Throughout the 1990s, Texas A&M was known primarily on the football field for the Wrecking Crew defense that played a punishing brand of football in the 3-4 alignment. More than anything, the Wrecking Crew was known for its linebackers and was synonymous with the Aggies as much as the ATM logo on Aggie helmets.

One player, however, stood out among all the other All-Conference and All-American players that would play for the Wrecking Crew during its hayday and since then has become synonymous with the Wrecking Crew itself. That is why it should come as no surprise that linebacker Dat Nguyen is the No. 1 player in the Top 12 Aggies since the inception of the Big 12 conference.

Nguyen's career at A&M, however, wasn't always sunshine as he showed up on campus in 1994 at 6-foot-1 and 232 pounds. Considered small for the position of middle linebacker, Nguyen put on weight in the offseason before getting to A&M, but it wasn't the right weight and he redshirted in 1994 as he earned the nickname "Fat" Nguyen.

In 1995, Nguyen reported at 6-foot-1 and 213 pounds of rock solid muscle. By the time his senior season of 1998 came around, Nguyen was up to 221 pounds but lost two inches as he was listed at 5-foot-11 which is much more close to the truth.

But Nguyen's size was never a problem. In fact, nothing about Nguyen was ever a problem once he hit the field. No one that has ever played in an Aggie uniform may have had a better nose for the ball than Nguyen. Throughout his career he always just seemed to be in the right position to make a play whether it was a timely tackle, an interception or a fumble recovery to change the momentum of a game.

As he was quick too as he continually plugged holes along the line and routinely made running backs see stars after receiving a hit from Nguyen. In essence, it wasn't fun to play against Nguyen but it was a whole lot of fun to play with him.

During Nguyen's time on the field the Aggies were a combined 35-16 (six losses came in the underachieving 1996 season where the Aggies finished 6-6) and won a Big 12 championship in 1998 during Nguyen's senior campaign.

As a redshirt freshman in 1995, Nguyen immediately became a starter and never came off the bench in any game of his career. He went on to set the A&M career record for 51 consecutive starts. During that freshman campaign he had his first of what would become four consecutive 100-tackle seasons. He was named Southwest Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year.

1996 brought the inception of the Big 12 and a disappointing 6-6 campaign for the Aggies in the inaugural season. Nguyen was a force at the moment of impact with six forced fumbles which tied the school record for forced fumbles in a season. In 1997, however, the Aggies bounced back strong with Nguyen leading the charge. He led the Aggies in tackles (123) and forced fumbles (3) and also contributed 12 tackles for loss, one interception, three bass breakups and three forced fumbles on a defense that allowed just 315 yards per game while leading A&M to the Big 12 South division title.

As a senior in 1998 Nguyen put together his best season in an Aggie uniform in becoming the heart and soul of the eventual Big 12 champs. He accumulated 147 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, four sacks, two interceptions, two pass breakups, two quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries and four forced fumbles. The year got Nguyen the Lombardi Award for the nation's top lineman and the Chuck Bednarik Award for the College Defensive Player of the Year. He also was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was a consensus First-Team All-American.

Over his career, Nguyen set the all-time tackles mark at A&M with 517. He is the only Aggies to ever break 500 tackles in a career and is 62 tackles ahead of second-place Johnny Holland (455). He averaged a school-high 10.7 tackles per game in his career. Nguyen was also named First-Team All-Big 12 from 1996-98.

Concerns over his size continued to haunt Nguyen as he prepared for the NFL Draft, but the Dallas Cowboys took a chance on him in the third round with the 85th overall pick. The gamble paid off as Nguyen led the team in special teams stops and became the starting middle linebacker in his second season in the Cowboys' 4-3 defense.

Nguyen carried over his talents from A&M where he silenced critics and became a fan favorite in College Station. The same would happen in Dallas where he would eventually lead the top defense in the NFL in tackles in 2003 and be left off the Pro Bowl team to the chagrin of several analysts and pundits.

In 2006, Nguyen was forced to retire from football after a 2005 neck injury that sidelined him did not improve. The Cowboys, however, brought Nguyen back in 2007 as an assistant linebackers and defensive quality control coach.

Despite his solid professional career that prematurely came to an end, Nguyen will always be remembered for his years in the college game where he became, and still is an icon for A&M football.

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