Hello darkness, our old Aggie friend
I’m writing another blog about disappointment yet again

I hate to say I saw this loss coming, but if you read my pre-season ramblings, I certainly knew it was possible.

You can read those here – https://rcwouldhavegonefor2.com/2024/08/28/ramblings-and-musings-for-the-2024-aggies/

This wasn’t a horrible loss by any stretch, but to say it was disappointing is an understatement.

The Aggie football team had most of college football watching to see if they could make a statement. Aggie fans everywhere were full of hope, hoping to see a sign that things would be different.

There was no statement and indeed no sign. This was just another Aggie team with a chance to take a massive leap in the hierarchy of college football. But like so many times before, that step simply slipped away.

Same thing, different season. Great seasons appear to be an anomaly and not a standard.

A fan base that yearns for more respect in college football with a football program that rarely delivers. Expectations and reality are completely out of whack.

Sure, the Aggies can still salvage this season, but what was on display on Saturday night suggests that this team will struggle to reach eight wins.

Notre Dame is a really good football team, but it’s not elite. It’s a storied program with a schedule that only tests them in 2-3 games. The rest of the way, Florida State and USC are their only ranked opponents. They likely punched their ticket to the College Football Playoff with that win last night because they’re probably going 10-2 this season, and they’re Notre Dame.

Even though they’re likely headed to the CFP, they were totally beatable. There will be some talk that might be the best defense A&M plays all season. That may be, but the Aggie offense was utterly inept against it.

I’m not even sure that’ll be one of the best three defenses we face all year. It’s certainly a defense that’s been elevated by its schedule.

I think the lack of offense was more due to the Aggie offense being completely inept than the Notre Dame defense being stifling. That’s a good Notre Dame defense, but that Aggie offense was MISERABLE.

I will put more structure into this blog rather than my ramblings and musings like last time.

Coaching:

I don’t hate the Elko hire, but I’ve always questioned if Mike Elko is an elite head coach.

What he did at Duke was impressive as he certainly elevated their football program, but it’s not like he put Duke football on a different level. They were 8-4 and 7-5 in his two seasons.

He had some nice wins over those two years, but he also had some disappointing losses they could have won, most notably Notre Dame and North Carolina last season.

What would Aggie fans have thought of the hire if he hadn’t been the Aggie defensive coordinator?

We love hiring coaches that “get A&M,” but I don’t know if that’s the best criteria.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have hired Elko and I’m certainly not saying he should be fired. It’s not even close to that at all. We need to simply look at Mike Elko for what games he’s been a head coach and what they have shown us.

Mike Elko will be our head coach for a few seasons, but nothing in his sample set shows he’s an elite-level head coach. Elite-level head coaching was not on display on Saturday night.

I hope I’m wrong, but I can only go on actual results. Those results aren’t elite right now.

I think most people have seen the video clip of Elko waving the white flag on the final drive and yelling at whoever was on the head set with Colin Klein to run the ball. He was more spirited than that, but Elko was not happy with Klein’s play-calling.

I’m not worried about the emotion. I love the emotion.

I’m worried about our head coach and offensive coordinator not being on the same page even if it appeared to be a meaningless drive.

Throughout the game, Elko was on the sidelines with a headset. I assume he has direct contact with his offensive coordinator. I hope he has regular conversations with his offensive coordinator during the game.

We can argue about Elko waving the white flag on the final drive, but at that moment, why did the offensive coordinator not know what his head coach wanted to do? Or was Klein acting in defiance of what his head coach wanted to do?

Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, but it’s a flag to me about how Elko handles the offensive side of the ball. I know Elko is a defensive coach, and I don’t want him calling the offensive plays. I ABSOLUTELY want him to give feedback and guidance to his offensive coordinator throughout the game, though.

That’s his job as head coach and should make the offensive coordinator’s job easier. This way, Klien can focus more on calling plays rather than spending time thinking through what direction he wants to call plays.

An elite-level head coach offers his coordinators guidance. His job is to watch the entire game, offer feedback on what’s happening, and give guidance on where to go.

I’ll get to the offense in a bit, but I hope what happened at the end was a misunderstanding and not a sign that Klein is operating the offense in a complete vacuum.

Mike Elko had a chance to make a statement on Saturday night and he didn’t. We knew the game was likely going to be an ugly offensive game. The Aggies as a whole looked really unprepared for that game. Especially on offense

I get that the coaching staff and a large part of the roster are new, but they’ve had plenty of time to prepare and look more crisp.

We certainly didn’t see elite coaching on Saturday night.

I suppose we can only go up from here, but we need to get there quickly. Mike Elko furthered the perception that the Texas A&M football team is not prepared to take that next step and make a statement. It looks like more of the same.

That will hurt our recruiting in a horrible way if it doesn’t turn around.

Mike Elko needs to win now in a huge way. sooner than later.

Offense:

Play calling:

Before I get to the obvious concern about the offense, I have to talk about the play calling.

This looked like a Jimbo Fisher called offense but with new and improved motion! Like when a crappy beer updates its can. It’s the same crappy beer, but there’s new vibrant colors on the can!

In all seriousness, there did not appear to be a comprehensive plan for this offense. It looked like a random selection of plays based on the play before it. Nothing was being set up, and it didn’t seem like this offense had any real idea of how to attack Notre Dame’s defense.

This offense looked slow, plodding, and not crisp at all. It looked like the last six years of Aggie Football.

I saw ZERO wrinkles that surprised Notre Dame. It was a straightforward offense that Notre Dame could defend.

To be fair, the quarterback play was not helping at all, but there didn’t appear to be any adapting to how the quarterback was playing.

It was like, “Oh shit. That play didn’t work. Try this one. Dang. That didn’t work either. Try this one. Crap. Okay, punt the ball, and we’ll see if we can figure out something for the next series.”

Just a bunch of haphazard plays that had no apparent rhyme or reason. If Jimbo Fisher was watching this game, he was nodding in agreement at the futility of this offense.

Just like he would have called, but with new and improved motion!

Quarterback:

First off, I don’t care that Conner threw up during the game. Sure, it’s not ideal your starting quarterback threw up during a big game. However, he’s not the first player to throw up during a game, and he won’t be the last.

I saw Elko say it was a puke and rally. That’s exactly right. It’s no big deal he threw up. I don’t really care about it.

I do care about Conner’s total lack of accuracy. He threw some really bad passes all night.

Completing 12 of 30 passes for 100 yards with two interceptions with no touchdowns shows an issue with accuracy. Visually, some of his misses were really bad.

He looked like a pitcher who couldn’t throw strikes with his fastball. Instead of trying different pitches for strikes, he just kept humming fastballs, hoping the accuracy would find its way. It never did.

Early in the game, he made two throws to the running backs, but he just gunned the ball too far in front of them. Neither running back had a chance to catch the ball. Those should be pretty high-percentage completions.

On one of his interceptions, he completely missed Noah Thomas high, which wound up in the hands of the defense back. Noah had no chance at catching the ball even though he launched himself into the air. The ball still sailed over his hands. Conner completely missed him.

Conner didn’t have a super clean pocket, but it wasn’t like he was super pressured all night long, running for his life. He had time.

He was also staring down receivers like he’d already decided where the ball was going before the snap. Primarily to Cyrus Allen on quick throws.

That’s okay to do from time to time but it looked more like he couldn’t process the defense in real time. He was just going to a guy he hoped would be open based on pre-snap reads.

I have no idea what the issue was on Saturday night, but a game from his past has scared me.

Last week, I wrote that Conner played four full games against a Power 5 opponent. In those four games, he either threw for over 300 yards or under 200.

I was looking at those games as half-full glasses. The two games in which he threw for over 300 yards were the reality, not the games in which he threw for under 200 yards.

The game that scared me the most, which I didn’t talk about, is the 2022 Auburn game.

In that game, the Aggie offense had to punt on its first 10 possessions. We never even got into field goal range on our first 10 possessions. Ten possessions and 10 punts to start the game—that’s the definition of inept.

Auburn had a decent defense, but it wasn’t super elite. However, the Aggie offense was so inept that it couldn’t move the ball inside field goal range on 10 straight possessions to open the game.

That’s the famous game where Moose was suspended for wanting to wear sleeves.

We finally got a field goal attempt on our 11th possession, but that was because of a defensive interception in Auburn territory. On that 11th possession, we didn’t even get a first down. The offense went three and out, only kicking a field goal thanks to the field position the defense secured.

The definition of inept.

In that game, Conner was 14 of 36 for 121 yards. That’s less than a 40% completion rate.

After that game, I remember thinking, “A great quarterback somehow finds ways to make plays.” Conner certainly didn’t make plays that game, but I chalked it up to stupid Jimbo because of the Moose suspension. It seemed like the perfect comedy of ineptness Jimbo was proving to be good at.

I never put any of it at Conner’s feet. Maybe I should have. Maybe Conner struggles against better defenses.

Ironically, the next season, he got hurt against Auburn on the last offensive play of the first half. In that game, he was 8 of 14 for 70 yards. I remember watching that game and thinking he was struggling. Then he got hurt, and I just chalked it up to not getting a chance to play a full game. He would have lit it up in the second half.

It’s crazy to think the game against Notre Dame is a definitive game. However, if you look at his five and a half games against Power 5 opponents, the glass is definitely half empty. There might even be a leak.

He’s undoubtedly feast or famine at this point.

I’m not giving up on Conner, but he’s no longer getting a blind pass when the Aggie passing game struggles. The data suggests there’s a good chance he’s part of the problem.

I hope he turns it around, but the trend right now is a massive red flag.

Insane to think the guy everyone assumed would be the savior of Aggie football isn’t that savior.

Welcome to Aggie football.

Offensive Line:

The offensive line has been everyone’s biggest concern coming into this season.

However, most folks blamed it on Steve Addazio; everything would be fine.

Welp, Steve Addazio was nowhere near Kyle Field on Saturday night, and the offensive line still struggled.

Last week, I discussed the shuffling as a specific concern. Well, that happened on Saturday night. Some of it was due to Mark Nabou’s apparent injury, but even before he got hurt, they were shuffling people.

You can’t do that. As a coaching staff, you must decide on the five guys you think are the best unit and let it roll.

That’s apparently what Notre Dame did. I wasn’t explicitly watching their line, but they appear to have stuck with the five guys they deemed the starters for the last two weeks. They were young and inexperienced, but they were more effective than the Aggie offensive line.

The Aggie offensive line wasn’t horrible on Saturday night, but it seemed like a microcosm of the entire Aggie offense philosophy, which has no clear plan or identity.

Sometimes, they looked okay, and other times, they struggled to pass protect or blow Notre Dame off the ball. They certainly did not have an identity of what they wanted to do to the Notre Dame defense, which caused a lot of confusion and uncertainty at times.

I believe that’s mostly tied to confusion and uncertainty about who’s playing where.

Head Coach Mike Elko needs to instruct his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach to pick the best five guys for what they want to do and stick with them. There should be no more mixing and matching.

Not during the game and not during practice.

These are the starting five for at least the next four games. Let’s see if we can finally build cohesion on the offensive line.

Running Back:

Running back was exactly what I thought it would be. Decent enough, but nothing spectacular. Moss led the way with 20 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown.

My biggest beef with Moss was that midway through the fourth quarter, we had a third-and-9. Conner hit him on a short pass out of the backfield, and Moss stepped out one yard shy of the stick. He didn’t even fight for the extra yard to get the first down.

This is your feature back?

Middle of the 4th quarter in a tie game where conversions and possession matter and your lead back isn’t fighting for a first down?

In my mind, that’s more about coaching than Moss. He needs to be aware of what’s on the line and fight for it.

It’s more of an example of an offensive that has no clue about its identity. And that’s on coaching.

Daniels showed he still has his burst, and E.J. Smith looks like a nice change of pace.

I’ve said this unit won’t carry the team, and I still believe it. They do look serviceable, but the offensive line needs to be identified to help these guys.

Wide Receiver:

I was concerned about this unit coming into the season, but I saw nothing from them. I know Notre Dame has a good defense, and Conner struggled with his accuracy, but these guys did nothing to get open.

We had 12 completions for 100 yards. Our longest completion was for 18 yards to a tight end.

Remember when I said I’m tired of tight ends leading any portion of our receiving unit? Well, I’m still tired of it.

We never once tried a deep ball in a man-coverage situation. Motion is supposed to expose the defensive coverage, and we never once went for a big play.

We never tested the safeties and linebackers on seam routes down the middle of the field.

Is that a mark on the players or is it a lack of confidence by the offensive coaching staff with their personnel? I know Conner was bad but he never had a truly wide-open receiver down the field he completely whiffed on.

All of Conner’s misses were in traffic. Our receivers were not getting open either due to a lack of talent or poorly designed routes. Maybe both.

Like the running backs, I don’t expect much from this unit, but I was hoping for something different beyond their pre-snap motion.

Noah Thomas was in the slot most of the night. Maybe my assessment is wrong, but I feel he’s our most talented receiver. He needs to be on the outside looking for man coverage down the field. We need to see if he can be a guy that defenses have to account for on the outside.

We can put to bed whatever hope we had of Moose turning into a player under a different coaching staff.

New coaching staff and the same missing Moose.

Let’s move on.

Moose ain’t ever getting loose.

Defense:

Defensive Line:

The defensive line was expected to be the best unit of this Aggie team, and they certainly lived up to those expectations.

They were, far and away, the best unit of the Aggies on Saturday night.

They didn’t register any sacks, but that’s because Notre Dame smartly used the run and quick passes, so we never had a chance to tee off on Riley Leonard. They certainly applied pressure on passing plays.

The only thing I can say about this unit is a concern for defending the run. It’s not a massive knock but I think they’re so focused on just being disruptive they lose gap integrity on obvious running situations.

Notre Dame rolled up 214 yards on 34 carries. That’s an almost 6 yard per carry average. That was the difference in the game. There were two big touchdown runs but those tend to happen when a team is committed to leaning on the defensive line for much of the game.

I’m curious if better offensive lines will have even more success running the ball against this defense. Obviously, our inept offense allowed Notre Dame to stay committed to the run, but if there’s an apparent weakness on this defensive line, it’s defending the run.

One of the night’s biggest surprises for me was the play of Cashius Howell and Rylan Kennedy. I thought they looked outstanding in the snaps they got.

We knew our starters would be good, but it’s nice to see some apparent depth and talent to give those starters a break.

Linebacker:

I thought our linebackers were okay but not dominant. I know York blames himself for the missed tackle on the long touchdown run, but there were a lot of missed tackles on that run.

We rotated a lot of guys at the linebacker position all night so it was kind of tough for me to judge how they all performed.

I’m against mixing and matching the offensive line, but I’m okay with mixing and matching the linebackers based on what we expect the opponent to do coming into the game and what we see during the game.

Other than York, we’ve got three guys whose in-game ability we’re not really sure about, so it may take a little time to develop.

I think this unit’s whole existence this season will be spent cleaning up what the defensive line misses.

So, no matter who and how they play, they have to get better at tackling and staying in position.

Secondary:

This unit didn’t get tested thanks to A&M’s inept offense and Notre Dame’s smart offensive plan.

Notre Dame threw for 158 yards on 18 completions with a long pass of 20 yards.

I don’t think we can really judge this unit from this game.

Like I’m curious what an experienced offensive line that’s committed to the run will do against our defensive line, I’m also curious what a pass-happy offense will do against this secondary.

I still fear our corners are a liability, and an effective pass-happy team can light this secondary up.

I hope I’m wrong, but Notre Dame was definitely not an effective pass-happy team that put this secondary to the test.

Looking Forward:

I have no idea if A&M will rebound from this loss. I’d like to think we will, but I have no clue.

I know the 2012 team lost to Florida in their first game, but that loss felt different, and that team was totally different. It had loads of talent on offense and a ton of seniors on defense.

I remember seeing some flashes from Johnny that game. We certainly didn’t see flashes from Conner on Saturday night. I honestly don’t know how a quarterback can have that bad of a game and completely turn it around. It’s possible, but it’s going to be a massive concern right now.

I know the 2020 team struggled in its first game against Vandy, got soundly beaten by Bama, and then turned it around against Florida, never losing the rest of the way.

That team was also different in its third year with Jimbo. It had a senior offensive line with an experienced senior quarterback. It also had two really good running backs, Isiah Spiller and some guy named Devon Achane.

This 2024 team looks more like the other years that aren’t 2012 and 2020.

We’ll learn more about this team in two weeks against a very beatable Florida team. But it’s an SEC game on the road, which I don’t need to tell you about our current losing streak in those games.

I’m also slightly concerned about facing an actual Bobby Petrino offense in Arlington. We’ll learn more about them this week as they take on Oklahoma State, but Arkansas may not be an obvious win.

We have four games before Missouri comes to town, and that will be a much tougher game than people expect.

While Notre Dame might be one of the best defenses we face all season, I also think their offense will be one of the worst we see all season—at least of the SEC teams left on our schedule.

Our defense is going to face much bigger tests.

I still contend this feels like an 8-4 season. With the loss, we skew to the 6-6 side, not the 10-2 side.

We had an amazing night. Kyle Field was flat out rocking, and we could have made a statement. We did what Aggie Football has done in forever: We stubbed our toe.

It doesn’t mean our season is lost, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned.

We just have to wait until September 14th to see another data point for this team.