By ROBERT CESSNAIf you're living in Aggieland but haven't heard what Air Force's defense did against Houston in the recent Armed Forces Bowl, you will -- over and over and over.
The facts: The Falcons had six interceptions, made UH Heisman hopeful Case Keenum look like a high school quarterback and limited the nation's top-producing pass offense to 222 yards -- not even half its average -- on 24-of-41 passing.
The defensive whiz who designed the schemes and made the in-game calls was Tim DeRuyter, whom Texas A&M hired Thursday as coordinator and assistant head coach to replace the retiring Joe Kines.
DeRuyter's expertise bodes well for the Aggies, who next year will face six teams that finished the season in the top 22 in passing yardage.
But DeRuyter's knowledge is no guarantee he is going to produce those same kind of results at A&M.
When Kines was hired two years ago, the buzz was about how his Alabama defense had stifled the high-powered Texas Tech offense in the 2006 Cotton Bowl. Tech, which was leading the nation in passing, was only 16-of-36 passing for a season-low 226 yards in that 13-10 loss.
Kines did break even against Tech while in Aggieland, but he was saddled with the majority of the blame for the program's back-to-back losing seasons. A&M ranked 114th nationally in total defense in 2008 and 105th in 2009. At that rate, A&M would have been a Top 20 defense by Kines' 75th birthday.
There's no doubt A&M needed a fresh set of eyes, less worn vocal cords and a fresh approach.
Yet this hire is not a youth movement. DeRuyter is 47. Phil Bennett was 39 when he was hired as A&M's defensive coordinator by R.C. Slocum. Heck, even Slocum was only 34 when he called his first blitz.
DeRuyter certainly is riding an upswing to his career. He's won wherever he's been, and he's a family and military man, which always plays big in Aggieland. What he lacks might matter most and that's experience on the big stage. Air Force played only three teams from BCS conferences in his three years as the Falcons' defensive coordinator. The lone victory came in 2007 at Notre Dame -- impressive until you realize it was the Irish's school-record ninth loss that season.
A&M fans are counting on all of DeRuyter's signature victories being ahead of him as he attempts to do something more experienced predecessors couldn't -- revive the Wrecking Crew.
A&M's inability to attract interest from the game's best coordinators -- Virginia Tech's Bud Foster or Texas' Will Muschamp come to mind -- shows how far the Aggie defense has slipped. Melvin Robertson and Slocum molded A&M's defense into a cherished unit, which was perpetuated by those who followed. A&M had 35 Top 10 finishes in key defensive categories from 1973-2001.
Good coaching attracted good players, which led to more good results. It was the best of times. And if A&M lost a coordinator, it was able to hire a dang good replacement. Bob Davie had been the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Tulane for two seasons, yet he had to work as A&M's outside linebackers coach for four years before being good enough to be elevated to A&M's DC en route to being hired at Notre Dame. Tommy Tuberville was the DC at Miami before coming to A&M, a move that helped him land a head coaching job at Ole Miss. Bennett was the assistant head coach and DC at LSU before returning to his alma mater in 1995. And veteran assistant Mike Hankwitz was Kansas' DC before coming to A&M in 1997.
Hankwitz, currently at Northwestern, was the last A&M DC to have a Top 10 finish with the Aggies, which was in 2001.
Carl Torbush certainly had a comparable resume to his predecessors when he replaced Hankwitz, but the Wrecking Crew was entering a much longer hibernation than first feared. A&M slipped to 96th in total defense in 2003, then two years later fell to 107th. A&M climbed to 46th in 2007 under Gary Darnell, who had spent 15 years as a DC at BCS schools. But A&M plummeted to 83rd in Darnell's final year. Even Kines, who had been a defensive coordinator 23 years and was one of the best of his era, couldn't fix things.
The bottom line is A&M no longer plays good defense nor is known for doing so. It's Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma that carry the Big 12's banner in that arena. Ask any high school senior which team in Texas plays the most exciting, attacking defense, the answer would be Texas Christian. And if you want a national championship-type defense, look east to Louisiana State, Alabama or Florida.
The Wrecking Crew has been gone so long, today's top recruits don't even know what you're talking about if you mention that once-proud nickname.
DeRuyter's daunting task is to change that. It's probably an asset that he played and coached at Air Force. The academy's motto for years had been "Aim High", which recently has been replaced by "Above All."
The Aggies gladly will adopt either.
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