The only thing hotter Saturday morning at the Coolidge practice fields than the heat index was the pressure generated by the Texas A&M defense.
Early during scrimmage action, inside linebacker Michael Hodges stripped the ball from wide receiver Terrence McCoy. Outside linebacker Von Miller missed a chance to scoop up the bouncing ball that eventually went out of bounds -- about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage.
What a welcomed sight in Aggieland. There were times last season when opposing running backs and receivers were running through A&M's defense with seemingly no Aggie within 15 yards.
Sure, there's been busted assignments during the first week of camp that painfully resemble those made last season when A&M ranked 105th in total defense. But they've been few and far between as recent frustration with the unit's woes has been replaced with optimism over A&M's switch to a 3-4 attacking defense. It certainly has been the buzz of camp.
A normal sight has been All-American Miller in position for a sack, which was commonplace last season when he rushed every play. But now he might drop into pass coverage and let one or two of the other linebackers rush. Or the blitz could come from the secondary.
The Aggies are on a mission to force turnovers, 30 of them to be exact.
"At practice, that's one of the things that we constantly talk about," Hodges said. "We're constantly punching for that ball."
The Aggies haven't had that many turnovers since 2002, which was the last year for former head coach R.C. Slocum, who helped build the infamous "Wrecking Crew" defense.
The defense has had its share of interceptions in seven practices, but even more telling has been the number of times quarterbacks Jerrod Johnson and Ryan Tannehill have thrown balls away. Their sheer athletic ability allows them an extra second or two to go through their progressions, but wide-open receivers have been as hard to find as banks loaning businesses money.
The defense's transformation is the work of first-year coordinator Tim DeRuyter, whose voice and arms are working overtime to raise the unit's level of efficiency closer to that of the team's high-powered offense.
DeRuyter was so hoarse Friday you could barely hear him standing just 10 yards away. And it's not that he hollers or screams. The younger-looking Gary Busey or Nick Nolte is a tireless worker.
He just loves teaching his players, showing them what they should do with his hands while he offers words of encouragement. He oozes passion as he paces around the practice field, lightly blowing the whistle around his neck if his voice can't get the job done.
Whether it's whispering or motioning, he's getting his point across.
The defense started asserting itself even before putting on pads, which wide receiver Ryan Swope can attest to. Swope, wearing only shoulder pads, took a helmet to a quad muscle Wednesday and hasn't practiced since.
Swope was leveled by Terrence Frederick. Forget about making the catch, Swope was just fortunate the injury wasn't worse.
Swope surely wasn't surprised.
"They've been swarming all over the place," he said Tuesday. "It's really just difficult to get a read on that defense. They've got so many defensive backs and outside linebackers flying around the ball everywhere, so it's kinda hard as an offensive player to read what that defense is doing."
Players need to be smarter when not wearing full pads, but hitting too hard in practice is a problem that can be fixed. It's a lack of ability to hit hard and often and be in the right place to do it that has caused A&M problems in recent years.
There's no doubt this is DeRuyter's defense, but he's got some pretty good teaching aides. Aggie icon Dat Nguyen, the inside linebackers coach, was more hoarse this week than DeRuyter. But as inside linebacker Garrick Williams said, when you look at Nguyen's 1998 Lombardi Award every day while walking through the Bright Complex, you see he knows his stuff, so you better be listening.
Outside linebackers coach Nick Toth looks as young as his players, and coaches accordingly, while defensive line coach Terrell Williams is the group's imposing figure with a deep bellow, but also a friendly smile. Defensive backs coach Charles McMillian, the only holdover from last year's defensive staff, is another young assistant on the rise who will be a defensive coordinator some day because he's such a good teacher and players' coach.
"The things [DeRuyter] brings in and the new coaches that they brought in, the energy is just electric and it's really contagious," Hodges said.
It's certainly showing.
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