Where Texas A&M Goes at the LB Position After Daymion Sanford's Devastating Injury

Texas A&M immediately called a timeout after Sanford was taken off of the field despite 1:46 remaining in the quarter. At the time of the injury, he had a team-high four tackles.

In the immediate aftermath of the news, it is unclear what the exact nature of the injury was for Sanford. That said, it is clearly a serious one in nature that will likely cause Sanford to miss a significant amount of time.

"He got injured, lower body," Mike Elko said after the game. "We will figure it out."

To make the news even more devastating, Sanford had just been named a team captain on Friday in advance of his junior season - a season in which he was projected to be one of, if not the, top players on the Aggies defense.

Where Texas A&M goes from here

In 2025, after replacing an injured Scooby Williams in the starting lineup, Sanford was one of the most impactful players on the defense, recording 57 total tackles, which ranked fourth on the team. He also ranked second on the team with 9.5 tackles behind only Cashius Howell, and was fourth on the team in sacks with 3.5.

Heading into 2026, Sanford was expected to team up alongside Tulsa Transfer Ray Coney to form a dynamic linebacker duo that projected as one of the top groups in the SEC.

And while it is as of now unclear exactly how long Sanford will be out, one thing that is clear is that if Sanford is forced to miss the start of the season, or has to miss a significant amount of time during it, there is not an abundance of depth at the position to help replace the loss.

In fact, Texas A&M only has a handful of scholarship linebackers on the roster with any experience, with Sanford, Coney, sophomore Noah Mikhail, junior Jordan Lockhart, and junior transfer TJ Smith.

Sanford fits in at the MIKE linebacker position and was sitting ahead of Lockhart on the depth chart. That said, in light of the injury it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to see a couple of different scenarios at the position.

In one scenario, Texas A&M could start Lockhart alongside Coney, who plays at the WILL spot. In another, Texas A&M could deploy Coney and Mikhail (who also plays at the WILL) together in the starting linebacker spots, with one moving over to MIKE

Texas A&M also has an abundance of younger players such as Kelvion Riggins, Storm Miller, Jeremiah, Tamarion Watkins, Tank King, and Qui Beck, but counting on one of those players to emerge to a starting caliber player seems like a stretch.

So at this point, unless the Aggies are able to land a late-spring addition at the position from the portal, it would appear that trio of Mikhail, Coney and Lockhart will be forced into playing the vast majority of the snaps, with Smith a younger player or two providing the depth that they can.