Texas A&M football: 30 greatest players of all-time
By Jeff Shull
Stats – 29 career sacks, 70 tackles, 12 sacks, four pass deflections, nine tackles for loss and 18 quarterback pressures in the 1992 season
Accolades – Consensus All-American in 1992, All-Southwest Conference in 1991 and 1992, SWC Defensive Player of the Year in 1992
Team signature moment – Back-to-back Southwest Conference titles in 1991 and 1992
Are you starting to see a pattern here? Not surprisingly, the best modern run in Texas A&M football’s history came thanks to ton of elite players. The early 1990s were glory years for Aggie fans, even though the team didn’t reach the ultimate goal of winning a national championship.
Marcus Buckley was yet another dominant force on the defensive side of the ball. It wasn’t easy to stand out on a team full of future NFL players, but Buckley did just that during the 1992 season where he helped led the Aggies to an 12-1 record and won Defensive Player of the Year in the conference.
Texas A&M went 12-0 in the regular season, but lost the Cotton Bowl to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. They were one of three teams to finish undefeated and got left out of the de-facto National Title game, as the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide played the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes.
Buckley finished his Aggie career ranked sixth on the all-time sacks list. He would go on to be a third-round pick of the New York Giants in the 1993 NFL Draft that saw so many Aggies get taken. He played for the Giants for seven seasons, mostly as a backup and special teams contributor, before retiring after their Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
His son Marcus Buckley II currently plays for New Mexico State Aggies.