Aggie defenders excited to face off against old friend Jay Bateman: ‘I have nothing bad to say’

It will be a battle of old friends in College Station this weekend, as Jay Bateman returns to Texas A&M for the first time since joining Will Stein‘s Kentucky staff back in January. Before then, he served as Mike Elko’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for two seasons, helping lead the Aggies to an 11-2 record and their first College Football Playoff appearance in 2025. We already got reactions from Bateman and Elko, with the latter stressing that he’s “on the extreme paranoid end” when it comes to terminology and changes how plays are called every year to avoid any tells. The former couldn’t have been more positive about his former head coach. “He’s one of the best football coaches, I think, that walks the planet right now,” Bateman said. What about the players? Plenty of overlaps remain from their CFP run together last season, and they’re excited to see their former defensive coordinator back at Kyle Field. No trash talk—only respect for the 53-year-old playcaller. “I’m definitely looking forward to playing them,” A&M cornerback Dezz Ricks said this week. “I have nothing bad to say about Coach Bateman. I’ve known him since I was in eighth grade, he recruited me for a long time. I’m definitely looking forward to the matchup. … I wouldn’t say it’s weird (having him back). It’s exciting, just like any other game. It’s exciting more than anything.” It goes even deeper for Aggie edge rusher T.J. Searcy, who was actually with Bateman at Florida when he coached the linebackers in 2023. He helped recruit him to Gainesville, then brought him to College Station. Now, they’ll be on rival sidelines on Saturday. “Coach Bateman taught me a lot since I came into college,” Searcy said. “My freshman year in Florida, he kind of taught me a lot about defense and scheme and stuff like that. It’ll be fun to see him again for sure.” It’s not just about Bateman for the senior lineman, who stuck around at Florida one more year before his move to A&M, but also his experience taking on the Wildcats in general. This will be Round 3 after back-to-back matchups against UK in 2023 and 2024 with a loss in the first and a win in the second. Who will win the rubber match? If Searcy knows anything about this program — even if Mark Stoops is no longer leading the blue and white — it’s that the fight will be there. “I think this will be my third time playing Kentucky, so I know they like to try to establish a run game, they like to kind of try to be physical,” he continued. “I feel like that’ll be the main thing I have to focus on this game.” They backed up Elko’s attention to detail when it comes to playbook security and Bateman is going to be totally confused if they have it their way — “We changed pretty much all our terminology,” Searcy added — but there is no fixating on any particular coach, player or school logo. If you’re overpreparing for one, you’re underpreparing for the next. That’s why they’re treating this game no differently than either of the first two they played to open the season. “We take every game the same, whether it’s Missouri State, Arizona State or Kentucky,” Ricks said. “It’s more so just play our game, make sure we’re all on the same page, and we’ll get the result we want.” Time to see if Bateman, Stein and the Wildcats can ruin those weekend plans.