This Texas A&M football assistant just became a defensive coordinator
A member of the Texas A&M football team’s coaching staff just got promoted to defensive coordinator. If you read this sentence a few weeks ago, you’d likely think that I’m referring to Elijah Robinson or TJ Rushing, two Aggie assistants who looked like possible candidates to take over for Mike Elko. It wasn’t.
Instead, a graduate assistant from Jimbo Fisher’s coaching staff has received an outside promotion.
Source: Buffalo is hiring Brandon Bailey to be the school's next defensive coordinator. He worked with Mo Linguist at Texas A&M, where he worked alongside former DC Mike Elko for three years. He'll bring systematic familiarity to Buffalo.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 27, 2022
As you can see above, that grad assistant is Brandon Bailey, who had been on A&M’s staff for three seasons. Say what you want about his lack of experience — he knows the ins and outs of one of the most consistent defenses in college football.
What is former Texas A&M football GA Brandon Bailey’s outlook at Buffalo as defensive coordinator?
In a lot of ways, this was a great move for Buffalo. Even though they’ll be taking a huge risk with this pickup, the Bulls were terrible defensively last season and their defensive coordinator departed for a role at Stephen F. Austin.
The Bulls’ current head coach is Maurice Linguist, a former defensive backs coach at Texas A&M who is looking to turn around a dead program. The former Aggie assistant decided to help out another former Aggie assistant by hiring Bailey to his staff.
This is obviously a huge step up for a guy who wasn’t overly involved in A&M’s defense over the past few seasons. We’ll see if he capitalizes on this big opportunity.
The new Buffalo DC will inherit a unit that finished 93rd in total defense in 2021. The Bulls’ passing defense was okay (57th) while the rushing defense ranked 19th. At best, this will be a project for the first-time DC. One way or another, Bailey’s impact will be felt on the Buffalo football team.
But will the Texas A&M football team miss him?
Realistically, the answer here is no. I’m not saying he’s worthless to Texas A&M’s staff — if Linguist was willing to hire his former co-worker, Bailey must have been doing something right. That said, the impact of a graduate assistant on an SEC football team is minimal, no matter who you’re talking about.
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Long-term is the true impact you’ll see here, as Bailey was an up-and-coming assistant coach who could have risen up Fisher’s coaching tree.