COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Texas A&M snapped a two-game losing streak Saturday with a 34-7 win over Arkansas. The Aggies travel to 14th-ranked Missouri, where they are 3 1/2-point underdogs.
One of the turnarounds against Arkansas came from the defense. The secondary had struggled entering the game, but the defensive backs held Arkansas to a 31.3% pass success rate, according to Pro Football Focus.
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko named Tawfiq Byard the defensive player of the game after leading the team with six tackles.
Byard spoke on where his hard-hitting safety mentality came from.
“My freshman year of college, we had an inside run period. And I was going against Naquan Wright, a running back at USF back then,” Byard said. “And I know all y’all seen a hit of him running, a player that played for Alabama over and stuff like that.”
“So I always had that in the back of my hand, like, oh, I don’t want to be that guy,” Byard said. “But one day we had an inside run and I was the safety going in.”
“And I remember I went in and I closed my eyes and my defensive coordinator came behind me and said, you soft, soft,” Byard said. “And ever since then it was a… I didn’t like that. You know, coming from the defensive coordinator calling me soft as a safety, that didn’t sit well with me.”
“So ever since then I’ve been putting my helmet on stuff, putting my chest on stuff,” Byard said.
The secondary will go against a Missouri passing offense and quarterback Austin Simmons that ranks second in SEC games this year with 317 yards per game.
“We got to put pressure on this guy. You know, he’s real comfortable back there,” Byard said. “Austin Simmons, you know, he does a great job of looking and scanning the whole field.”
“You know, we have to get pressure on him. Make him uncomfortable. Get him off his spot. Move him around,” Byard said.
“That’s something that I’ve done in my background was put pressure on the quarterback coming off the blitz. You know, blitzing and stuff like that,” Byard said. “So we just got to put pressure on this kid.”
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