Mark Snyder: "We hold our twos accountable"

We've all been in the situation at one point in our career where you're up big, and your defense is pitching a shutout and late in the game you put in your number twos to get them some field time.

Some teams have a big drop off between their starters and backups, while other teams are fortunate enough to have some depth.

After a conversation with strength coach Larry Jackson, Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mark Snyder has gotten the team to buy into the belief that those "twos" should be held accountable to the same standard as the starters.

"A couple weeks ago against SMU, the two's didn't perform as well, and it was interesting, we got on the bus and it was just me and (strength coach) Larry Jackson. He was drawing some similarities to when he played when they were good on defense."

"He said 'You know, the one thing that we did as players is that we held the twos accountable,' and I shared that with our defense and you could see it in practice. Guys getting on the twos and encouraging the twos so that when they got their opportunity, that was really really good to see." Snyder explained.

That was evident last weekend against Arkansas. The Razorbacks put up ten points in the first quarter, taking a 10-7 lead at the end of the first. But then the Aggies put together 51 unanswered points and the twos held their ground late in the game to finish with a final score of 58-10.