I didn’t plan to write a blog after the LSU game. I spent the weekend in Salzburg and Munich thinking there wouldn’t be much to say. I expected LSU to beat us, but I assumed it might be a decently fought game until LSU pulled away at some point in the second half.

What I’d seen in the first three games for A&M and LSU didn’t give me much confidence in the Aggies.

I debated waking up in the middle of the night to watch the game via the pirated feed system I devised. It would be on at 1:30 am. I’m old. These days, I like to be asleep by 1:30 am.

Would it be worth waking up? Could I check the score in the morning and watch the condensed version on the train ride to Munich?

However, like any junkie, I couldn’t resist the potential hit, so I set my alarm for 1:30.

Part of me is glad I did. There’s no real way to understand what happened without watching it live. I watched the first half and then tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. Like a junkie, I went back for another hit, firing up my pirated feed to watch the third quarter. With about 5 minutes left in the third quarter, I turned it off. It was 4:00 am in Salzburg, and I wasn’t going to let Aggie Football ruin my trip. Even a junkie sometimes has limits.

So here I am in my lederhosen on a 10-hour flight from Munich to Houston writing about a miserable state for Aggie Football. I never wanted to be here. I planned to wear normal shorts back, but my lederhosen are too thick to cram into an already stuffed carry-on. So I’ll sit here in my uncomfortable lederhosen writing about the sad state of Aggie Football.

Enough about my traditional German celebration attire; let’s get to Aggie Football.

The LSU Game:

I’m assuming most of you watched the LSU game. You know what happened and don’t need me to detail it.

I had a bad feeling, but it was worse than bad. The Aggies were never really competitive. Sure, a few plays gave us a little hope, but we were never in that game.

Just flat-out out-coached. I know there’s lots of blame on the players, but this game was an embarrassment for the coaching staff. 197 yards to 506 yards.

The talent difference on the LSU roster is not over twice as much bigger as those total yards might indicate. The Aggies have plenty of talent.

That disparity in yards leads me to believe there’s a MASSIVE difference in the coaching at the two schools.

You can hate Lane Kiffin as a person all you want. Plenty of reasons for that. However, he is one helluva football coach. On Saturday night in Baton Rouge, I think he exposed Mike Elko for who he is and who he isn’t.

Mike Elko is in his third year at Texas A&M. Lane Kiffin is obviously in his first year at LSU. The football products on the field couldn’t have been more different. I don’t believe the talent is far off from each other. Sure, Marcel Reed is a limiting factor, but the Aggie program has plenty of overall talent.

Before this game, I almost published something about this being the biggest game of Mike Elko’s career at A&M. I thought about writing it on the plane trip to Vienna, but decided not to.

I thought it might come across as hyperbole because it seems like whatever is next for anything is the most important thing in time for whatever it is. I don’t want to be one of those people, and I always try to keep the big picture in mind.

In my mind, Mike Elko really needed to beat Lane Kiffin, considering Elko is in his third year at A&M and Kiffin is in his first at LSU. It’s a bad look to lose to a first-year coach when you’ve been the better team the prior two years.

Even worse, Mike Elko has been beaten by first-year coaches in back-to-back weeks, pretty soundly. It’s a little surreal that it’s been this bad.

There are still eight games left in the season, but it appears one program is clearly on the rise and the other is on the borderline of a free fall.

It’s not an overreaction to be concerned about the state of Aggie Football based on what happened in Baton Rouge. A trend has been developing, and it doesn’t look good.

Arizona State:

After the Arizona State game, I wondered if we should be worried about how the Arizona State offense racked up yards against the Aggie defense and our offense struggled.

We obviously outscored them thanks to two defensive touchdowns and a muffed punt return.

Arizona State had 369 total yards and the Aggies had 255. That was really concerning to me despite the score.

As I combed through the stats after the game, I thought I found two positives. Even though Arizona State rushed for 115 yards on us, they didn’t have a run over 20 yards and didn’t have a rushing touchdown. I was hopeful our defense could clamp down on the running game when we needed to.

The other positive I thought was that their one receiver had pretty much all of their passing yards and a little over half of their offense. I was hopeful that receiver was a total badass.

I still think he’s a pretty good receiver, but it’s crystal clear now that Kenny Dillingham just used his best offensive weapon to exploit a clear weakness. Other than Dezz Ricks, we can’t cover anything.

Kenny Dillingham exposed it, Will Stein at Kentucky exploited it, and Lane Kiffin exploded it.

We beat Arizona State simply because we had much better players who could create turnovers. Give Kenny Dillingham the Aggie roster and Mike Elko the Sun Devil roster; Kenny Dillingham blows the doors off Mike Elko. I don’t think there’s much question about that.

So the positives I hoped I’d find from the Arizona State game weren’t positives at all. We have way more talent than Arizona State.

That’s clear to me now.

Is Mike Elko a Good Coach?:

I don’t think Mike Elko is a bad coach, but right now, he doesn’t look like a good coach. He’s certainly nowhere near a great coach.

I’ve written about this a bit, but there are quite a few concerning data points about Mike Elko as a head coach.

I have this discussion from time to time with other Aggies, and I get the same argument: he’s a guy who knows how to win, or is gonna figure it out, or something along those lines.

They’ve bought into the “Elko Era” aura. Like someone who voted for a politician who’s not doing what they said they would do; that person is going to defend the politician they voted for no matter the results they’re seeing.

My argument/discussion point is always this: In his career as a head coach, point to me the specific examples that prove he’s a good head coach.

The first response I always get is about what he did at Duke. Sure, he won more games than he lost at Duke, but Manny Diaz had a better first two years than Elko did. By the smallest margin, but Diaz did have better first two years than Elko. Would Aggie fans be excited about hiring Manny Diaz? They’re basically identical coaches in their first two years at Duke.

The next argument is always that he got the Aggies to the CFP in his second year as head coach. While impressive, if you look under the hood, there are some absolute concerns. The quality of the teams we beat in 2025, aside from Notre Dame, isn’t that great.

Ironically enough, we’re a Marcel Reed incompletion away from our final offensive play in South Bend, and the entire 2025 CFP argument unravels. We’re also a Shane Beamer not being a complete and utter moron away from that 2025 CFP argument unraveling.

We lose to Notre Dame and South Carolina, and the entire “Elko Era” aura never stood a chance coming into the 2026 season. I’ll absolutely give Elko credit for winning those games, but we were a lot closer to losing those games than we were to changing the outcome of the Texas and Miami games.

The other thing Elko defenders gloss over is the utter collapse at the end of the 2024 season. We got completely pushed around by South Carolina in the second half; we gave up 21 points early in the first half to Auburn, got pushed around by Texas the entire game, and then collapsed late against USC in the bowl game.

That loss to USC in the bowl game might be the worst loss of Elko’s career. I know bowl games like that don’t really matter anymore, but Elko walked into that game with a good portion of guys who would be playing for him in 2025. He had a lot of guys playing for something. Lincoln Riley walked into that game with a completely depleted team, to the point that he was playing his third-string quarterback, who hadn’t played all season.

Lincoln Riley hasn’t proven to be a good coach at USC. However, Riley took a depleted roster and beat Mike Elko, who had a team with something to prove in 2025. Sure, Mike Elko turned out to have a great 2025 season, so it’s moot, but from a coaching standpoint, he lost to Lincoln Riley with a far superior roster.

That’s not the mark of a good coach. Good coaches win that game.

How Bad Is This Current Team?:

Now, we’re four games in in 2026 with a 2-2 record. We have two SEC losses to first-year head coaches. They weren’t close losses either. Kentucky and LSU pounded us. If we’d lost both games like the Miami loss last season, we could’ve blamed Marcel Reed and moved on.

That ain’t the case. Our football team has MASSIVE issues right now. It goes far beyond one guy, which is the point I’ve been trying to make all season.

Mike Elko and his hand-picked staff are getting exposed.

I think there’s enough talent to win eight games still this season, but I don’t see it happening unless Elko wakes up. I know a lot of people just rolled their eyes there, but this team does have quite a bit of talent. You can scheme around our quarterback deficiencies. It’ll require Elko to find his defensive magic so we can work on establishing the running game.

I don’t think it comes close to happening, but a change in coaching style can salvage this season to some degree.

We saw Mike Sherman go on a three-game losing streak in the middle of the season, then turn it around and win the final six games in 2010. It can be done.

I don’t think Mike Elko has it in him. He’s stubborn like Jimbo, believing he can’t unravel all of the work they did in the offseason. It’s too risky. He’ll win or lose with the plan he devised in January.

As for the schedule, we’re not beating Texas, and there’s at least one more loss. I think Bama is a lock for a loss as well, but I need to see more of them. They remind me a little bit of the A&M team from last year.

I do think we beat Arkansas, Missouri, and The Citadel. So that’s a 5-7 season as the absolute floor. We’ll out-talent both of those SEC teams.

I think South Carolina and Oklahoma are also winnable, but not if Elko doesn’t change how he’s coaching. That could get us to 7-5, which seems really remarkable right now.

I want to think we can beat Tennessee too, but who knows. That could be 8-4 if Elko wakes up.

We could also go 4-8, scratching out one SEC win, likely over Arkansas.

I have no idea, as I don’t know if Elko can admit to the reality of where he’s put this program.

Here are some random thoughts on Elko’s struggles as a head coach. I’ve written about most of these, so you can skip sections if you want.

Elko’s In-Game Coaching:

I think Elko really struggles with being an in-game coach. He can’t process what’s happening on the field in real time to make adjustments or guide his assistants. When I watch him on the field, it feels like he’s just more on his headset listening to offensive calls or too focused on calling plays for the defense.

He’s not seeing the whole game. He devised a plan in January and has been working on it at every practice. He’s just letting the plan play out with no direct involvement during games.

He’s not adapting or giving his staff guidance during the game.

I have one specific example of him being disconnected from his staff, and it seems minor, but I don’t think it is. In his first game against Notre Dame at Kyle Field, it was obvious the game was over, but we had one final offensive drive. It was a two-score game; we were out of timeouts, and it was under two minutes. Our offense threw an incomplete pass.

The cameras caught Elko on the sideline yelling at a staffer, “Tell him to run the “effin” ball. Tell him to run the “effin” ball.” It’s obvious he wanted Colin Klein to run the ball so the clock would run and get the game over.

I know it seems minor, and most people laughed that Elko was dropping F Bombs on his staff, but I don’t think it’s minor. Didn’t he give Klein guidance on what to do on the final drive? Was Klein being defiant? Elko didn’t want to get on the headset and give the direct order, so it was crystal clear?

It just came across like the head coach and offensive coordinator were completely disconnected. I know it seems minor, but I think it’s a sign that Elko and his staff aren’t on the same page in games.

It seems like he lets the offensive coordinator do whatever, and he’s just gonna call timeouts and make fourth-down decisions. He could be helping the offensive coordinator by telling the OC what he sees from a defensive standpoint.

I know Elko is calling a big part of the defense, but I think it’s all too much for him. He’s not giving the offense any feedback, and it’s clear other coaches have figured out how to attack his defense. He can’t devote enough time to defense while still keeping an eye on the rest of the team on offense and special teams.

He has a first-year coordinator on each side, so how can he manage it all? He chose this setup, so it’s on him.

Elko’s 4th down decisions have also been very questionable. I don’t mean having the stones to go for it. I mean having the stones AND a plan to get it. There’s no point in going for it if you don’t have a plan actually to get it. Too many times Elko has just run the ball up the middle and been stuffed. In games where it’s clear we can’t run up the middle, we should do it only when necessary.

It’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. He’ll decide to go for it and run the ball up the middle, only to get stuffed.

It’s like he’s not watching the game in front of him and has his mind up on some game plan that’s not working.

Coaching Mentors:

Most of Elko’s time on staffs has been with Dave Clawson at Wake Forest, Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, and Jimbo Fisher at A&M.

I don’t always believe a coaching tree defines success, but I do think it’s a great indicator.

Elko certainly hasn’t worked under any elite-level coaches. In fact, he’s worked for two coaches who have the largest buyouts in college football history.

Yikes.

Elko certainly isn’t from the Saban tree or anywhere near it.

Staff Hires:

The majority of his staff hires have been comfort hires. The only two that haven’t been left after the second season. That’s obviously Colin Klein and Jay Bateman. Klein got his dream gig, and Elko ran Bateman off.

Bateman showed back up at Kentucky and promptly helped put an absolute beatdown on Elko and his team. Revenge is an amazing motivator, but still, it’s Kentucky,

Meanwhile, Elko promotes guys from within the program like he’s running Nick Saban’s rehab coaching clinic. He’s clearly not doing that. Wiggins has no experience calling plays, and Hemphill has one season of calling plays at James Madison.

Buster Faulkner was the OC at Georgia Tech the past three seasons and had some pretty amazing success. Ironically, he did so with former Aggie great Haynes King. He’s now running the Florida offense and doing quite well. So much so, he’s likely to get a head coaching gig next season.

Did Elko even look at him?

Steve Sarkisian fired who I thought was a pretty good defensive coordinator to get Will Muschamp. I get Will Muschamp is also fun to hate on, but in a vacuum, he can run a defense. I think Sark improved his defense by not being complacent.

Sark has admitted part of why he hired Muschamp was so he could focus more on the offense. Even if you disagree with how Sark is handling his program, it’s interesting to admit you can’t handle it all, and then go out to find a potential solution.

I know Elko wants to run his own defense, it seems, but he could have potentially brought in another defensive coordinator. I get that he’s never going to hire Will Muschamp to coach his defense, but he could bring in someone with more experience and skins on the wall.

Instead, it looks like he’s running a government organization where you promote from within because it’s easier and not based on merit.

The Football Part of Things:

This ties into the staff hiring issues, but right now, he has a football team that seems to have no clue what they’re supposed to be doing.

I know everyone wants to blame Marcel Reed, and that’s fine, but the current issues with the football team go well beyond Marcel Reed.

While I do think there’s a lot of talent on this team, it’s either being miscoached or the players are just flat-out football idiots. Either way, it’s a bad look for Elko, as he’s in charge of the coaching staff and these are all guys he wanted. He’s not playing with someone else’s players right now.

This team has had one blown assignment after another.

Case in point: LSU’s 4th-and-1 touchdown. LSU motioned a tight end over, and the defense let him slip down the field COMPLETELY uncovered. I can’t begin to tell you how bad this is. That’s basic football where you have to have someone assigned to every eligible receiver. Nobody runs a defense where a guy streaks down the field completely uncovered.

To make it worse, it’s a play design that Lane Kiffin clearly knew would exploit the Aggie defense.

For whatever reason, Kiffin clearly thought that if he motioned that tight end to the other side, the Aggies wouldn’t cover him.

Kentucky did something similar the week before, but they motioned a tackle over, leaving the tight end, and we didn’t cover the guy at all.

This was even worse. There was no real deception attempt. An eligible receiver switched sides, and nobody on the Aggie defense tried to cover him.

It was 4th and 1, and the play design the whole time was to hit the tight end streaking downfield. Leavitt never even tried to run it or hand off. He was always going to pass to the tight end. I know Kiffin is an awesome offensive mind, but it’s concerning that we run any defense where we lose an eligible receiver that motions to the other side.

Kiffin did his trademark throw up the play sheet and sprint down the sideline. Hate the guy all you want, but when he does that, he’s telling you he cooked you. He knew what the defense would do on that play.

He exploited it for a touchdown.

Beyond that play, there’s just routine busted assignments all over the field. It seems every other play the offensive line has a missed assignment. The linebackers fill the wrong gap. The safeties struggle to cover their assignments.

The whole scheme seems screwed up.

Especially on defense. Elko keeps trying to get pressure with his four linemen. I do think there’s a ton of talent on the defensive line, but it ain’t working. They can’t get pressure on their own, and Elko refuses to adjust. He claims the numbers the offense is using to protect are working against them, but that should mean the secondary should have a better chance of covering guys. But that ain’t happening.

Run some freaking blitzes, Mike. Disguise some coverage and pressure. What’s happened to you?

I go back to Elko seems to have an issue diagnosing what’s happening in real time because he’s got too much on his plate.

Offensively, we all know Reed’s issues. Beyond that, Reed has lost all confidence. I think he’s pressing because he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do as a quarterback. Plus, he’s getting pressure because his offensive line is blowing assignments, so it’s a perfect storm: a limited Reed with no confidence.

Once again, I’m not defending Reed, but his coaching staff isn’t helping him at all. The offensive scheme is not working, and the staff isn’t changing anything. They’re just letting a struggling quarterback keep struggling.

The one wild thing that’s happened with this offense is that it’s gotten better at running the ball the last two games. Against Kentucky, the Aggies had 90-something rushing yards in the first half. Rueben Owens had 7 carries for 43 yards in the first half against LSU. That’s 6.1 yards per carry with a long of 16, which is really good. We consistently gained yards on the ground but had to abandon the running game.

In the last two games, we did a decent job running the ball, but the defense gave up too many points, and we had to abandon the running game. That means we have to rely on a quarterback who struggles to complete passes and an offensive line that blows blocking assignments.

Not ideal.

In my book, Elko and his staff bear most of the blame for the football issues. And Elko hired all of these guys like he’s running a government entity.

Elko’s Rise to Head Coach:

A lot of people have turned a blind eye to how Elko became the head coach of Texas A&M.

Let’s revisit that if you’re interested.

Elko was seen as an ace-level defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and A&M. I firmly believe that’s accurate.

For whatever reason, though, he was never strongly considered for big head coaching gigs. Mike Elko spent four seasons running the defense under Jimbo Fisher. He did extremely well.

However, when the time came after four successful seasons at A&M, Duke was his best coaching opportunity.

Some believe he took the Duke job to be closer to his parents. I believe that’s true, but it’s also clear to me Duke was his best opportunity as a head coach. He didn’t have any other head coaching opportunities to take.

Duke isn’t a terrible program, but it’s clear Elko has big program aspirations. At least I believe he does, the way he talks. No program bigger than Duke looked at him as a head coaching candidate.

Fast forward two years later and we fire Jimbo. It’s more and more clear we fired Jimbo with no real plan in place. I believe it was a Hail Mary by our then Athletic Director to save his job.

Our Athletic Director appeared to run a legit national coaching search but somehow wound up with Mark Stoops as the candidate. This appears to be unknown to the higher-ups at A&M. The news gets leaked, and a massive backlash ensues.

The fan revolt that Saturday night certainly didn’t help, but I’ve been told Stoops was never going to be hired by the true decision-makers—the fan backlash, while fun, didn’t really matter.

We had an Athletic Director and decision-makers clearly not communicating with one another.

Also remember on that fateful night, Mike Elko told Duke administrators he would be staying since he didn’t get the A&M gig. He had already turned down the Michigan State job. It seems A&M and Michigan State were the only ones interested in him, as he wasn’t a candidate anywhere else.

Somehow, through all of this, we let our Athletic Director run a coaching search when he never had any real authority to execute it.

So embarrassed by the Stoops news leak and panicked to make a hire, one Regent fires up his private jet with our Athletic Director in tow and flies to Durham, North Carolina, to see if they can convince Elko to take the job.

According to a Washington Post article from last season, they got on the plane with no clue whether Elko was even taking the job.

There was a coaching search, but the Athletic Director botched it, and then the Regents decided to hire who they always wanted.

It wasn’t a true coaching search at all.

It was the very definition of a panic hire. It’s not the worst hire we could have made, as Elko had and still has some promise, but it was 100% a panic hire because our Athletic Director completely botched the hiring process with his final candidate.

As has happened at A&M many times in the past, leadership is not on the same page. And the result shows it.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but there are two names we could have absolutely hired in that cycle: Lane Kiffin and Curt Cignetti. I get that the Aggies would never want a coach like Kiffin, and nobody really knew who Cignetti was, but both were clearly in the running to be hired by Texas A&M. We just chose not to consider them for whatever reason.

Had we paused the coaching search to take a day or two to review the information, would the result have been different?

I don’t think so. I think the Regents always wanted Elko, and when our Athletic Director screwed up the coaching search with the Stoops recommendation, it was the perfect window to hire Elko and be done.

For the record, I always wanted Kiffin. I know he’s an odd duck and easy to hate, but the dude can coach college football. We had Johnny Manziel as a quarterback and loved him just fine. We also went hard after Chris Beard as our basketball coach. It’s hard to claim the moral high ground when you factor in those two things.

Either way, when it comes to Elko as a head coach, Duke, Michigan State, and Texas A&M are the only big-name programs ever interested in him at the time of his hiring at Texas A&M.

I know there are rumors of other interest, but I’ll get to those next.

The Extension:

Here is where things get ugly and a little depressing.

Having not learned our lesson, the decision-makers at Texas A&M signed Mike Elko to a contract extension before the South Carolina game.

They also signed Trev Alberts to a long and expensive extension, but that’s a blog for another day.

Penn State was supposed to be interested in Mike Elko, but even if they were, there was NO reason to give him a raise and extension when it happened. Let the season play out to see what he does and if there’s any real interest. He wasn’t Lane Kiffin trying to decide between Ole Miss, Florida, and LSU before the season was over.

As much as I can question Mike Elko as a head coach, I don’t question his character. I don’t see him leaving before the regular season is done.

Besides, if he wants to leave Texas A&M for Penn State, let him go. He’s clearly chasing the bag. Totally fine, but those guys rarely work out.

He was making $7 million a year with five years left on a seven-year deal. His contract was just fine for what he’d produced as a head coach so far.

Instead, the decision-makers at Texas A&M clearly flinched at Elko’s agent pretending he might leave. They agreed to pay Elko $4.5 million more per season on average and add two years to the deal. So he got a ~65% raise with two real games left on the schedule in his second season. Unreal.

It’s not as bad as Jimbo’s deal, as it’s for a couple of years less. There’s also a clause that makes the last two years’ buyout 85% of the $11.5 million, and we can reduce any amount owed if Elko takes another job. Jimbo’s contract didn’t have those last two things, so I guess we learned a little.

Baby steps with the decision-makers at A&M.

Elko’s deal runs through 2032.

The reality is we basically owe Elko around $66 million if we were to fire him today. We won’t, because it’s financially impossible.

To complicate things, we’re still paying Jimbo a little over $7 million a year through 2031.

So for the next five years we owe a little over $18 million a year on coaching salaries to Jimbo and Elko.

Go ahead and read that again – EIGHTEEN MILLION IN COACHING SALARIES FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

$18 million times five is $90 million in case you’re wondering. Sure makes Jimbo’s $90 million deal over nine years look like a real steal.

Conversely, Georgia, Indiana, and Ohio State pay their coaches who have actually won a national championship $13 million a year.

We’re paying $5 million more a season in head coaching money than those three schools.

It’s an Aggie Joke of the worst magnitude.

I’m not kidding when I say whoever had their hands in any of this should have their authority stripped away. They need to be banished from Athletic Department decisions forever. Politicians in D.C. would call this incredibly reckless spending, and those people waste money every single day.

The people responsible for this extension will never be held accountable for this because they have too much money and/or power, but they need to be. That extension was an egregious error, especially after the Jimbo fiasco.

Elko wasn’t really going anywhere. And if he was, good luck to him. We’ll find someone else.

With this extension, I don’t see how we can get rid of Elko in the next four years at best. That’s through the 2029 season. Even if we fired Elko after 2029, we’d still owe about $42 million to Jimbo and Elko for not coaching the Aggies. With inflation going the way it is, that might not be that much in late 2029, but right now it sure seems like a lot.

$42 million still owed at the end of the 2029 season.

Don’t read that again. It’s too depressing.

Just an unreal decision to extend Elko because we didn’t learn our lesson with Jimbo or pay attention to what was happening with LSU and Brian Kelly.

So I don’t think we can fire Elko any time soon based on financials. Even if we do have someone to write that check, is there any faith we would FINALLY get this hire right after the stumbles with Fran, Sherman, Sumlin, Jimbo, and now Elko?

In all honesty, we should have just kept Jimbo and seen what he could do with NIL money.

The reality is most of these college coaches are the same. Landing the next up-and-comer is really difficult.

We’re just going to have to take our medicine with Elko.

He might even figure it out if we can get him to act like a big major college football coach rather than a government entity.

My Biggest Concern Right Now:

Obviously, that Elko extension is the biggest concern, but my biggest football-related concern is that two of our direct rivals have superior coaches to our head coach.

You can argue all you want about Sark, Kiffin, and Elko, but the data is crystal clear – Sark and Kiffin are superior head coaches. Sark has already beaten Elko twice, and things don’t look good for this season.

Hate Kiffin all you want, but his success at Ole Miss is vastly superior to Elko at A&M right now. And Kiffin just pulled Elko’s pants down, even though Elko had a comparably talented team. Elko’s also been at his program two years longer.

Not looking good for us in Baton Rouge and Austin.

The good news is Venables seems to be in the same position as Elko. It could be worse, where OU has a superior coach as well.

I’m deathly afraid history is about to repeat itself.

Most people forget the demise of R.C. Slocum came about because LSU hired Nick Saban, Texas hired Mack Brown, and OU hired Bob Stoops.

R.C. will blame the lack of facilities. He’s not incorrect, as we were behind other schools, but the reality was that Saban, Brown, and Stoops were all superior head coaches both on the field and in recruiting.

They have the hardware to prove it. Either that or Texas A&M is an infinitely inferior football program. I choose to believe Texas A&M has the resources to win; we don’t have the decision-makers to win.

Our last conference championship came in 1998. That was Brown’s first year at Texas. Stoops would come to OU that offseason for the 1999 season. Saban would arrive at LSU for the 2000 season.

I love R.C., but it was over for him when those guys arrived and surrounded him.

Sark has his machine rolling at Texas, and I think Kiffin is about to do the same at LSU.

Meanwhile, it looks like Venables and Elko are racing to see who can figure out how to get where Sark and Kiffin are. Or be unemployed.

The further the distance, the greater the challenge.

Lucky for us, NIL has some spending limits. I think we’ll still spend money so we can field a competitive roster. It’s not like the old days, when winning schools could stack talent.

The top schools can’t totally outspend each other on acquiring talent, which actually helps us. Even if we’re still struggling, we can still acquire talent.

But the problem is that, all else equal from an NIL standpoint, the best talent will go to the programs that are winning. I’m talking high school and transfers.

I’m afraid that won’t be us right now.

We’ll have a slight talent disadvantage if Elko doesn’t turn this thing around.

Is High School Recruiting a Concern?

Believe it or not, I think high school recruiting will be fine for this season. Most people don’t realize recruiting results are about a year behind the existing season. The recruits we have committed did so during the 2025 season. The other thing is NIL packages are basically locked up for these guys in the 2027 class, which will sign in December.

Sure, there will be some movement, but for the bigger guys we ponied up for, they likely can’t get a similar deal elsewhere. Competing schools have already filled most of the high school NIL budget.

After this class, it becomes a real question, though. Which may work in our favor, as Elko probably needs to focus less on high school recruiting and building through the portal.

Is There a Way Out of This?:

Thanks to the two things fans pretend to hate the most, there absolutely is.

With the transfer portal and NIL, any program can turn its success around in a single season.

Look what Kiffin just did at LSU.

But you need the coaching to do that.

I don’t know if Elko has it in him to change his coaching strategy both on the field and administratively.

He’ll have to become much more objective in evaluating talent on his existing roster and within his coaching staff. No more thinking he can develop players and staff when it’s pretty clear it ain’t there.

If they’re not cutting it, they need to go. From the outside, it appears he doesn’t like having those conversations.

He’ll have to start looking at players and coaches he wouldn’t normally consider.

He’ll have to re-evaluate his in-season practice and in-game coaching style.

He’s going to have to re-evaluate how he spends his NIL.

He’ll have to re-evaluate how he handles high school recruiting and portal transfers. I think right now he’s too focused on high school recruiting, believing he can develop guys. Successful teams seem to be keeping more NIL money for older, proven transfers.

This whole “what was done in January through August wins football games” thing needs to go. The second half against South Carolina wasn’t won in the off-season. Sure, some of it was, but most of it was Shane Beamer botching a massive lead, and Marcel Reed was playing desperate with nothing to lose.

We wouldn’t have gotten our asses kicked so bad in the first half if January through August mattered.

What wins football games is schemes your team can actually execute and the opponent isn’t expecting. It’s adapting each week to your opponent, not thinking you can show up and win because you worked so hard in the off season.

Everyone works hard in the off season. We’re supposed to have the best strength and conditioning coach in the country. Doesn’t look like it right now.

I do believe there’s enough talent on this roster to compete even for the rest of this season. Elko needs to hold himself and his staff accountable for working on schemes that fit the talent. They’re clearly not using it correctly right now.

What he’s doing right now isn’t working and,, honestly, hasn’t been working since he got to A&M. This is more than a two-game blip. If Marcel Reed misses that last pass in South Bend or Shane Beamer doesn’t blow a massive lead last season, the whole “Elko Era” aura isn’t a thing.

There is no College Football Playoff appearance.

And without that CFP appearance last season, the light on the issues is MUCH brighter. And it’s already really bright.

Summary:

Even with everything I just laid out, I desperately want Mike Elko to win and win big.

He needs an amazing quarterback, and he can win a national championship like Gene Chizik, Les Miles, Ed Orgeron, and Dabo Swinney. I think Elko is a much better football mind than those guys. He and Chizik are pretty close defensively, but he’s definitely better than Miles, Orgeron, and Swinney. Those guys are head coaching idiots unless they have talented coordinators and a quarterback.

I like Elko, and thanks to the idiotic contract extension, we can’t get rid of him. He’s ours and ours alone through the 2029 season at the earliest.

I’m going to continue getting my season tickets and supporting the team.

I hope everyone complicit in where we are takes a hard look in the mirror and admits the issues at hand. They need to have the difficult conversations with Trev Albert and Mike Elko.

They need to continue funding the program at a high level. They need to look around and understand what it takes to win big.

They need to stop doing what we’ve always done and expecting different results.

If not, we’ll keep acting as if we can never get over the hump for reasons out of our control.

The reality is the reasons have always been in our control, but we don’t want to change.

Comfort matters more than winning football games. We say differently, but our actions say otherwise. We say we’re a big university with unlimited resources, but our hiring practices say otherwise.

I’ve never wanted to win dirty, but I don’t mind being uncomfortable in the process of winning big.

I’m just tired of watching the same movie believing there’s a different ending. We know how the script ends. We’ve seen it time and time again.

It’s time to tear up the script and try something new.

I’m tired of waiting. I’m ready for it to change.

Even if it makes those in charge uncomfortable, someone needs to be held accountable for the decisions that got us here.

If not, we’ll keep perpetuating the Aggie Jokes and waiting for next year.

It seems to be the Aggie way.

BTHO Arkansas

Sometimes the universe sends out funny signs.

I can’t help but think the universe had a laugh at the expense of Aggie Football on Saturday afternoon at Kyle Field.

It’s not lost on me that in his third year at A&M, Mike Elko lost to a first-year coach who replaced the coach Mike Elko sort of replaced, too.  Of course I’m talking about former sort of Aggie head coach Mark Stoops.

The loss was embarrassing, but I can’t help but laugh at the irony of Mark Stoops’ tie to this.

Beyond that irony, Kentucky’s DC is Jay Bateman, who was Elko’s first DC hire and then ran off after two years.

There’s some really ironic ties between Elko, Stein, and Bateman.

Before I get to anything about the game, I want to shout out to Mario Craver.  He was the lone bright spot in that game.  He was targeted 19 times and caught 11 for 119 yards.  He didn’t find the end zone, but he was the only guy who really showed out for the Aggies.

Wildly enough, on the Aggies’ final possession, Craver beat the defense on the first two plays, but Reed couldn’t get him the ball.  It was likely too late to make a difference if Reed had gotten him the ball, but Mario Craver gave it all he had to the end.

Marcel Reed:

Let me get to Marcel Reed.

I’m shocked people are surprised by what Reed did.  It’s who he is.  I wrote in the off-season that Reed has an interception problem.  He threw two more interceptions, keeping his streak of interceptions against Power 4 opponents alive for five straight games.

Here’s that post if you missed it:

Should Aggies Be Concerned About Marcel Reed?

Even more concerning, he’s now thrown interceptions in 14 of the 16 games against P4 opponents since being named the clear starter.  That’s 88% of those games.

He’s also now thrown four touchdowns and three interceptions this season.  That puts his interception-to-touchdown percentage at 75% against P4 opponents this season.  He was 80% last season.

Sure, go ahead and shout, “Reed Sucks!”, but it’s who he is.

I’m not defending Reed at all, but the data coming into this season says this is who he is.  He’s simply doing what he’s always done.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Putting all your ire on Reed ignores the other issues with Aggie football right now.  You’re missing the forest for a single tree.

Who’s To Blame?:

One person is to blame: Mike Elko.

Mike Elko decided to ride with a quarterback who has an interception problem.

Mike Elko hired the offensive staff.  When he hired Wiggins and Lynch, did he ask anything about Reed’s tendency to throw interceptions?  The data was there.

Beyond that, has Mike Elko ever had conversations with Wiggins and Lynch about Reed not being a pocket quarterback?

It’s mind-boggling to me they’re asking Reed to do things he’s clearly not capable of doing because he’s never done it.

That’s what frustrates me most.  You can’t just throw Marcel Reed under the bus without looking at who’s driving the bus.  To me, Elko and his offensive staff are more to blame than Reed himself.  Reed is simply doing what he’s always done.

Go ahead and shout, “Reed Sucks!”, but know there are others complicit in his issues.  The adults that get paid a lot of money are also complicit in this.

They’re asking Reed to do things he’s never done.  He’s not a sit-in-the-pocket guy who makes successful reads.  He benefited from Concepcion and Craver last season.  One of those guys is gone.

To make things worse, Reed’s offensive line is worse than last year.  As we saw in the Texas and Miami game last season, Reed becomes a much worse passer when he’s sped up.

The offensive staff is asking Reed to do things he’s never been successful doing.  Elko isn’t apparently doing anything about it either.

It Ain’t Just Reed:

We have no running game and our offensive line isn’t that great.

I’ve talked about Owens and Morrow not being the guys.  KJ Edwards finally got his chance at some first-half carries, and he gets hurt—just our luck.

I will say we ran the ball really well in the first half, but it faded in the second.  Not sure how much of that was the loss of Edwards, or Kentucky just came out of the half wanting it more.

I know some people think our offensive line isn’t that bad, but they’re not that great either.  According to Pro Football Focus, Reed was pressured 24 times on Saturday.  Reed attempted 49 passes and ran 10 times on Saturday.  So he was pressured on about 40% of his intended passes.  

We got whipped at the line of scrimmage on Saturday.  By Kentucky.  In Elko’s third year as head coach, his offensive line got whipped at the line of scrimmage against a first-year head coach at a basketball school.  That should have never happened, especially by a head coach who consistently preaches about being a program that’s going to win the trench war.

Beyond the running back and the offensive line, the wide receiver room isn’t as deep as people claim.  Sure, losing Bussey on the opening kick hurt.  But Bussey is, at best, the third-best receiver on this team.  If you’ve got depth, you’ve got someone to plug in.

What in the world are our tight ends doing?  I know Micah Riley had a touchdown and a nice fourth down conversion on Saturday.  However, Micah Riley, Kiotti Armstrong, Richie Anderson, and Houston Thomas have six total receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown on the season.

Those guys are regularly in the game and aren’t any offensive threat.  So why keep trotting them out there?  I’m not expecting them to lead the team in receiving, but 39 yards of receiving in 3 games isn’t much production at all.

Kentucky made me jealous with their tight-end usage.

I think Wiggins is doing some good things and Reed is clearly not executing, but there sure seems to be no real clarity on what this offense should be.  I mentioned it earlier, but it feels like Wiggins is calling things Reed can’t execute.

We had 25 rushing attempts by our running backs and 49 pass attempts.  Reed had 10 rushes on his own, but I’m going to classify those as scrambles.  Basically, we had twice as many pass attempts as rushing attempts.  If you count Reed’s scrambles as original pass intentions, it’s even more skewed.

I get that Kentucky scored 21 points in the third quarter, which completely altered our offensive game plan, but I can’t figure out what this offense wants to do.

I know what it shouldn’t be doing, since nothing has changed: having Reed sit in the pocket and hope he’ll pick the defense apart.  Reed was a 53% passer, which isn’t terrible.  He’s usually around 60%, so he wasn’t far off.

Once again, not defending Reed.  Just saying he was basically who he’s always been, while the rest of our offense doesn’t know what its identity is either.

The Main Reason We Lost:

The game was obviously tied at half.  Kentucky came out in the second half and just pushed us around on their first two drives.  Their first drive went for 75 yards, and their second drive went for 83 yards.  Both for touchdowns, making the score 21-7.

Meanwhile, our first offensive possession went for eight yards, and we punted.  Our second possession was the failed fourth down where Marcel failed to convert the pass to Baker.

What most people are missing is that we gained only eight yards on that possession, with the failed Reed pass to Baker on 4th down.

We gained 16 total yards in our first two offensive possessions after the half, and Kentucky gained 158 yards on their first two possessions.  One of those was different from the other.

Sure, Reed should have made that pass on fourth down, but we hadn’t exactly torn it up offensively in our two second-half possessions.

Kentucky then got the ball on a short field and went 33 yards on four plays to basically put the game out of reach.  They would score touchdowns on all three of their offensive possessions in the third quarter.

For a guy who preaches defense and winning the line of scrimmage, Kentucky came out of the locker room at half and punched our teeth in.  On both sides of the ball.  Have I mentioned they were on the road in their third game under a new coach?  And they’re a basketball school?

The 4th and 2 Play:

This is going to be real unpopular with the “Reed Sucks!” crowd.  I know I can’t win the discussion if you want to yell “Reed Sucks!”

I FULLY agree that Reed should have made that pass to Baker.  I don’t deny that.

However, something happened on that play that shows it ain’t just Reed.

The defensive end on the play side fired through the line completely untouched.  He met Reed right where Reed was about to set up for the throw.  Reed had to do everything he could to avoid pressure and create separation to throw.

He still should have made the pass, but most quarterbacks get sacked there because they don’t have Reed’s speed.

Take a look at this photo.  The defensive end has met Reed right at his rollout point.  There’s not one person open and looking for the ball.  Reed is now running for his life.

I get Reed could still make the pass to Baker, but as we’ve seen, when Reed gets sped up, he’s not accurate.

I think the up back was supposed to get a chip on the guy to slow him down, but he was too slow to alter his path.  We’ve seen that a ton of times in Elko’s time in Aggieland where a blocker didn’t get to the defender in time.

You can see the full play on Twitter here:

Infuriating

Worst play of the game by bar pic.twitter.com/Z2DDFdBn59

— Tim England (@tengland_150) September 20, 2026

As I said, I’m not defending Reed here.  A gamer still makes that pass.  I’m just saying either the play design or execution is in question.  No way that defensive end should have been running unabated to where the quarterback is rolling to.

But I know.  “Reed Sucks!” and there’s no one else to blame for our struggles.

Before I get to my thoughts on what to do with Reed going forward, I do want to touch on the defense a little more.

The Defense:

This defense isn’t bad, but it is wildly inconsistent. It’s been that way in Elko’s time in Aggieland.

Go back to 2024 when South Carolina whipped us at the line of scrimmage.  Go back to 2024 when Auburn scored 21 points to open up the game.  I won’t even talk about the 2024 Texas game, where we just got pushed around, or the Las Vegas Bowl, where our defense cratered against a depleted USC offense.

Go back to the 2025 Notre Dame game where they just gashed us on the ground.  Go back to 2025 Arkansas where we couldn’t get a stop when we needed one.  Luckily, the Arkansas defense was worse than ours that day.  Go back to the first half of last year’s South Carolina game or the second half of the Texas game.

Elko’s defense has not been consistent in his games against P4 opponents.

I don’t know what he’s trying to do on defense.  It’s like he wants to play a base-level defense and get pressure with his front four guys.  It’s not working.  We only pressured the Kentucky quarterback on four plays.  Remember, Kentucky pressured us on 24 plays.  Four plays to 24 plays.

We got whipped at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  Kentucky pushed us around.

In addition to our defensive line providing no pressure, our safeties and cornerbacks, not named Dezz Ricks, are questionable in coverage.

Our linebackers also seem to be routinely out of position.

We’ve seen this at times from Elko’s defenses at A&M. They can dominate, but they can also be sieves.

It’s a small sample set, but Arizona State and Kentucky have been really effective against our defense at Kyle Field.  If we can’t play defense at Kyle Field, how are things going to look on the road?  

I was hoping Arizona State had a really awesome receiver.  That might be true, but it could also have exposed our coverage issues.

I don’t like the trend, but I’m hopeful Elko can make improvements since we hired him for his supposed defensive expertise.

If not, it won’t matter what our quarterback is doing.

Elko will have his work cut out for him on Saturday night in Baton Rouge.  I’m sure Lane Kiffin is licking his chops watching the Arizona State and Kentucky offenses against our defense.

What To Do with Reed:

I don’t think you can give the keys to Brady Hart for a night game in Death Valley.  That seems like a recipe for a complete disaster.

I know the backup quarterback is always the most popular player at A&M. Reed was that guy once, when Weigman struggled.  Weigman was once that guy when King and Calzada were struggling.  People couldn’t wait to get beyond Kellen Mond to King or Calzada.

I can go on and on with this game, but you get the gist.

It’s how Aggie fans think the season can be saved.  Just put in the backup quarterback.

To be fair, it’s pretty much every fan base when their starting quarterback struggles.

From what I’ve seen from Brady Hart in his few snaps at A&M, he’s not ready.  He’s 18 and has no real experience.

I get “Reed Sucks!” and I don’t disagree, but Elko also deserves some heat for not having an adequate backup behind Reed.  This is the second season in a row we’ve been completely exposed if Reed got hurt or never improved.  That’s completely on Elko.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but Elko and Wiggins have to pull Reed out of the pocket.  I get that running him exposes him, but does that really matter at this point?  His greatest asset without a doubt is his legs.

I can’t recall any designed runs for Reed this season.  It’s all been scrambles, and he’s slow to run.  I don’t know if Reed is reluctant to run because he wants to be a pocket passer or if it’s by design.

If it’s because Reed doesn’t want to run, Elko and Wiggins need to explain to him that it’s the only way to save his job.  He’s gonna lose his job if he stays in the pocket and plays surgical passer.  That’s not who he is.

If your first read isn’t there and you see space, just freaking go.  Let your legs do their thing.

It’s time to try a different approach.  The data is crystal clear on what kind of quarterback Reed is.

Is Elko The Guy?

I’ve seen this discussed a lot since the Kentucky loss.  I’m going to sit on this for a few more games.

He’s got his work cut out for him, but it’s too early to decide.

Like Reed, the data is starting to point a certain way.  But like Reed, he can change that direction if he’s willing to change his ways.

We’ll see how Elko wants to handle things going forward.  He’s 100% complicit in where things stand today.

He’s in his third season at Texas A&M.  He shouldn’t be losing games at Kyle Field to a guy head coaching in his third game ever at a basketball school.

Let’s see what he does against a first-year coach with extensive experience as a head coach at a football school, in one of the most hostile venues in the country.

I don’t like the odds, but what do I know?

I’m just a guy who thinks there are bigger issues beyond “Reed Sucks!”

BTHO LSU!

P.S. – There won’t be a write up after the LSU game. I’m headed to Austria and Germany because they ripped off Wurstfest from our fellow Texans in New Braunfels. Something called Oktoberfest. The game starts at 1:30 am so no idea if I’m going to watch it. May just wake up in the morning, check the score, and debate if I want to download the condensed version on YouTube to watch on the train from Salzburg to Munich.

Sponsor:

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I’m not really sure where to begin this analysis.  I’ll also keep it as short as possible.

This game was a total head-scratcher because the score said one thing.  The stat sheet said something completely different.

A 48-20 win seems like a massive beatdown.  Somehow, we outscored Arizona State by 28 points but had 114 fewer yards.  Obviously, turnovers were the big factor in the score difference, but to be outgained by 114 yards is really confusing.

I feel like I’ve seen this game way too many times in the past.  The Aggies have an impressive win, but I walked away with no clue if we’re a good team or not.

Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a bad football team.  It’s a good team.  I have no clue how good this team is.  I don’t think it’s a great team, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad team.

I think we’re easily a Top 25 football team.  I think we’re a borderline Top 15 team.  I don’t think we’re a Top 10 team based on what I’ve seen.

Our biggest issue without a doubt is the offense.

We have no running game, and we seem to have an OC who’s clearly learning on the job.

In the first half of the ASU game, I was actually wishing for Collin Klein.  It was clear ASU was running a defense that Wiggins couldn’t figure out how to attack.  They ran a zone defense, and nobody was open.

Couple that with virtually no running game, and this offense was stymied in the first half, much like last week.

We had 130 yards in the first half with 75 yards coming in one drive.  We had 55 yards on 5 other possessions.  That’s 11 yards per possession.  Of those five possessions, three were three-and-outs, so we didn’t even muster a first down.

Just a completely inconsistent offense.  I love the 75-yard drive, but I wish we could have gotten more out of the other five drives.

We got 10 points thanks to special teams on a punt return fumble.  Then the coaching staff did a nice job sniffing out a fake punt that gave us great field position,, and we got a field goal.

Same thing in the second half.  We had 152 yards of offense in the second half.  75 yards on one possession with the other 77 yards on the other six possessions.

Two possessions saw more than half of our offensive yards.  The other 11 possessions averaged 12 yards per possession.

At some point, this offense has to wake up if the Aggies are going to make the playoffs.

The ASU defense was daring us to run the ball while running zone coverage.  It makes sense.  We’ve struggled to establish the run, and Marcel tends to struggle against zone defenses.

This is the recipe defenses will use against us for the rest of the season.  The threat of a rushing attack isn’t there, so play black and clog up passing lanes.

We did exploit the zone, with Horton and Craver scoring touchdowns when they got open because of busted coverage.  There is some hope this offense can figure it out.

Offensive Unit Specifics:

I’ve mentioned it, but we have no running game.  Owens and Morrow ain’t the guys.  KJ Edwards showed off his explosiveness yet again.  I don’t know if you can trust him to handle 20 carries as a true freshman in the SEC.

I fully agree he needs more snaps in the first half.  I think it’s a bit much to expect Edwards to all of a sudden be the focus of our rushing attack.

Elko REALLY should have gone portaling for a running back in the offseason.  I think he’s going to regret that decision.

We have a highly inconsistent quarterback in Marcel Reed.  Sometimes he looks magical, and most of the time he looks lost.  His legs are such a saving grace.

He kept his streak alive by throwing an interception against a P4 opponent.  That’s his fourth straight game and 11th in 13 games since being named the starter.  He’s going to turn the ball over through the air.

But he also threw a beautiful touchdown to a tightly covered Isiah Horton.  That pass was perfect.

Until we see differently, Marcel Reed is exactly who he’s always been as an Aggie quarterback.  He’ll win you more games than he loses you, but he’s not going to win you every game.

The offensive line is totally suspect.  The interior is pretty bad.  Our guards struggle to run and pass block.  You’ll see defenses exploit that.  Our center and right tackle are just okay.  The clear bright spot is Tyree Adams pass blocking at left tackle.  That’s a great bright spot, as it helps Reed not worry about his blindside.

The receiving corps is the receiving corps.  It’s Horton and Craver then I have no clue. Bussey looked much better this week.  I’ll touch on that a bit later.  We’re going to need more yards out of this unit, but they’re limited right now due to coaching and quarterback play.

Offensive Coaching Challenges:

The biggest issue right now is Holmon Wiggins finding his way.  I want to think he’s going to evolve rapidly, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.  I think he’s going to spend the better part of the game trying to figure out how to attack what he’s seeing from the defense.

His running game and offensive line aren’t helping him, but for the better part of the game, he had no clue how to attack the Arizona defense.  He had two nice drives, but it really seems like feast or famine with him.

This is where Elko really struggles as a head coach.  He offers nothing to the offense.  I think Wiggins would benefit from having someone help him diagnose what the defense is doing in real time, but I don’t think Elko really helps the offense in real time.  He just works the refs on obvious missed calls.

So that leaves an offensive staff that is a cobbled-together unit.

Wiggins is obviously the OC.  Trooper Taylor is the running backs coach.  Adam Cushing is the O-line coach and running game coordinator.  Joey Lynch is the QB coach.  John Perry is the receivers coach, and Derek Shay is the tight ends coach.

Lynch and Perry have experience calling plays but never at an elite level.  In fact, Lynch was let go from Vanderbilt in his last role as OC.

That means this staff has no elite play-calling experience.  Nobody to help guide Wiggins or give feedback.

In addition, this is Lynch and Perry’s first season as actual position coaches for A&M.  They were previously just on staff in analyst roles.

So three people on this offensive staff are working in roles for the first time.  Not much continuity at all.

Ironically, the guys with the most continuity are coaching the two position groups struggling most at running back and offensive line.

Cushing really needs to get this unit squared away and quickly.  We’ve seen offensive lines improve as the season wears on.  Maybe Cushing can get it done.

It’s not all bad with Wiggins as he does have some wrinkles here and there.

He used Terry Bussey well against ASU.  He wasn’t sending Bussey downfield and was using him around the line of scrimmage and underneath the downfield guys.

His use of Bussey on the 4th and 2 was a wonderful play call.

This offense could keep growing, but we’re getting into SEC play.  Even if the offense grows, it’s not going to show up on paper because the defenses get tougher from here.

Just go ahead and expect a consistently inconsistent offense from here on out.

Defense:

From a defensive standpoint, I don’t know what to make of that defensive performance.

First off, that receiver for Arizona State is really good.  He accounted for half of Arizona State’s offensive yards and all of their touchdowns. The problem is, we’re going to see receivers like him again.

We can’t just chalk it up to an elite receiver we won’t see again.

Arizona State rushed for 115 yards, but they didn’t have a rush over 20 yards and no rushing touchdowns.  29 rushes for an average of 4.0 yards per carry.

Sure, I’d like to see a more dominant rushing defense, but their rushing game didn’t really hurt us.

From a passing standpoint, we did a nice job, except for their leading receiver.  He had nine catches for 189 yards and the two scores.  Their next leading receiver had nine receptions for 29 yards.

The most obvious positive thing from our defense was the two interceptions returned for touchdowns.  That was like a boxer just landing two massive punches, putting the opponent on the ground for good.  They weren’t getting up.

I think our defense has some dudes that need to get used to playing with each other.  I’ve got some high hopes for this defensive line as they get more experience individually and together.

The defense has always been Mike Elko’s calling card, and I know that’s a big reason he was hired.  Other than one guy having his way with us, this defense has looked the part in two games.

But it has been Missouri State and Arizona State.  We’ll face much better offenses in the SEC.  This defense is going to see some much bigger tests.

I have no idea if it’s going to hold up. It’ll be good enough to keep us in most games, but there might be holes we haven’t seen an offense exploit.  My biggest concern is safeties in coverage.  It’s been an issue the past two seasons against better offenses.

We should get Daymion Sanford back this week.  He was excellent last season, and he should be a big boost to our defense.

The best defender right now is Dezz Ricks.  He’s got his receivers flat-out locked down.   He’s really developed into a shutdown corner.

The ends, Jones, Saka, and Searcy, have looked great.  Hicks has looked really good at defensive tackle.  Some guys are playing really well.

This defense is going to have some hiccups along the way, but in two games, they’ve played pretty good football other than letting Reed Harris have his way on Saturday.  It appears Kenny Dillingham got a complete steal getting Harris from Boston College via the portal.

I wish we had him.

I know I’m hedging with my defensive analysis, but I just don’t know if I can trust this defense against better SEC offenses. There are a lot of bright spots, but there are just enough holes to make me cautious. Call me a battered Aggie Football fan.

Special Teams:

Other than the Tyler White muffed snap, the special teams have been damn good this season.  We’re 4/4 on field goal attempts.

Quite a bit of change from last season.

Obviously, our recovery of Arizona State’s muffed punt was outstanding.  The best part of that play was the first man down taking out the punt returner so he couldn’t recover his mistake.  That was a real heads-up play and key to us getting the ball.

Bussey had a great punt return.

I was critical of Elko’s timeout on a 4th-down punt attempt against Missouri State, but he wisely used a timeout on a 4th-down punt against Arizona State.

I assumed they picked up something coming out of the timeout; Arizona State attempted the fake punt and got nowhere.  That created a 17-10 lead at half instead of a likely 14-10 halftime lead.

Anytime you use a timeout for points, it’s well spent.

Two games in, the special teams look really improved from last season.  We don’t have Concepcion returning punts, so that’s the only real negative.  That happens though.  Replacing first-round NFL guys isn’t easy.

Looking Forward:

I still stand by this is an 8-4 to 10-2 team.  Based on the first two weeks, LSU and Texas are losses.  Those games are certainly winnable, but I think their offenses will outpace ours.

Alabama seems like a tough one, but I need to see more from them.

Oklahoma took a massive step back with their loss to Michigan.  Our game against them might look like a 1930s game with both offenses struggling to gain yards.

I still need to see more of Tennessee and South Carolina.

I want to think we can beat the rest of our schedule that isn’t any of those teams, but who knows.

We’ll find out more this weekend against Kentucky.

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As the Aggies head into the 2026 season, there is a lot of positivity surrounding the team.  Coming off a CFP appearance, they remain a CFP potential team in most analysts’ minds.

The Aggies have a roster to compete for the CFP.  I don’t know if they will.

Elko has done a nice job of adding key pieces to the roster, especially on defense.  I think there’s a good chance our defense will be better than last year.  Which I hope is true because our defense had a few games where they weren’t great at all.

The offense has a lot of question marks from a team standpoint.  The individual components look pretty good, but none of the offensive line has ever played together.

There’s just no real idea of how well these offensive components will mesh.  Football is the most team-oriented sport.  You can guess all you want, but you never know until live bullets fly how 11 guys play together.

There is one massive thing that very few people are talking about – Holmon Wiggins.  I’ll get to him in more detail later, but the Aggie offense will be led by an OC that has never called plays at any level.

Predicting how well the Aggies will do in 2026 is beyond me.

There is not one data point that says how good Holmon Wiggins will be.

It’s all a guess.

I do know that since the dawn of the CFP (going back to 2014), only one team has made the CFP with an OC that has never called plays before.

That was in 2019 when Joe Brady was involved with the LSU Tigers.  How much he was involved with actually calling plays is unknown.  Steve Emsinger, the seasoned OC, was with him.  Brady wasn’t alone in devising game plans and calling plays.

In addition, Brady had Joe Burrow and an absolute fleet of receivers.

Joe Brady hasn’t lit the world on fire since that year, so there’s reason to believe Brady was just a part of a magical collection of talent and not the main driver.

I’ve never heard or read that it was all Joe Brady that season.  No doubt Brady contributed, but I think it’s reasonable to wonder just how much he contributed based on his work since that season.

He’s done well enough to get the Bills head coaching job, but he was also fired after two seasons in Carolina as their OC.

Either way, Joe Brady is the only OC of any sort never to call plays and make the CFP in his first year.

Maybe Holmon Wiggins is the next Joe Brady.  

History says it’s really rare.

That’s not a knock on Wiggins.  It’s just rare for someone to be super successful in their first go at anything.

I bet Wiggins has some success.  He’s coached in some big programs and has the horses.  I don’t know how he’s gonna handle late-game pressure or a defensive coordinator that’s got him completely confused on what he’s seeing.

How is he gonna handle that stretch of Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, OU, and Texas when it matters most?

Expertise usually comes with experience.

Something tells me there’s gonna be a lot of learning on the job at the expense of the Aggie offense from time to time.

What that means, record-wise, I have no idea.

We could go 6-6, or we could go undefeated.

Nobody else knows either, despite what they say.  It’s all a bunch of guessing and burning time on the air or in articles.

Onto more specific ramblings.

Mike Elko, the Head Coach

Beyond the question about Wiggins, I still have questions about Mike Elko, the head coach.

Despite what some people think, he hasn’t set the world on fire as a head coach.  He’s been good, but he’s not been anywhere near elite.

I know people talk about what he did at Duke, but his greatest success came with Riley Leonard.  Leonard helped Notre Dame to the national championship game.

Riley Leonard was a damn good college quarterback.

Elko was 9-4 in his first season and then 7-5 in his second season at Duke.

Conversely, Manny Diaz was 9-4 in his first season and 7-5 in his second season.  So the same records after the end of their second regular season.

Diaz snuck into the ACC Championship game thanks to some wild tiebreaker rules and won the thing against Virginia for Duke’s first ACC Championship since 1962.

Diaz also won their bowl game last season, finishing with a 9-5 record.

Based on records and championships, Manny Diaz had more success in his first two years than Mike Elko at Duke.

I use that as a reference point that Mike Elko’s work at Duke, while solid, is not amazing.

At A&M, he went 8-5 in his first year, losing the final four games against Power 5 opponents.  Not a good look.

In his second year, he went 11-0, then lost his final two games against Texas and Miami.

11-2 with a berth in the CFP is a really good season, but losing those final two games is tough for me to ignore, especially when you compound them with the final four games lost in the 2024 season.

He preaches and preaches finishing, but he’s not even come close to finishing in his two seasons at A&M.

He has one signature win at A&M, and that’s the win in South Bend in 2025.  Amazing win, but we don’t win that thing without Concepcion and Craver.  Sure, Elko gets credit for bringing those two guys in, but I chalk up his one signature win more to talent than to coaching.

You can call the 2025 win in Baton Rouge a signature win, but if you’re being objective, that LSU team was hot garbage.

Great and fun win emptying Tiger Stadium, but it’s not a signature win in my book.

Right now, I’d lump Elko in the same bucket as Dan Lanning and Brent Venables—great defensive coaches who haven’t quite found their head coaching ability with similar resources.

With all of this, I don’t want Mike Elko fired.  Not even close.  I want a statue of Mike Elko outside Kyle Field when a long and illustrious career in Aggieland is done.

I don’t want to do what we’ve done with countless head coaches before him.  Spin ourselves up into thinking he’s the next coming of Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, or Jackie Sherrill.

I want those with power to hold him accountable before it’s too late, like we did with previous coaches.  The man is making $11 million a year.

I think it’s only fair those above him make it known what those shortcomings are.  While doing so, make sure he has every available resource to overcome his shortcomings.

It starts with finishing.

I also get how hard it is to win it all.

I bet most folks don’t realize there are only four active college football coaches with a national championship.

Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, and Curt Cignetti.

Dabo has coached 17 full seasons.  He needed Venables as his DC and two really great college quarterbacks.

Kirby has coached 10 full seasons.  He finally won his in his seventh season thanks to a gutsy quarterback and suffocating defense.

It took Day six seasons to win his.  He needed two of the best coordinators to unlock that loaded roster he’d finally been stacking for years.

Cignetti did it in his second year.  He’s got some secret sauce nobody has figured out, other than it seems like he stacked his roster with a ton of older players. There’s more there, as he has a unique way of practicing and game-planning.

National championships don’t grow on trees.  It takes a lot of luck, but you have to put yourself in position to win one year after year.

We’ll find out in 2026 if Elko is positioning himself to win it all as a head coach.

Gameday Coach

Mike Elko has done really well at assembling personnel in his almost three years in Aggieland.  Jimbo didn’t leave him much thanks to that 2022 recruiting class.

He basically had to overhaul more than half his roster.

He’s done really well at roster building in his time here.  From my standpoint, he’s improved his roster each year he’s been here.

He’s also doing lights out in high school recruiting right now.  We’ll see if that talent develops and stays on campus, but I can’t question his recruiting at all.  

He’s getting talent to campus, as evident by the latest NFL draft.

Where I can question Mike Elko is in his game-day coaching.

He’s been about average.  As previously mentioned, he’s had one signature victory, and that was thanks mostly to Concepcion and Craver.  The Aggies won that game by the hair of our chinny chin chin.

He gets credit for that South Carolina game, but holy cow, what a disaster that was about to be.

We were closer to losing to Notre Dame and South Carolina than we were to beating Texas and Miami.

What does a 9-4 season look like with losing the last three games against Power 4 opponents, including the bowl game?

We weren’t far from that.

I’m fine with giving him the 11-2 record, but when you really look at the 2025 season, it was three tough games and an amazing comeback against South Carolina where we should have never been in that situation.

Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, LSU, and Missouri weren’t really all that great.  Four of those six teams have new coaches heading into 2026.

Coaches get fired because their team is terrible.

I think Mike Elko’s greatest issue as a game-day coach is his offensive awareness.  I don’t know for a fact, but it seems to me he’s hands off on his coordinator calling plays.

I think he gives his offensive coordinator some guidance during the week, but during the game I think he’s spectating just like everyone else.

I say that because of two things:

1. There have been multiple calls in games where I don’t know how a head coach lets the play happen.  I know it’s easy to armchair quarterback, but even in the moment, the 4th and goal at the one-yard line against Texas in 2024 was a boneheaded call.  The deep ball to Concepcion on 3rd and 2 in the second series of the second half against Texas in 2025 just should not have happened.  As both of those plays developed, I was floored that those calls happened.  I get that a head coach can’t and shouldn’t provide feedback on every play, but in key situations, he’d better be guiding his OC.  There are some other plays, but those two are by far the most egregious.
2. Elko never talks in specifics about offensive plays after games.  Maybe it’s by design for some reason, but I think it’s because he doesn’t know the offensive game plan up and down and can’t assess in real time what’s occurring.  In his first game ever, he had to yell at someone to tell his OC to run the ball at the end of the game.  That’s not a head coach in lockstep with his OC.

Going one step further, look at the 2024 LSU game.  He didn’t pull Conner Weigman until it was painfully obvious in the second half.  Every person in that stadium knew Weigman couldn’t do it that night. It wasn’t a proactive move.  It was a completely reactive move.

He had no choice when he made the move.  

If it weren’t for Garrett Nussmeier throwing three interceptions in the second half, we don’t win that game.

Sure, Reed deserves some credit for the win, but LSU completely botched that game.  They threw three interceptions in the second half, giving us favorable field position and their complete inability to defend a zone read.

Elko was getting whipped at home by a marginal LSU team.  He should have made the move sooner.  Reed should have come in to start the second half.

Furthermore, in two seasons, he hasn’t/doesn’t have a competent backup for Marcel Reed.

Lots of people complain about Reed’s performances against Texas and Miami, but what if Reed doesn’t come back into the Texas game in the second quarter?

We’ve got no offense in that Texas game because Elko didn’t have an adequate backup.

Who’s backing up Reed in 2026?  Sure, there’s some young talent, but there’s not really anyone backing up Reed.  At least not anyone with real experience.

Meanwhile, the four teams that played for the national championship the last two seasons have done so with senior transfer quarterbacks.

The two seasons before that, the four teams were led by senior quarterbacks as well.

Right or wrong, he doesn’t seem concerned with his quarterback situation.

The hiring of Collin Klein as offensive coordinator was a mistake.  While Klein wasn’t terrible, his offense was very milquetoast.  Yes, milquetoast.

Klein relied on a power running game and effective tight ends.  When he didn’t have those, he didn’t have much.

Klein utilized Concepcion and Craver, but when defenses took those toys away with no Moss, that offense just sputtered around.

Elko just stood there and watched.

When he had to replace Klein, he tried to hire Brennan Marion, but Marion decided taking the same job at Colorado was a better opportunity.

There’s a belief Marion takes over from Coach Prime, but if I’m Elko, I’m selling the guy: you win at A&M, and you’ll find a much better head coaching gig than Colorado.

When Marion chose Colorado, Elko met with five other OC candidates and then promoted Wiggins.

Why wasn’t Wiggins the guy all along?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Elko is really clueless when it comes to the offensive side of the ball.

He can run my defense any day of the week, but as head coach you have to offer some guidance to the offense in real time.

At least you should for $11 million a year.

Weaknesses

I’ve obviously talked about some of Mike Elko’s weaknesses, but I want to bullet point the ones that stick out in my mind.

• For two seasons in a row, he hasn’t finished.  Even worse, he’s controlled his own destiny to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game and completely sputtered.
• He hired Jay Bateman for his defensive coordinator with no accountability.  It was so bad that Elko had to take over the reins of the defense for the 2025 season.  After Bateman, he just promoted from within and appears to have the same role going forward.
• The hiring of Collin Klein is questionable.  He didn’t appear to be on the hot seat at A&M. I believe KSU’s hiring of Klein forced Elko to make a move he wouldn’t have made on his own.  Klein wasn’t a great hire, and the Aggies lucked out by him going home.
• He has one signature win in two seasons at A&M.  He’s beaten a bunch of teams he should have beaten and lost to the teams he should have lost to.  He’s not found a way to beat better teams except at Notre Dame.  He’s really just kind of treading water.
• In two seasons, he has no viable backup quarterback, nor has he brought in another quarterback to truly push a quarterback that is questionable from a development standpoint.  He’s just gonna ride Marcel Reed for two seasons.  It’s not the worst strategy, but it’s questionable.
• In two games, Steve Sarkisian has owned his defense.  With Lane Kiffin in Baton Rouge, I have some concerns about Elko’s ability to handle Sark’s and Kiffin’s offenses.

It’s not a terribly long list of negatives, but there’s enough to keep me from thinking Mike Elko is not without reproach.

Like I said before, I in no way want Mike Elko fired.  I want it to be okay to question or have doubts.

I don’t know that I would have given him a four-million-dollar-a-year raise and extended years, but I understand we got scared, as we did with Jimbo.

I get agents run college football because ADs and other school leaders won’t stand up to them.  I would have waited until after the season before making any decision about Elko’s contract.

Elko wants to go to Penn State after two years at A&M and a berth in the CFP?  Good luck.  We’ll pay you when your coaching on the field outperforms your contract.  $7 million a year is plenty for a coach to live on.

We’ll use the extra $4 million for staff and NIL, which will help you win.  When you win a national championship, we’ll pay you the really big bucks.

I couldn’t help but think that in the first half of the South Carolina game, the timing of Elko’s extension was a disaster.

I hope it turns out differently, but right now, it looks like Mike Elko is like a handful of other college coaches.  They need a key coordinator opposite their strength and a great senior quarterback either from within the program or via transfer.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see a great Gameday coach on the Aggie sideline right now.

It doesn’t mean he can’t get there.  He needs to realize his offensive shortcomings and continue to evolve.

Let’s talk about some other things for the 2026 season.

Holmon Wiggins

I’ve talked about Wiggins a little already.

I have ZERO idea what to think of him as an offensive coordinator.

I would much rather roll the dice on him than bring Klein back for another season.  Klein’s ceiling was crystal clear. I do feel we dodged a bullet there even if Wiggins is a complete failure.

At least we tried something rather than having yet another year of a milquetoast offense.  Yes, milquetoast.

I do think there’s some promise here due to his time in Tuscaloosa and him being a receivers coach.

He was a running back in college, so he’s been an offensive guy for all of his football life.

He worked two seasons under Steve Sarkisian at Bama, which is a massive positive.  Sark is really a brilliant play designer.  I hope Wiggins took a lot of notes under Sark.

Wiggins spent two seasons under Bill O’Brien, which I see as a massive negative.  Just kidding.  O’Brien is a decent offensive mind, but far from as brilliant as Sark.

He spent one season under Tommy Rees, which was the year Jalen Milroe took Bama to the Rose Bowl.

He obviously spent two seasons under Collin Klein, which I hope he forgot anything he may have learned.

He also spent some time under Justin Fuente at Memphis and Va Tech.

There you go.  You know as much about Holman Wiggins as I and mostly everyone else does.

What little I watched of the Spring Game, it was mostly RPOs.  I’m fine with that as I don’t want to showcase anything unique in a meaningless scrimmage.

I hope each week he has a notebook of scribbled plays that are unique and nobody has seen before.

Hopefully, Wiggins is the next Joe Brady at least from a collegiate standpoint.

I have no clue, and neither does anyone else.

Offensive Line

The offensive line is easier to guess on.

Elko did a really nice job of bringing in talented guys.

It will all come down to whether Adam Cushing can get this unit to play as one and the players avoid injuries.

I’m a little torn on Cushing as a coach.  I know he gets high praise, and I do think he is a good coach.

I have to pause a bit on him as I watched our offensive line struggle so much against Texas and Miami last season.  Those games were really bad from an offensive line standpoint.  Especially pass blocking.

I get Texas and Miami have talent and good coaching, but man, that offensive line really struggled in those two games.

All four guys that left got drafted, so the NFL thinks it was a talented unit.  But they struggled in those two games.

The health issue of this unit in 2026 is more important than the coaching, especially with Tyree Adams.  He’s not made it through a full season.  You need your anchor left tackle to last all season.

This unit will be fine due to experience, but you never know.

If they don’t mesh or suffer injuries, it won’t matter what kind of play caller Wiggins is.

This offense will sputter.

Marcel Reed

When it comes to Marcel Reed, I’m torn.  I see the positives and the obvious negatives.

He was a guy that could have created his own invite to the Heisman had he shown out against Texas.  He obviously didn’t, and we go into 2026 with questions surrounding his play.

While he’s not a big guy, he’s physically talented.  He’s not Johnny Manziel, but he’s got some wiggle.  He struggles with accuracy at times, but he’s got a pretty decent arm.

He obviously makes some bone-headed decisions, especially in the end zone.  I know I’m hard on Klein, but man, how do you let that keep happening?

I get you can’t just run the ball near the goal line, but how can Reed be so blind to defenders in that space?  Was there no coaching to help avoid that?  It was a consistent problem all season, and it never went away.

It ultimately cost us a chance to send the Miami game to overtime.

As for Reed’s skill set, my hope is he makes a Jayden Daniels-type jump in 2026.  They’re somewhat similar quarterbacks, but Daniels was an elite runner.  Hopefully, Reed has added some more explosiveness to his running game in the offseason.

Don’t get me wrong.  Reed is a great runner.  He’s just not as elusive or explosive as the greats.  He can certainly wiggle and make people miss, but he often gets corralled or caught pretty quickly.  The great ones don’t get corralled or caught.

Reed’s strongest attribute is his ability to move in the pocket and buy time.  He’s got really good pocket awareness and knows where to move to buy time.

Like most quarterbacks, the more time Reed has to throw, the better he is.  Reed doesn’t need a super clean pocket and needs some space to move to.  He’ll move to it if it’s there.

That’s why he struggled so badly against Texas and Miami.  There was no space for him to move to.  I think that hurt his game more than anything.  The space he’d become accustomed to was gone.

He couldn’t buy time to find his receivers as the defensive secondary broke down.

All in all, Reed is a quarterback you can win a national championship with.  He’s just not going to win you a national championship like a Vince Young or Cam Newton.

Hopefully Wiggins develops him more than Klein did.

The Schedule

The 2026 Aggie Football schedule looks pretty daunting.  Welcome to the SEC.

Last year’s schedule looked daunting as well, but then it wasn’t.

It won’t happen, but I do think every game is winnable.  Not even close to easy wins, but there’s not a team on that schedule I believe is an automatic loss as I’ve believed in past seasons.

Bama and LSU aren’t who they used to be, but they’re still tough places to play.

The South Carolina game will be a lot tougher than most people think.  Beamer has been struggling as a head coach, but he’s got a pretty good team, and we’ve struggled in Columbia.

I want to think we don’t have issues with Arizona State, Kentucky, and Arkansas at Kyle, but you never know.

I have no clue what to think with Tennessee.  It seemed Heupel had that program humming two years ago, but they’ve cooled off a bit since then.

The parallels with us and OU rarely get discussed, but both programs are on similar trajectories heading into the 2026 season.  That game could mean a lot or nothing at all.

And then Texas comes to town.  I can’t help but think this will be Elko’s toughest test in 2026.  Sark has owned Elko in his first two seasons.

You can believe Arch Manning is over hyped, but the dude developed big time as last season went on.  I think he’s poised for a massive 2026 season.

Not saying we can’t beat Texas, but Elko has his work cut out to not only get a win against Texas, but also finish the regular season on a high note.

If his coaching isn’t up to it, it’s going to be another sour taste at the end.

Either way, I’m excited and ready for the 2026 season.

It’s cliché to say, but I do think the 2026 season will be the biggest of Elko’s career.

We’ll find out if the 2025 season was a building block or a blip.

Those who came before him always took a step back after a big season.

They fell backward and not forward.

I hope Elko is different.  I want him to get that statue outside of Kyle Field.

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The Committee:

I’m not going to waste a lot of time on the committee. They did what they did.

I think the committee had three parameters for ranking teams:

1. What’s a team’s overall record?
2. When did they last lose?
3. What are we eating?

I’m not kidding.  They were totally winging it and guessing.

They shook it up a bit on their final ranking, leaving Ohio State above Georgia and Tech. They also finally put Miami above Notre Dame.

They could have easily dropped Ohio State a couple of notches, but they held firm; they believe Indiana and Ohio State are the clear two best teams in the country.

We shall see.

They also did some mental gymnastics to avoid punishing Alabama for its loss to Georgia in the conference championship game while punishing BYU.

It really didn’t matter for BYU, but, interestingly, they dropped a spot while Alabama didn’t.

Just a lot of circular logic through the entire selection process.  That’s what you get with a bunch of administrators.

They never explained their reasoning for ranking Oregon, Ole Miss, and A&M in their respective spots. They just said they saw no reason to move them this week. I get that part, but I never saw an explanation for why in the first place.

I think it’s reasonable to put the Aggies at 5. I think it’s somewhat possible to put the Aggies at four, but with Tech winning a 12th game, it’s a tough sell.

You’re talking about one-loss teams, including Tech.  I’m good with Tech at four since they won a 12th game, but the rankings of A&M, Ole Miss, and Oregon seem to be based solely on when they lost.

Definitely seems like metrics weren’t used.

The difference between being ranked 5, 6, and 7 seems pretty drastic, considering 5 and 6 get to play Tulane and James Madison.

In my mind, the 5 seed is the best in the entire bracket.  I actually mean the seeds above 1 through 4.

You didn’t play a conference championship game and get to host James Madison at home. Then you get to play Tech in Miami.

That’s not to totally diss Tech, but I do think Tech is the team with a bye that has the most questions.  They’re absolutely who I’d want to be paired with for the second round.

I’d rather face Tech than the winner of Bama-Oklahoma.

I don’t think Oregon wins it all, but I do think it’s a great position to be in to go on a run.

As for the 6 and 7 seeds, I actually like the 7 more. Especially since Notre Dame got pushed out.

The 6 has the easier path in the first round by far, but I don’t want to face Georgia in the second round.

Sure, Ohio State is an outstanding team, but I don’t think we match up well with Georgia.  I’d rather take my chances with Ohio State than Georgia in the second round.

I’d trade taking on Miami at home in the first round and then heading to the Cotton to take on Ohio State rather than face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl after a cake game at home in the first round.

That’s our initial draw, and it’s doable.

Sure, you can argue the committee is a group of morons. And you’d be right.

However, there’s no point in arguing about the committee anymore.

The Aggies are hosting a game at Kyle Field, so it’s time to focus on that.

Miami:

I did not want to face Notre Dame. I know we beat them on the road earlier this season, but I did not want to play them again.

They’re a bad match-up for the Aggies.  That’s not to say the Aggies couldn’t beat Notre Dame. The Aggies absolutely could beat Notre Dame at Kyle.

I don’t like their running game against us, and I believe CJ Carr is a better quarterback than when we played them. They were going to be a problem for many teams.

Don’t have to worry about that now. I hate that they screwed the Pop-Tarts in the Pop-Tarts Bowl because they got their feelings hurt. They were set to face BYU. Those are the two teams that got screwed by G5 teams, which would have been a fantastic game to watch.

Bunch of babies.

Back to Miami.

I think Miami is a better match-up for us.

Vegas agrees with me, as we would have been a Pick ‘Em against Notre Dame.  We’re a 3 to 4.5 favorite against Miami, depending on where you like to wager.

That’s not a massive difference, but I’ll take whatever gain we can get.

Miami is a damn good football team, so that it won’t be easy.

For me, there are two things I like about the Miami matchup:

1. Carson Beck
2. Mario Cristobal

Carson Beck is a talented quarterback, but he’s not mobile at all. Mario Cristobal is a decent enough coach, but he absolutely vapor locks at times.

I hope that when it’s all said and done, Elko can confuse and frustrate Carson Beck much like he’s done with other stationary quarterbacks this season.

What scares me the most about Miami is its defensive front. They have some dudes along the defensive line and linebacker.

The best of the bunch is Rueben Bain, Jr. The dude is a load.  He’s a potential number one overall pick in the NFL draft.  He’s that good.

They’ve got a couple of other defensive linemen who are going to play on Sundays, along with a linebacker.

Their front on defense is no doubt the best part of their team.  They’re going to be tough to handle.  They’ll be every bit as good as the Texas defensive front was against us.

That doesn’t mean we can’t beat Miami, since our offense struggled so much against Texas’ defense. It just means we need to take a different approach.  I’ll address that in a bit.

From an offensive standpoint, Miami has a pretty good offense.  They’ve got a good running game along with a good passing game, and Carson Beck can be effective.

They’re not super explosive, but they’ll break off a few big plays here and there.

I think Carson Beck can be confused.  If Elko can get back to his blitzing ways, I think we can stall out the Miami offense enough.

It won’t be easy, but it can be done.

We’re not shutting this offense down, though.

So How do the Aggies Advance?

First off, Mike Elko needs to realize he’s playing with house money. The Aggies aren’t even supposed to be here based on pre-season predictions.

As we’ve seen against the best two teams on our schedule in Notre Dame and Texas, there are still holes in this defense.  A couple of other teams kind of exposed it as well.

Elko might not want to admit it, but he needs to. Our defense has holes. It doesn’t mean our defense can’t be effective, but it’s going to take being aggressive and taking some risks.

We’re going to need to live by the blitz and die by the blitz.

I went back and looked at some defensive plays in the second half against Texas. It was worse than what I remembered. For some reason, Elko ran a base defense with four down linemen and at times abandoned the line of scrimmage with his linebackers. Those were the runs where Arch Manning just took off.

I’m not worried about Carson Beck just taking off, but we can’t apply pressure with four down linemen. I thought Elko learned that lesson last year.

We need to bring disguised pressure from linebackers and the secondary.

We also ran a bunch of zones that we didn’t execute correctly, and Arch picked apart.

Why Elko abandoned what got us to 11 wins, I have no idea.

Bring pressure with man coverage. Stress the Miami offense and don’t let them get comfortable.

He needs to learn from the Texas game and return to a confusing, aggressive defense.

Offensively, Elko needs to realize this is a passing-first, running-second offense.  I get that everyone wants to establish the run, and it makes sense.  If you can establish the run, then that’s absolutely what you should do.

However, establishing the run in reality can be difficult.

Especially in the playoffs. Especially when your offensive line isn’t dominating, and your most dynamic offensive players are your two receivers.

I love Le’Veon Moss and hope he’s back healthy for the playoffs. He needs to complement the passing game and not be the primary offensive focus.

I still want Moss with double-digit carries, but I don’t want him forced to carry it 20 times because we want to shorten the game.

We also need to work on shortening Reed’s decision-making. If the pass downfield isn’t open, then check down to the tight end or running back. Or take off running yourself. And start sliding more rather than taking a hit.

I want aggressive deep balls to Craver like the first play against Florida. I want more bubble screens for Concepcion and Craver. I want jet sweeps, or at least the threat of them.

I want the Miami defense stretched wide and deep.

I do not want to battle Miami or anyone else in the playoffs in the box. We will lose those games. Our offensive line is good but not great.

And that mindset needs to advance beyond Miami.

Elko needs to plan for the offense to score 30 points or more in each game. Scoring in the 20s ain’t gonna cut it.

I honestly believe we can have the most explosive offense in the playoffs.  We need to play like it.

I fear Elko will want to challenge teams in the box. I get it.  He’s a defensive guy who wants to establish an identity of owning the trenches. It makes sense if you have the personnel. The Texas game showed us we do not have the personnel to win games like he wants us to.

I hope that the Texas game was a wake-up call for Elko regarding the realities of this team’s talent.  If Elko thinks he can run the same offense and defense he did against Texas and beat Miami, he’s a fool.

Creating a team that can win in the trenches is a great long-term goal, I agree with. However, that ain’t the 2025 Fightin’ Texas Aggies.

Our strength is our two dynamic receivers and our ability to confuse a stationary quarterback with a variety of blitzes.  I’m not talking pass blitzes either.  I’m talking about showing pressure throughout the game that confuses the offensive line and quarterback.

If Elko deviates from that, we will lose a football game, and our season will be done.

Instead of Run the Damn Ball, Elko needs to Roll the Damn Dice.

Collin Klein Conundrum:

I have no clue if Collin Klein should call plays.

Part of me thinks he should move on, but then I don’t know who would call the plays. I don’t believe we have anyone on staff with experience calling plays.

So that’s a conundrum.

I think Klein has tendencies that can be exposed, and if he has another job he’s focused on, it’s not gonna help things.

I know there’s talk of Wiggins taking over the OC job. If that’s the case, cut Klein loose and let Wiggins call plays.

If Wiggins isn’t ready to call plays, you see what Klein can do with two jobs. I don’t know what other options the Aggies have.

I wouldn’t say I’ve totally soured on Klein, but I think we saw a lot of Klein’s tendencies appear down the stretch. I don’t know if that was a directive from Elko trying to win games in the trenches with basic offenses, but it wasn’t working.

We need a creative and unpredictable play caller if we’re going to make a run in the playoffs.

If Klein can’t handle it because he’s focused on his new gig, then let’s roll the dice on Wiggins.

We’re already playing with house money being in the playoffs.

Special Teams:

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this because I’ve already covered it enough.

If Elko hasn’t allocated more time to special teams over the last week, he’s ignoring a glaring issue.

I’m not talking about just kicking field goals.  I’m talking about punt protection and everything else in special teams.

It’s a glaring weakness that needs to be addressed.

It’s obvious, but will he do it?

So Who Wins the Whole Thing?

I wish I had a better feeling for the Aggies making noise.  I don’t know if I trust Elko to roll the dice.  I hope I’m wrong.

There are two halves of football in our last two games that frighten me—the first half against South Carolina and the second half against Texas. We were closer to being out of the playoffs than anyone wants to remember.

With that, here is my bold and somewhat crazy prediction for the Playoffs:

I think Oregon, Ole Miss, A&M, and Bama win the first round.

Despite my concerns, I do think Elko can outsmart Cristobal at home.

I think Tech, Bama, Georgia, and Ohio State win the second round.

I think Bama and Georgia advance to the Championship Game, with Georgia winning it all.

I know that’s bold picking Bama to go that far, but I think they’re still a good team.  I think they spend the next two weeks getting healthy and back to what made them a good team in the middle of the year.

I do think it’s Georgia’s year to win it all.

We’ll have to see how it plays out.

No matter what, I just hope Elko Rolls the Damn Dice.

BTHO Miami.

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