Grading Texas A&M football's coaching hires - Jay Bateman, DC/LBs
The A&M defense has been the strength of this team so far in teh season (though Weigman's return has the offense looking crisp as well). And even though Elko brought in a reputation of his own as a defensive head coach, we need to give Jay Bateman his flowers as well.
Once a DC at Army, bringing the Black Knights to the top 10 nationally in defense, Bateman had a less illustrious stop in Chapel Hill before moving to a position coach role down at Florida. He's another guy with well-known recruiting prowess that excited Aggie fans when he was brought in.
His defense has been stellar so far down-to-down for the Aggies so far, and they've improved every single week. They've turned opponents over at a much better rate than A&M defenses have in the past, and they've maybe been as suffocating against ground games as any Aggie team has in recent memory.
It should be said that the linebackers are probably the weakest area of the defense, but they are also the area with the least talent. I like what he has gotten out of guys like Scooby Williams and Daymion Sanford, and you can see the improvement every week there in particular.