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Texas A&M Football: 3 things you need to know about new DC DJ Durkin

By Jack Williams

PISCATAWAY, NJ - NOVEMBER 04: Head coach D.J. Durkin of the Maryland Terrapins watches the teams warm up before the game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on November 4, 2017 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images)
PISCATAWAY, NJ - NOVEMBER 04: Head coach D.J. Durkin of the Maryland Terrapins watches the teams warm up before the game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on November 4, 2017 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images) /
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Texas A&M football
DJ Durkin, Texas A&M football (Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images) /

It’s official — the Texas A&M football team has found a replacement for Mike Elko at the defensive coordinator position in College Station. Elko’s December departure caught nobody by surprise but still left a big hole in the Aggies’ coaching staff.

Many believed that Jimbo Fisher would hire from within. He didn’t.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the Aggies would be hiring DJ Durkin, co-defensive coordinator at Ole Miss, to become the new defensive coordinator in Aggieland. I’m here to tell you everything you need to know about DJ Durkin.

No. 1: New Texas A&M football DC DJ Durkin has been nothing but excellent as a defensive coordinator

DJ Durkin is still a relatively young coach. The new Aggie DC is only 43 years old but has built up one of the better resumes in the game for an assistant coach.

Durkin has been a defensive coordinator at Florida, Michigan, and Ole Miss. At Florida and Michigan, his defenses were among the best in the country. At Ole Miss, they were not. That said, as defensive coordinator, he took Ole Miss’s defense from being one of the worst in the nation (bottom 15) to a respectable 51st in scoring defense.

Durkin has also worked as a head coach twice. The first time, he was an interim head coach at Florida, going undefeated during his tenure. Okay, sure, it was only a single game — still, it’s more fun to say undefeated.

At Maryland, Durkin only head coached for two seasons and took the Terps to a bowl game in one of them. A controversy that I’m about to get into cut his tenure short.