It’s taken me a lot longer to get to this write up but I’ve been busy. I’ve also been really frustrated with how the 2024 Aggie season ended.

In my head, I want to say the 2024 Aggie season was different.

After a couple of weeks of reflecting, the reality is this season, and especially the way it ended;was like the majority of Aggie Football over the last two and a half decades. As Aggie fans, we want more and think we deserve more but there’s one sobering reality – We haven’t played in a conference championship game for football since 1998.

That’s a quarter of a century since we’ve played in a conference championship game. A QUARTER OF A CENTURY. We’ve dumped tons and tons of resources into this program. We don’t have anything to show for it but a bunch of rationalizing losses and rationalizing coaching hires.

We have one Cotton Bowl and one Orange Bowl victory in that window. That’s it. A quarter of a century and those are the only two things we have to show off for Aggie Football.

We pretend and think we’re a better program but the reality is we’re not. We’re a perennial 8-4 program with a deviation of 1-2 games depending on the season.

We cycle through head coaches every 4-6 years making the most obvious hire. We then convince ourselves that it’s going to be different this time. Sure, the hires aren’t exactly the same, but there’s a definite commonality – they’re all comfortable for those in charge and with influence.

If the hire fails, the blame falls solely on the coach and never those that made the decision to make the hire.

The circle just repeats itself every 4-6 years.

I hope Mike Elko proves me wrong, but there’s nothing that gives me hope after his first season. The way things ended, it actually took all hope away from me.

For a half of football against LSU, I actually thought things might be different than they used to be. The thing Aggie Football fans have been waiting on for a quarter century was finally happening.

Turns out, it was just that blip we’ve seen before. It wasn’t a change. It was a blip of hope that didn’t last long.

I like Mike Elko a ton as a person. I think he’s delightful. I just don’t see him as an elite level head coach after three seasons. I’ll get to why in the rest of this.

Right now, I think Mike Elko is like a bucket full of college coaches. He coaches right down the middle hoping things will break his way or one of his unheralded recruits will turn out to be a difference maker.

I get it’s his first year as an Aggie head coach. There’s absolutely room for improvement but we’ve seen this movie before. I just can’t convince myself otherwise in this moment.

We’re on the 5th version of the same thing because like Hollywood executives, those in charge and with influence of Aggie Football can’t help but milk something that’s easy for them. The chance of failure on doing something uncomfortable is more than they can handle.

You can stop here if you want. That’s the summary of where I see things.

The rest of this is some level of rambling where I try to justify my concerns and what I would do differently if I had the strings to Aggie Football.

The Texas Game:

We’ll start here because it’s the most obvious. The sad reality is we were never beating Texas with the game plan that Mike Elko brought to the game.

Steve Sarkisian had a 3 year head start on Mike Elko so he walked in with a better team. Top to bottom, that Texas team is much more talented than Elko’s team. That’s understandable.

What’s not understandable to me is Elko’s plan for beating Texas was the same as his loss to Notre Dame in the first game. He thought he could win in the trenches.

I get that mindset against Notre Dame. He had the superior defensive line against an unproven offensive line. While I’m disappointed in how that game turned out, I understand it in his first game as an Aggie head coach.

I don’t get it against Texas.

How could Mike Elko look at this Texas team and his Aggie team believing he could win in the trenches? Especially after the South Carolina and Auburn game?

I get not wanting to roll the dice on every play but what I saw against Texas was the same thing I saw against South Carolina and Auburn the previous two games.

I saw a sporadic and ineffective offense coupled with a defense that got pushed around.

I saw an environment that should have given the home team an advantage but it was never leveraged. It was just straight down the middle Mike Elko football hoping for a different result than previous losses.

Something we also saw from his predecessor. Run the same gameplan over and over hoping for a different result.

Let’s get to some obvious specifics.

4th and Dumb:

Before I get into this play, I want to reiterate that A&M was never beating Texas with the game plan Elko brought to the game. This play just exemplifies it.

Even if the Aggies had scored on this 4th and goal at the one-yard line, the Aggies weren’t winning the game. The Aggie offense was only in this position thanks to a blocked punt.

In the previous seven possessions, the Aggie offense had driven into field goal territory only once. That was on the first drive when we failed to convert a 3rd and 2 and then a 4th and 1. Both hoping an Amari Daniels run up the middle could gain a yard or two. It didn’t work then.

In the subsequent six possessions the Aggies either punted the ball, threw an interception, or turned the ball over on downs not in field goal range.

Randy Bond never got a chance to test his leg in the previous six possessions.

I have serious doubts that however the Aggies got the ball back, they would have been able to muster an offensive drive to kick a game tying field goal. That offense was sputtering after that first possession.

Regardless of that, I want a damn touchdown on this play to at least have that possibility.

The decision by either Mike Elko and/or Collin Klein ensured that possibility would never happen.

The decision they made was the worst decision they could have made in this moment.

I’m totally fine with going for the touchdown. In fact, I think it was absolutely the right decision to make. I don’t think we would have had an easier opportunity to score a touchdown for the remainder of the game. The decision to try for the touchdown was far and away the right decision.

We called a timeout to make sure we had the right call. I thought that was the right move. Make sure everyone was on the same page for this play. I fully agree with that.

However, the play call the decided on to get that touchdown was MORONIC.

It’s not even hindsight being 20/20.

As the Aggie offense trotted from the sideline to the where the ball was placed, I saw no Terry Bussey or wideouts. My seats are on the lower level at the other goal line. Even with my waning eye sight I could see trouble on the horizon 100 yards away.

I even questioned those around me where was Bussey and the receiving threats.

As I saw Reed go under center with Daniels lined up behind him I thought, “Oh dear. They’re not really about to do this are they? It hasn’t worked all night.”

And that’s exactly what they did, Ags.

In a moment where the Aggies absolutely had to have a touchdown, they proved their insanity. Even worse, the whole play was something every Junior High in America has in their playbook.

It was the most basic of plays. We had three receiving threats on the field. None of them spread out. Two on or near the line of scrimmage and one in the backfield.

Those receiving threats were tight ends with one of them a blocking tight end.

Let me break it down with a few frames like the Zapruder film.

I don’t know Elko’s involvement in this, but he’s absolutely complicit in the decision. He either signed off on it or had no clue about it. Either one is not okay for the head coach.

For the last three games, we had been routinely stopped on 4th and 1 runs up the middle. To make it worse, WE HAD JUST GOT STUFFED ON THE THIRD DOWN BEFORE THE TIMEOUT.

WE TRIED IT AGAIN!!!

We called a timeout for a play that’s in every junior high playbook in America. It’s the last regular season game of the year in the renewal of a rivalry game where you’ve been getting your ass handed to you in the trenches.

That’s the play you call coming out of a timeout?

I don’t know what else to call it other than – 4th and Dumb.

Who all thought that was a good idea? I seriously want more than a deflection answer of, “We should have done something different.”

I’m dead serious. I question the ability of the head coach and offensive coordinator for making that decision in that moment.

Before moving on, what did Sarkisian do on his 4th down attempt in the red zone? He put in his backup QB which caught the Aggie defense by surprise. They scored a touchdown from 14 yards out. Yes, it was a touchdown as Manning’s feet never went out of bounds and the ball crossed the plane of goal line before his elbow touched down. The ball doesn’t have to cross inside of the pylons. The plane of the goal line stretches around the world (assuming you’re not a flat earther). As long as the ball crosses that line before the runner steps or touches out of bounds, it’s a touchdown. That’s what happened on Arch’s run.

Either way, it was a damn wrinkle that caught the Aggie defense off guard on 4th down.

Meanwhile, on a much bigger play, our coaching staff attempts a play that starts in junior high and the defense just destroyed.

Unreal.

The Two Minute Drill:

That 4th and goal at the one yard line call isn’t the only concern I have for this staff.

After Texas kicked a field goal to go up 17-0, the Aggies got the ball at their own 25 yard line with 1:50 left in the game. That meant it was time for the two minute offense.

I’m not sure how Elko and Klein run their two-minute offense in practice, but most teams have dedicated practice windows where they work with set personnel and plays. It’s like special teams where personnel are assigned to it because you don’t have time to substitute and call plays.

The premise of the two minute offense is move quickly to get the offense in field goal position. Sure, there’s situations where you need to score a touchdown but the base premise of the two minute offense is to get into the opponent’s territory as quickly as possible.

Once you’re in your opponent’s territory, scoring becomes much more possible.

For whatever reason, this staff thinks it’s a good idea to have E.J. Smith on the two minute offense. I know Emmitt Smith is the all time NFL rushing leader and he’s had two kids attend school at Texas A&M. I’m very proud to have the NFL Rushing Leader as part of the Aggie family.

However, based on what I’ve seen from E.J. Smith this season, I don’t think he should be on the two minute offense. He’s just not a threat to do anything from an offensive standpoint.

I know he was brought to A&M to be the fourth back and to fill in on passing downs. I know we lost Owens and Moss so he became the second back behind Daniels. I get all of that.

I still don’t understand why Daniels was not in on the two minute offense. The two minute offense means you’re either about to get 20 minutes of rest at halftime or the game is about to be over and you’ll get plenty of rest.

Daniels or even Owens could have handled the two minute offense. Rest was coming.

Having E.J. Smith out there as nothing more than a check down pass catcher is not a threat. I’m sure the Longhorn defense loved seeing him out there because they didn’t have to worry about defending him. Sure, they had to account for him but he wasn’t a threat to do anything more than gain five yards if he got the ball.

Put Owens out there. That seems like the perfect place for Owens since he’s a pretty solid threat catching the ball out of the backfield.

I truly question the acumen of Elko and Klein for having a guy that isn’t a threat on the two minute offense. The whole point of the two minute offense is to stress the defense and rip off some decent yardage plays to move the ball into a potential scoring scenario.

E.J. Smith does not offer that threat.

Reed’s Feet:

After the Texas game, there was a video going around that showed Marcell Reed’s feet in the Auburn and Texas game indicating if the play was a run or pass.

If Reed’s feet were even with each other he was going run or hand the ball off. If his feet were offset, he was going to pass.

The video showed around 20 plays. Each time it appeared to indicate what was about to happen.

I say “appeared to indicate” because I didn’t see every play to see if it was a true tell. Sometimes an offense gives false reads and sometimes it’s not an indicator because it’s really just random.

Either way, someone with power at Texas A&M needs to see if this was a true indicator of the pending play.

If Elko, Klein, and the rest of the offensive staff and analysts never picked up on this; they should quit coaching right now.

Feet and stance positions are the things studied most by defenses. You’d be shocked what stance positions can indicate before the ball is snapped.

Analysts are supposed to look for these things. In this instance, even a coach watching film should have picked up on this. It’s that obvious. If a casual observer has picked up on this, you can bet the opposing defensive staff has picked up on it as well.

I really hope it was random and not a true tell. If it was a true tell the Aggie coaching staff never picked up on, they need to do hit the door as they’re clearly not capable of coaching in the SEC.

I’m dead serious. That’s junior high and high school level stuff.

Before I get to one other part of the game, I really do hope someone from the Aggie Brass pins Elko down on these questions. Especially that 4th Down call.

Elko sidestepped the decision in the post game press conference. I get that, but someone with some influence needs an actual answer for who, how, and why that play was decided upon.

He needs to answer for the decisions on the above. No backslapping, guffawing, and “We’ll get em next time, Mike” bullshit. Accountability for decisions made by the head coach and his staff.

I’m dead serious. Things will never change with Aggie Football if the same nonsense is allowed over and over again. We blame the head coach or the staff below him, but when nobody above them holds them accountable, we can’t expect things to ever change.

Those three things above are not acceptable for an offensive staff that’s taking over $10 million worth of resources.

Yards to Yards:

I’m not going to get into a detailed analysis of the game because we all watched it. I am going to point out some key statistics to show how the score wasn’t indicative of what happend on the field.

Texas total yards – 458
Texas rushing yards – 240
Texas passing yards – 218

Texas A&M yards – 248
Texas A&M rushing yards – 102
Texas A&M passing yards – 146

The Longhorn offense almost outgained our entire offense on the ground and then added 200 yards of passing to boot. They doubled up our passing yards without even trying. We did everything we could to get the passing game going and couldn’t muster half of what Texas did.

I know Elko said they physically annihilated us after the game but what does that say about him as a coach? Did he not see this coming? Did he not have an answer? Is it just, “Thank you sir, may I have another?”

Is he going to do like Lane Kiffin after the Georgia game last year and spend NIL on interior linemen?

Besides the physicality issue, I’m tired of hearing the term “fitment issues” from Elko explaining why the defense got pushed around. “Fitment issues” is a fancy phrase that’s now used instead of saying players were out of position. It’s a fancier way of saying the players didn’t execute like Jimbo used to say.

You have “fitment issues” because a defensive player either got pushed around or put themselves out of position to make a play.

Sometimes it is on the player. Sometimes it’s on the defensive coaching staff where the opposing offense schemed you out of your “fitment.”

If you watched the Texas running back, he did a wonderful job of cutting back whenever he saw a slight crease. It was almost like the Texas offensive coaching staff alerted their running back there would be “fitment issues” by the Aggie defense and how take advantage.

Their lead running back rushed 33 times for 186 yards which is 5.6 yards a carry. I get you’re going to have “fitment issues” on some plays. However, when one guy gashes you 33 times for 5.6 yards a carry with a long of 22 yards, he’s telling you he knows your defensive scheme.

33 plays averaging 5 yards a play. That’s not just some “fitment issues.” That’s the opposing offensive staff knowing your whole defensive scheme and taking advantage of it.

That Texas running back got 20% of his total season yards against us. They knew how to take advantage of our defensive scheme.

Elko got outcoached in this game. It wasn’t just a talent issue. Three of our defensive lineman will be playing in the NFL next season. Our defensive line is supposed to be the strength of this team and we just got gashed on the ground.

I’m going to put that more on coaching and scheme than talent.

Assessing Elko’s First Season:

8-4.

I think most Aggies will tell you 8-4 was kind of the baseline coming into this season. Anything worse would be disappointing and anything better would be a pleasant surprise.

Somehow, Mike Elko hit right on that line where Aggies have come to accept A&M Football.

I get it’s his first year, but he had a pretty favorable schedule with most of the tough games at home. South Carolina wound up being a tougher road game than expected but LSU wound up being a worse team than expected.

There’s always some give and take with a schedule.

Mike Elko neither impressed or disappointed me with this season. He just hit on that note several Aggie coaches that came before him have hit on.

I don’t know how to really assign a grade to continuing in a long line of mediocre. Maybe it’s a building block. Maybe it’s a sign.

Maybe it’s just reality that Aggie Football is destined to never be more than an 8-4 program with a deviation of 2 wins here and there.

I’m going to pass on giving an actual grade to Elko for this season because it doesn’t matter. I don’t want him fired. He’s likely got at least 3 more seasons to show he’s different than those that came before him.

I just want Elko to be held accountable for the shortcomings for this season. I want him to address to someone with influence what he’s going to do differently.

I’ll just talk about some things that concern me with Elko going forward.

Controlled Our Own Destiny:

By far the biggest disappointment with this season was we had the ability to control our own destiny in getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

Screw the College Football Playoff committee. We had the chance to do something we hadn’t done in 13 seasons. Play football in Atlanta on the first weekend in December.

We didn’t just fail to get it done, we got beat around in doing so.

We’re supposed to be a defensive team but we spotted South Carolina touchdowns on their first two offensive possessions to go down 14-0. We would somehow go into half tied but then got our ass handed to us in the second half on offense and defense.

South Carolina outscored us 24-0 in the second half while totaling 530 yards of offense to our 350 yards for the game. A total beatdown.

In our defense, that was a South Carolina team that got better as the year went on. Still, we came into that game with no idea of what was about to hit us. Even worse, we had no answer for the punches as they came. We just got battered around for four quarters.

Want to know how South Carolina did in their 3 games after us?

Beat Vandy in Nashville: 28-7
Had a last minute comeback win against Mizzou at home: 34-30
Had a last minute comeback win against Clemson on the road: 17-14

South Carolina is a good team, but their win over us was far and away their best win of the season. That’s not a good sign for us.

Then we went to Auburn who had one SEC win all season over hapless Kentucky.

We spotted them 21 points on their first 3 offensive offensive possessions and went into half down 21-7. We clawed back to be down 28-21 at the end of the third quarter.

Then we clawed back to go up by 3 points with 4 minutes left in the game. We force a 3 and out to get the ball back with less than 3 minutes on the clock.

A bad snap forces us to go three and out punting the ball to Auburn with 2:40 on the clock.

Auburn then drives 74 yards to kick a field goal to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Then we couldn’t put them away and they won in 4 overtimes.

At the time, I told everyone that game didn’t matter because the only thing that mattered would be the result of the Texas game. I said that hopeful Elko had something in him that would beat Texas.

I was wrong.

That Auburn loss would be a horrible horrible loss. Just inexcusable to spot them 21 points in their first three possessions only to claw back to take the lead late in the 4th quarter then give it away in regulation and overtime.

I’ve covered the Texas game already.

We controlled our own destiny and acted like we didn’t want anything to do with it.

That’s on Elko.

We can’t blame the strength and conditioning coach because we praised him after the LSU game. We also played that card with Kevin Sumlin and saw Larry Jackson wasn’t really to blame.

We can blame the coordinators but Elko hand picked both of them.

We can blame the players but thanks to the portal and Elko’s time here before, most of these players he knows and wanted.

We had a clear path to Atlanta in December and beyond. We acted like we wanted no part of it.

I’m gonna blame Mike Elko for that collapse.

Big Win Commonality:

I think it’s safe to say our three biggest wins this season were Florida, Missouri, and LSU.

Have you figured out the commonality in those three games?

All three of those games had quarterback play the opponent didn’t expect. Reed against Florida, Conner against Mizzou, and then Reed in the second half against LSU.

Maybe there’s nothing to it but it’s interesting our biggest wins included unexpected quarterback play.

Is that more luck than coaching? I don’t know.

Head Coaching Record:

Here is Mike Elko’s regular season head coaching record in his three seasons as head coach:

2022 Duke: 8-4
2023 Duke: 7-5
2024 Texas A&M: 8-4

Want to know Duke’s 2024 record? 9-3

That’s right, Duke had a better record in 2024 than Elko had in his two seasons there. No doubt Elko left Duke better than he found them. Considering Duke brought in a new quarterback who was a cast off from Texas, I do find their record this season intriguing.

They certainly didn’t fall off with Elko’s departure.

Maybe this is too short of a sample to determine Elko’s potential. Or maybe it’s the beginning of a true indicator.

Recruiting, Portal, and NIL Comments:

Elko did really well in recruiting for the 2025 class. He closed on some key guys at receiver and offensive tackle.

We’re about to find out how well he does in the Portal. If we analyze last year’s portal haul it’s not really all that great. Sure, he found some key contributors in Will Lee, Reed-Adams, and Scooby Williams but he also had some guys that didn’t materialize.

I’m not counting Nic Scourton because we all knew what kind of addition that was. He’s a Bryan kid that we paid for. That wasn’t finding a diamond in the rough and coaching them up.

He took a lot of lower conference guys and went 8-4. About what we all expected.

Jimbo did leave him in a hole with that 2022 class, but Elko seemed to think he could take lesser conference players and turn them into something. That really didn’t happen when it was all said and done.

Elko did make a curious comment on Signing Day about not getting a player due to NIL money. He alluded to not wanting to sign a kid that would create division in the locker room.

I fully get that but you have to be smart about it.

It’s the nature of the beast now. Talented kids are going to get paid.

Other teams are going to do it. You better have something up your sleeve if you’re not going to play that game.

Coming off an 8-4 season where you failed to win an SEC game in November, you better make sure you have a solid plan in place when other teams have paid more money to have more talented teams.

You know who is paying these insane freshman deals? The teams in the playoffs and who have recruiting rankings higher than you.

How do you think Sark walked into Kyle with a more talented team than you?

According to On3’s industry average, these are the Top 12 recruiting rankings for this class:
1) Texas
2) Oregon
3) Alabama
4) Georgia
5) Ohio State
6) Auburn
7) LSU
8) Texas A&M
9) Michigan
10) Tennessee
11) Florida
12) Notre Dame

That’s good company but all of those teams above us are paying the “insane freshman deals” with the exception of maybe LSU. I can’t really tell what’s going on with them and Brian Kelly right now. Michigan, Tennessee, and Florida have paid “insane freshman deals” so we’ll see how that works out for them.

Tennessee is in the playoffs thanks to an “insane freshman deal” to their quarterback.

What Elko says does have some merit. You absolutely have to manage the locker room when it comes to egos.

He also kind of sounds like Charlie Weiss telling everyone that Notre Dame will have a “schematic advantage” to win football games. Ask Notre Dame how that turned out.

Elko gets paid $7 million a year. Part of that is managing the egos that come with this new age of college football. The adults have been milking the system for years and now the players want their cut.

Stop sounding poor and acting like you know more than everyone else. Money is going to matter so if you think you can win by spending less money it usually doesn’t work.

The Moneyball approach in baseball has produced exactly zero World Series champions. It’s actually only produced one World Series appearance.

We’ll find out with the portal additions if Elko is willing to spend NIL money because there’s still plenty of holes to fill on this roster.

If you have the money, you better spend it. It’s a new era in college football. If you’re not spending it, you’re going to get left behind by those that do.

Collin Klein:

My biggest concern right now with Elko is his hiring of Collin Klein. We owe Klein $3.5 million for the next two years. I don’t see him going anywhere for next season.

I know there’s some concern with Jay Bateman but let’s be real. Jay Bateman should be running Elko’s defense just like whoever Saban had on his staff and Kirby has on his staff. If we’re reliant on a defensive coordinator doing his own thing, what did we hire Elko for?

As for Klein, he did nothing in his first year that excited me. As I pointed out earlier, his sole success this season was catching a defense who was totally unprepared for the quarterback that started or came in the game.

When we started and played the expected quarterback the whole game, we struggled.

I didn’t realize until the season Klein only called plays at Kansas State for two seasons. I thought he was a more seasoned OC.

He’s a Bill Snyder disciple and I saw much of that this season. He desperately tried to use the run to set up the pass.

We didn’t pass for 300 yards in a single game all season. Marcell Reed came close against Auburn passing for 297. Passing was a necessity in that game because we went down 21-0.

In the Missouri game where Conner Weigman put on a passing clinic, we only threw the ball 22 times for 276 yard. That was 18 completions. Meanwhile, we ran the ball 36 times for 236 yards.

Our leading receiver had 545 yards on the season with 34 catches and 6 touchdowns. That was Noah Thomas. He averaged less than 50 yards a game including the 3 cupcake games. Our leading receiver who’s plenty talented enough averaged 50 yards a game.

This all feels very Jimbo esque in a slightly different way. Control the clock, hope you can break a couple of big offense plays, and then pray your defense can hold on for the win.

I suppose it’s different but it looks the same and the early returns are the same.

I know we lost Moss in the South Carolina game and that was a factor. But what does that say about Klein? He’s only as good as his talent? He can’t scheme without talent?

If that’s the case then we’re in trouble because we don’t want to spend NIL money like other programs.

I don’t know why Elko hired Klein. I can’t figure out what he saw in him other than a ball control offense. That’s what we had with Jimbo. Well, that’s what Jimbo wanted to do but the players didn’t execute enough.

All I know is I saw a MASSIVE lack of creativity and a whole lot of predictability. So much so, the results very much speak to defenses knowing how to defend what they knew was coming.

I debated much of the season if our players were the issue or the scheme. I think it’s the scheme because the players seemed to do much better when the defenses didn’t know what to expect.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s the players.

If so, let’s break out the NIL money and buy some experienced players since we’re not doing “insane freshman deals.”

Looking Forward to 2025:

Las Vegas Bowl:

I get bowl games are hard to judge teams by these days. However, I think this bowl game is a massive test for Elko.

USC is wounded and Elko is going to have much of his 2025 team in place. Sure, we’re losing some key defensive lineman but we’re supposed to have depth.

All of our offensive talent will be playing in the bowl game so let’s go blow the doors off Lincoln Riley.

Let’s whip them bell to bell and finally play that complete football game we never played in 2024.

Better late than never, right?

2025 Schedule:

The 2025 schedule scares the living bejeeubs out of me.

Road games at Notre Dame, Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, and Texas.

Home games against Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, and South Carolina.

I see two gimme wins in there against Arkansas and Mississippi State.

I see two potential wins against Missouri and Auburn.

I think Florida will be a toss up based on how they closed this season and their trend.

Notre Dame, LSU, Texas, and South Carolina are all going to be really tough.

We will face four potential Heisman candidates in Arch Manning, Garrett Nussmeier, LaNorris Sellers, and potentially DJ Lagway (who Jimo let get to Florida).

I think we’re going to have to scratch and claw again to get to 8 wins. 9 wins would be a remarkable season. 10 wins is the absolute ceiling.

Who knows what 2026 will bring and if the SEC goes to 9 games. At some point, we could have Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Georgia on our schedule with Texas and LSU. Ouch.

I suppose we should just worry about the next season, but Mike Elko has his work cut out for him if he wants to be different than those that came before him.

Quick Summary:

Maybe I’m being a little hard on Elko but I’m tired of the insanity that is Aggie Football. I’m tired of making the comfortable hire and acting like it’s going to be different.

I don’t want Elko fired and I know he’s got at least three more seasons here. I’m fine with that and I understand that.

I do want Elko to feel a little uncomfortable and start doing things he’s not used to doing. I want those above him to start questioning things more and demand some accountability.

Something internally has to change for the win/loss record to change.

What I hope is there’s a statue of Mike Elko outside of Kyle Field one day.

That’s what I really do want. I’m tired of the 8-4 hire a new coach every 4-6 year cycle. It’s old and quite frankly, it sucks.

I’m a proud Aggie that believes Aggie Football can be more. I’m just over convincing myself that something that looks the same is actually different.

BTHO USC