of that talent to campus as the Aggies' defensive line coach. 

Price will coach rising sophomore defensive ends Myles Garrett, Qualen Cunningham, Jarrett Johnson and rising junior Daeshon Hall. In John Chavis' scheme, the defensive ends are expected to be disruptive playmakers, and Price has the talent on campus to meet that challenge. 

Garrett is a known quantity after setting the SEC freshman record with 11.5 sacks in 2014. Teams will build their game plans around blocking him. Price will be tasked with finding ways to get Garrett free and into one-on-one matchups. 

Hall will be healthy during the offseason for his first time as an Aggie. He should prepare for a big junior season in which he'll face a lot of favorable blocking schemes with everyone focusing on Garrett.

Darrell Jackson is a 6'5", 235-pound rising sophomore defensive end. He registered seven tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss and one sack in 2014. Jackson was a safety in high school who kept getting taller and is still getting used to the defensive end position. Price needs to continue to develop Jackson as a defensive end. The talented sophomore should be good for three or four sacks in 2015.  

Price should have this unit playing like one of the best in the nation by the end of the season. The defensive ends had 16.5 sacks as a unit in 2014. Aggie fans should expect to see that number grow to at least 25 sacks in 2015.  

Defensive Tackles Coach Mark Hagen

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Mark Hagen coached defensive tackles at Purdue from 2000-2005 and at Indiana from 2011-2012. He should excel in his new position with the Aggies. 

Hagen will be tasked with turning a talented group of young defensive tackles into a wall against the running game. Chavis wants his defensive tackles penetrating and making plays, but first and foremost they'll need to stop the run. 

Hagen has a lot of talent to work with in four returning defensive tackles who earned extensive playing time in 2014: Jay Arnold, Hardreck Walker, Zaycoven Henderson and Alonzo Williams. 

Williams and Arnold played defensive tackle, while Henderson and Williams were mainly used at nose guard. Add into the mix redshirt freshman DeShawn Washington and incoming true freshmen Daylon Mack and Kingsley Keke, and the Aggies have legitimate SEC depth on the interior defensive line. 

Hagen will need to form an effective rotation on the interior defensive line to keep everyone fresh and utilize the players' individual talents effectively. Realistic expectations for the defensive tackles are to be part of a line that allows opponents less than four yards per carry. 

If the interior defensive line play well enough to effectively shut down the run, then Hagen will have done his job in 2015.