Surprise! Texas A&M will grace the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football for the first time since 2018 with defenders Micheal Clemons, DeMarvin Leal, Demani Richardson and Myles Jones on the magazine.
For the first time, we are going behind the scenes of picking the 62nd cover, the photoshoot and the story that made the Texas A&M defense a unit we couldn't ignore.
This is the first time since 2007 that Texas Football has featured a defensive player on the cover, back to when TCU's Tommy Blake shared it with Colt McCoy and Stephen McGee. To find the last time the magazine had only defenders on the cover, you have to go back 23 years to Dat Nguyen, the greatest linebacker in Texas A&M history.
It's fitting that these four will take us into the next generation. Here is their story.
To us, it was an easy choice
Texas A&M is fresh off one of the best seasons in program history, bar none. The Aggies went 9-1, won their first ever New Year’s Six bowl game and finished ranked in the top-four of the AP poll for the first time since winning the 1939 national title.
To be honest, we're a little surprised more of you didn't guess it. The school felt pretty obvious to us.
Of course, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was a factor. The last big-name coaching hire the Longhorns made – Tom Herman – earned a spot on the cover. Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger was on the cover in 2019. Certainly, Texas will be a factor every single year. It’s the nature of the magazine. But in 2017, Texas beat out LSU to land the hottest coaching candidate on the market. Sarkisian is a very good hire, but not hyped in the way that Jimbo Fisher or Herman were when hired.
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