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Gary Darnell is a handy guy for A&M head football coach Dennis Franchione to have around. Darnell is a pretty good defensive coordinator, but in 36 years of coaching he's also seen it all. That's among the reasons Franchione asked his old buddy to replace Carl Torbush after the defenseless 2005 season. A&M's defense had an amazing turnaround last year under Darnell, which was punctuated by a 12-7 victory over Texas. Darnell is on the spot again as the Aggies brace to play three of the nation's best offenses - No. 17 Oklahoma State (476 yards per game), No. 1 Texas Tech (610.4) and No. 18 Nebraska (467.8). A&M's defense, which has struggled at times during a 4-1 start, will need Darnell's expertise. So will Franchione, who is lucky to have the easy-going, strong personality of Darnell aboard. Franchione is under fire after it was reported he secretly e-mailed inside information to 12 to 15 boosters. That's caused quite a flap, but after Saturday's 34-10 victory over Baylor, Darnell said it was no distraction among the assistants. Darnell sure looked unflappable as he talked. He said the five defensive coaches put in approximately 110 hours of preparation for the game, so there wasn't any room for a distraction. "I'll tell you by about 5:30 tonight this one will be over for us, too," he said. "That's our life. That's the life we live and we move on every week. "I've always said that it's the players and our families who have to deal with it. It's hardest on them, because coaches - I mean, we're about halfway down on the low IQ group to begin with. We just put our head down and go to work." Darnell speaks from experience. He's been an assistant at Notre Dame and Texas. He was head coach at Western Michigan, having great success for the first four years, including a 24-8 record in the Mid-American Conference. Then he was fired after a 1-9 start in 2004. He's also seen off-the-field problems. As the defensive coordinator at Florida in October 1989, Darnell was named interim head coach when head coach Galen Hall was forced to resign. Hall admitted that he had improperly paid two former assistant coaches in secret salary supplements and was accused of paying a former player's child-support payments. Darnell coached the Gators for seven games, including a 34-7 loss to Washington in the Freedom Bowl. Some thought he should have been named Florida's head coach, but some guy named Steve Spurrier got the job instead. Franchione I'm sure felt sorry for his old buddy back then, but you can bet he's glad Darnell's home these days is the Bright Complex.
Darnell's defense forced Baylor to run three plays and punt five times. Baylor lost 3 yards and settled for a field goal after A&M's lone turnover. The Aggies forced three turnovers.
A&M's game at Texas Tech on Oct. 13 will be televised by ABC at 2:30 p.m. The day's other TV games are Texas at Iowa State (11:30 a.m., FSN), Missouri at Oklahoma (5:30 p.m., FSN) and Colorado at Kansas State (8:15 p.m. ESPN2).
A&M's game against Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday at Kyle Field will be on FSN. The other TV games will be Oklahoma vs. Texas (2:30 p.m. ABC) and Nebraska at Missouri (8:15 p.m., ESPN).
A&M's domination of Baylor allowed the Aggies to jump 66 spots in time of possession to No. 17 in the nation, averaging 31 minutes, 50 seconds per game. Baylor dropped to last at 25:41.
A&M led the country last year in time of possession.
The Big 12 players of the week were Kansas State wide receiver Jordy Nelson, Kansas State defensive end Ian Campbell and Colorado punt returner Chase McBride.
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