There are probably more enjoyable ways to spend an afternoon than repeatedly changing your defensive plan while standing on a football field in triple-digit temperatures.

Unfortunately for Texas A&M, that was pretty much the assignment against Arizona State.

The final score suggests the Aggies cruised to a 48-20 victory, but that wasn’t really the case. Arizona State pulled within four points in the third quarter and had spent much of the day finding ways to give Texas A&M problems defensively. The Aggies eventually figured things out, although head coach Mike Elko admitted afterward that doing so required changing so much that the defense at the end of the third frame paled in comparison to what it looked like at the beginning of the first.

“[Arizona State] did a really, really good job in the beginning of that game,” Elko said. “They gave us some looks. They gave us some different things from a leverage standpoint. They had a really, really good plan and I think the big credit to our kids is staying composed, hearing the adjustments, listening to the adjustments. I think, by the time the end of the third quarter rolled around, we were playing a completely different defense than we were when the game started, just from a checking standpoint, from a leverage standpoint. We had to change pretty much everything today at some point. Credit to that.”

Texas A&M Needed Everyone in the Heat

Making all of those changes was difficult enough without considering the conditions. The game kicked off early in College Station, with temperatures reaching into the 100s. Add in the fact that the Sun Devils weren’t particularly interested in going out lightly, and the afternoon became a much more difficult endeavor as the hours stretched by.

The tricky conditions made conditioning important, but it also made Elko’s willingness to use his depth one of the more consequential parts of the game. Even as the game got tighter, Elko continued putting different players onto the field, trusting that the Aggies’ depth would come through when the going got tough.

“On a day like that, it matters,” Elko said of his depth. “We didn’t hesitate to put guys on the field. We were able to play three corners. We were able to play three linebackers. I don’t even know how many people we played up front. ... So, we were able to get a little bit of a free-flow rotation that we haven’t always had in the last two years.”

It’s that last part that appears to be the most significant, as it should become increasingly useful now that SEC play has arrived. The temperatures will eventually become less ridiculous, but the opponents certainly won’t. Elko now knows he can reach farther down the depth chart without holding his breath, which should make the Aggies more confident they can play at a high level throughout the rest of the season.