Who is Lyle Hemphill? New Texas A&M football defensive staffer could be key piece for Mike Elko's staff going forward
Texas A&M football just made the first of what fans hope are several moves to add to the defensive staff in Mike Elko's hire of James Madison DC Lyle Hemphill. Hemphill comes to the Aggies after putting up an impressive career thus far in Harrisonburg, VA, but he is familiar with Mike Elko from quite a while ago.
Hemphill most recently crossed paths with Mike Elko in the Aggie head man's second year in Durham, NC. While there, he helped assemble an extremely impressive defense for the Blue Devils, as he did last year for JMU.
However, their connections run even further back than that. The Aggie head man was on staff with Hemphill while both were at Hofstra University as far back as 2006, where the then-DC Elko oversaw Hemphill's work with the defensive backs.
Hemphill has received a couple of notable honors in his career. In his time with FCS Stony Brook, the newest A&M staffer was named the FCS Defensive Coordinator of the Year: quite the accolade.
Most recently, Hemphill was nominated for the Broyles Award— the award given to the nation's top assistant coach— while at JMU. Elko's not messing around, in other words: he just went out and poached a guy considered to be one of the best DCs in the country to come onto his staff.
This could be a seismic move for Texas A&M football. Hemphill's familiarity with Elko could help patch over some of the issues that we saw with Bateman's defense later on in the year, as the new addition specializes in the back seven. I personally love this hire, and can't wait to see what comes of it.