Wednesday Talking Points

Since Terry Joseph had Carolina (and a two-year deal) in his mind, the Aggies need a defensive backs coach. When John Chavis came in two years ago, he simply took over the staff in place. His first move didn't come until before this past season, when he picked up David Turner to replace Mark Hagen as defensive tackles coach. The rest of the staff remains holdovers from the Mark Snyder era.

So now Chavis gets a chance to get one of his own guys in there. But who would he take? There's one guy who keeps coming up from multiple sources: Ron Cooper, the current interim head coach at Florida International. Since he's "interim", odds are he won't have a job soon. And he was the defensive backs coach at LSU from 2009-11 and was at South Carolina before that (he took the Bucs' DB coach job in 2012, which is why he left Baton Rouge). During Cooper's time at LSU, the Tigers were 8th, 1st and 4th, respectively, in pass defense in the SEC.

Corey Raymond is the current LSU DB coach, and it's hard to see him leaving his alma mater for A&M, even if the Aggies paid more. He's more secure in his slot at LSU and holds the title of assistant head coach and just agreed to a 3-year extension. So count him out.

What about Brick Haley? This one I would have a hard time with. Haley has never been a defensive backs coach, he's always worked with linemen or linebackers. Would he bolt from Mizzou if given the chance? Sure, but it just seems like that would be forced and not a good fit.

I've heard Duane Akina's name floated about, and I don't see him leaving Stanford. Yeah, he's been at Texas and knows the area, but you're talking about a Hawaii guy who is probably quite secure at Stanford right now.

Those are the names that have been bandied about so far. I suspect A&M will again try to go big or go home, but Kevin Sumlin's tenuous situation may make that tough. Since the coaches convention was last week, a hire can come at any time (and could easily come out of left field) -- though I would suspect we're probably two weeks away from hearing anything (think signing day).

Checking out Twitter last night, I found a tweet by DT Reggie Chevis that I thought wsa interesting:

He's not talking about getting into Kyle Field. Considering the timing of the tweet -- the first day of the spring semester -- I had a pretty good idea he was talking about the new S&C program under Mark Hocke. So I asked around to some folks in the know to see what they thought of him.

"He's the truth," the response came from one guy.

Now, I'm sure Larry Jackson was "the truth" too, but it sure seems like Hocke got the players' attention in a hurry. I am trying to find out what he did differently, but it must be pretty different indeed. Another guy told me, "There's no way we're going to win just 8 or 9 games next year."

With the changes coming on both sides of the ball, it'll be tough to win more than that. But something interesting is going on in the weight room.

I'll be honest: if Hocke can get guys like Daylon Mack and a few of the offensive linemen into really good shape, then A&M can sit there and trade punches at the line of scrimmage. That's what you have to do to win in the SEC. But it's all talk for now.

DE Tyree Johnson checked out Michigan State this past weekend and told the guys from their Rivals site that it was a good trip and he enjoyed it a lot. He also said that it did not change his commitment status with the Aggies. He'll be in this weekend for the huge recruiting weekend, then will decide whether to visit Virginia Tech (a surprise entry) or Auburn Jan. 27. Tech's a concern because it's closer to home, but I think he's got a comfort level with the A&M coaching staff that should carry the day. Oh, and there is that issue of playing time...

The Aggies are facing an uphill battle for Austin Westlake's Levi Jones, but they're still doing the right things to stay in the hunt. Kevin Sumlin and John Chavis both went over to Austin late last week to meet with him and his family, and it must have gone quite well -- after all, his mom was tweeting about how it was such a pleasure to visit with Chavis when they were in Gainesville visiting Florida.

A couple of weeks ago, Jones poo-poohed the idea of taking a visit to A&M because he'd been there enough. He wanted to look at schools out of state. Still, the Aggies were able to convince him to take a longer look, albeit during the week. But it's something.

Having said all that, Randy Shannon getting the DC job at UF probably means he's going there. Shannon played with Jones' dad at Miami and the two have a long history together. But A&M is not going quietly into that good night and have mom's attention, if nothing else.

Ok, I'm sort of bored so I'll try the conjecture thing. Let's look at the current list of commits and enrollees and guess at who's going to play in 2017 and who's going to redshirt.

Enrolles --

QB Kellen Mond: Plays

WR Jhamon Ausbon: Plays

WR Hezekiah Jones: Plays

LB Santino Marchiol: Plays

LB: Anthony Hines: Plays

S Keldrick Carper: Redshirts

WR Roshauud Paul: on the fence, leaning redshirt

OL Jared Hocker: Redshirts

QB Connor Blumrick: Redshirt

Commits --

DE Tyree Johnson: Plays

DE Michael Clemons: Plays

DE/DT Jayden Peevy: on the fence, leaning redshirt

LB Buddy Johnson: Redshirts

S Derrick Tucker: Plays

CB Devin Morris: Redshirts

CB Myles Jones: Plays

DE Ondario Robinson: Redshirts

OL Carson Green: Redshirts

OG Grayson Reed: Redshirts

OG Dan Moore: Redshirts

OG Adrian Wolford: Redshirts

WR Camron Buckley: Redshirts

TE Keynel McZeal: On the fence, leaning redshirt

TE Camron Horry: Plays

RB Jacob Kibodi: Redshirts

CB Debione Renfro: Redshirts