Heading into this fall, both South Carolina and Texas A&M have plenty of room to improve on the defensive side of the ball from where they were last year.
Last season, South Carolina ranked 12th of of the 14 SEC programs allowing over 30 points per game, and Texas A&M ranked 11th, allowing just over 28 points per contest. In terms of total defense, the Aggies and Gamecocks each ranked at the bottom of the league, with A&M allowing almost 451 yards per game, and South Carolina alllowing 433 yards per game.
To fix those issues, both head coaches brought in new faces to run their respective defenses. Kevin Sumlin made one of the biggest splashes of the off season by luring John Chavis away from LSU to run the Aggie defense. And Steve Spurrier brought a familiar face to South Carolina in Jon Hoke, who ran Spurrier's defense at Florida from 1999-2001 and coached the secondary for the Chicago Bears the past six seasons.
On ESPN's Russillo Show, after Spurrier was asked if first-year defensive coordinators can have that big of an impact with a new program, he answered and then shared that him and Sumlin have a friendly wager on which defense is most improved in 2015. The winner gets $10.
“Can they make that big of a difference? They did at Arkansas. That’s a fact." Spurrier explained.
"In fact, Kevin Sumlin, us and them were at the bottom of the SEC in most defensive categories, and I bet him $10 a few minutes ago that our defense would be more improved than his.”
Will the splash hire make bigger waves, or will familiarity lead to better results on the field? Time will tell.
The best barometer will come on October 31st when the two programs meet head to head.