SHREVEPORT, La. — Texas A&M defensive back Jordan Pugh is sick of hearing about it.

On TV, in the paper, at his favorite restaurant, all anyone wants to talk about is all the points that will be scored when the Aggies play Georgia in Monday's Independence Bowl.

"That's all you hear," Pugh said Sunday. "They talk about the offense every day. As a defense, we're going to be out on the field, too."

Of course, there's a good reason for all that talk of a high-scoring affair.

Texas A&M (6-6) has given up 30 or more points eight times this season and more than 60 points twice. The Aggies' opponents averaged 32.7 points per game, 104th out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

Georgia (7-5) was a touchdown better, giving up 26.4 ppg. But that ranked the Bulldogs an unaccustomed 10th in the Southeastern Conference and led to the firing of three defensive assistants, including defensive coordinator Willie Martinez.

The Independence Bowl gives each defense a chance to prove it's no pushover.

"You've got to look forward to that," Pugh said.

Neither Georgia coach Mark Richt nor Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman expects 10 touchdowns Monday. Each team has had the chance to prepare for the opponent over several weeks and those extra practices mean more experience. And Sherman's been part of plenty of games where big numbers were predicted yet never happened.

"My experience has been when people talk about offensive matchups it's always been kind of a disappointment because the defense usually rises to the occasion in those games," Sherman said. "I don't know how many times you guys have written about an offensive matchup and it turns out to be a defensive battle."

The Aggies' defensive troubles can be explained away by youth and inexperience. Sherman played 18 freshmen this season — the second most in the nation — and 14 of the 22 players on the defense's two-deep depth chart are underclassmen.

The Bulldogs' plight is a little harder to get a handle on and just how they'll respond to the loss of Martinez and the other assistants remains to be seen.

The trio of fired coaches turned down Richt's invitation to remain with the team through the bowl, leaving just one full-time assistant and two graduate assistants to help prepare a gameplan and run practices.

"My main role on the defense was to try to set some parameters with the defensive staff," Richt said, "to say, 'Look, let's not reinvent the wheel, let's try not to do some things that our guys aren't comfortable with. Let's do what we do, let's get a plan that is sound and hopefully as simple as possible, so we can put our players in position to make the plays."'