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

Some Aggie fans seemed to be teeth-gnashing during and after that Mississippi State game. I get it to a degree. We wanted to put them away, and we never did.

On the other hand, this game was really never in question. Even when MSU opened up the game with a touchdown, the Aggie offense marched down on its first possession to tie the game. We responded right away.

Then, we forced a punt and scored a touchdown to go up 14-7. We never looked back from there.

MSU would get within 4 points a couple of times, but I never felt like we were losing that game.

Despite MSU taking their best shots, we controlled that game from the moment we got our hands on the ball until the final seconds clicked off.

We could have and should have put them away much earlier in the game, but we never truly let them back in once we went up 14-7. The momentum never really swung to Mississippi State’s side. When they had a chance to swing the momentum, we answered immediately.

I’m not going to do a deep analysis mostly because I’m happy we got out of Starkville with a solid enough win. Those things have been few and far between.

I know MSU doesn’t look like a great team due to their record, but they’re not a pushover. They don’t have the talent other teams have but they’re going to take some swings. Van Buren is not afraid to throw the ball around and he’s not terrible. I wouldn’t be shocked if they beat one of Arkansas, Missouri, or Ole Miss before this season’s done.

I’m mostly looking at Missouri since that game is in Starkville.

Offense:

Conner Weigman finally threw his first interception in the SEC. I’ve been waiting on this. The first interception was one he sailed, and then he had two more potential interceptions dropped. His second interception was a shallow underneath pass where he again didn’t see the defender sitting there.

It’s a little concerning. That’s now four interceptions on the season in essentially 3 games. I’m not counting the McNeese State game as an actual game. They all had the same last name on the back of the jerseys.

He did look pretty good outside of those four passes, though.

His touchdown pass to Noah Thomas was beautiful. He also did a great job making some key passes on third downs to move the chains.

He was 15 for 25, which is a 60% completion rate. That’s a pretty good day for most quarterbacks at the office.

We still don’t know what we have in Conner Weigman, though. Is he the Missouri quarterback? Is he the Notre Dame quarterback? Is he somewhere in between, like this game?

His sample set is too small, but we’ll learn a lot this Saturday night. LSU will be the biggest test of his collegiate career.

As for the rest of the offense, I thought they did fine.

The offensive line was wonderful at pass blocking, giving Conner all kinds of time. They weren’t as dominant in the rushing game as I would have liked, but they did enough blocking to keep the ball moving.

Moss and Daniels were good enough on the ground, combining for 112 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. That’s a 3.86-yard average per carry. That’s not great, but it’s also not terrible.

Moss’ two biggest runs were called back because of penalties. That was 68 yards of rushing called back, thanks to an illegal formation and a questionable holding call. We’ve seen worse holds not get called by SEC officials.

If those runs had happened, the total yards would have shot up to 190 yards on 31 carries for 6.12 yards per carry. That’s a solid day.

Moss continues to prove he’s one of the best running backs in the SEC, and only SEC officials can truly slow him down.

At receiver, Jabre Barber had a really nice day, catching all 6 of his passes for 92 yards. Noah Thomas had a nice 20-yard touchdown catch in the end zone. Weigman barely missed him earlier in that drive. That would have likely been a 62-yard touchdown catch.

Cyrus Allen had a big catch he couldn’t quite haul in.

We didn’t have Terry Bussey, who I think would have been a factor from a receiving standpoint.

I know my analysis is sporadic, but that’s how that whole game was. At points, it looked like a solid rhythm was about to emerge, and then something would happen where it stopped.

Then we would get going again, and something else would disrupt it.

I know I was hard on Klein before the Missouri game, but I thought what he did on the first two drives of this game was really good. He took some shots and had some wrinkles the defense wasn’t quite ready for. We had two great drives to open up the game, scoring on drives of 74 and 81 yards.

We then scored a touchdown on our fourth possession, thanks to a short field from our defense. We scored 21 points in the first half on essentially four possessions.

We might have scored on the fourth possession if Conner hadn’t sailed that first interception.

The second half was sporadic, and I’m not sure why. Much of it was just trying to control the ball because the defense was flat-out bringing it in the second half.

I think Elko likely told Klein to let’s just get out of Starkville with a win. Don’t get cute. Take what the defense is giving so we can grind yards and clock.

Had Conner not had the second-half interception and had Moss not had his long run called back, the scoreboard would have looked entirely different. But that’s football.

I’m not super proud of the offensive effort in this game because it was sporadic, but I’m not disappointed with it either. They stayed in front of Mississippi State in Starkville.

Defense:

The Aggie defense was a tale of two halves.

In the first half, they couldn’t stop giving up big plays. They were bringing plenty of pressure, but their failure to tackle at the second level resulted in some decent plays for Mississippi State.

The Aggie defense got a lot of that cleaned up in the second half, where there weren’t a lot of runs that even got to the second level.

If it wasn’t for Weigman’s interception, I don’t think Mississippi State even scores a point in the second half. The Aggie defense was that dominant.

Elko has two main calling cards from a defensive standpoint:

1. Halftime Adjustments
2. Third Down Conversions

We obviously had some serious halftime adjustments because Mississippi State struggled to move the ball in the second half. They had six offensive possessions in the second half, the longest one for 26 yards. That’s a controlling defense.

Third-down conversions were 5/16. I’m going off memory, but I feel like they had nine straight third-downs that didn’t convert.

After the Arkansas game, I wrote I was worried about the defensive line because I didn’t want a duplication of last year’s defensive line. That unit was good against inferior offensive lines but couldn’t bring pressure against decent offensive lines.

Well, this defensive line is not last year’s defensive line. This unit is DISRUPTIVE. I don’t know if it’s the best defensive line in the country, but it’s certainly in the conversation. These guys flat-out get after it and are the difference-makers for this whole team.

They continue to just live in the backfield, disrupting the opposing offense’s whole rhythm.

The linebacking trio of York, Williams, and Sanford continue to make massive strides as players, and the hybrid end/linebacker duo of Howell and Kennedy continue to make strides.

While they’re not always perfect, these guys disrupt, making it hard on an offense. Couple that with Elko and Bateman making adjustments, and this group of guys is just outstanding.

This defense still has issues in the secondary, most obviously at the safety positions. I’m going to include the nickel as a safety.

Jaydon Hill (number 8) needs to never see the field again. He is routinely burned on deep balls. It’s pretty clear offensive coordinators are trying to get him into man coverage with a receiver, and then they just burn him. He’s an obvious liability, and putting him in positions where he has man coverage on a wide receiver is foolish.

I wrote about him after the Missouri game, but the regression of Bryce Anderson is unreal. This dude has the raw athletic talent and seems to have the desire, but he’s not doing anything. He’s just nowhere to be found in the secondary. He had a couple of missed tackles on those big plays. I guess you keep running him out there, hoping the light finally comes on.

Dalton Brooks continues to play well. I think BJ Mayes is about to be the new nickel, and Marcus Ratcliffe is pushing Bryce Anderson to get his safety spot.

I thought Will Lee and Dez Ricks did decent enough at corner. They seemed to be playing with a big cushion, but I think that was more to keep Van Buren from going for big shots.

At least against them. Van Buren got a couple of big shots against Hill.

Overall, this secondary is doing enough, but it is clearly the weakest link behind the linebackers and defensive line.

I will give Elko credit. With all the transfers he brought in, he’s absolutely improved this unit. I questioned their ability before the season, but he’s absolutely developing them.

It’s not elite by any stretch, but it’s a massive improvement that has allowed this defense to make some strides from last season.

What About LSU?

Whatever happened in the Mississippi State game won’t matter around 10:30 on Saturday evening.

At that point, we’ll have either beat LSU or lost to LSU. Not a single person cheering for the maroon and white (yes, I’m aware of the rumors) will care about what happened in the Mississippi State game.

Hell, you probably don’t even care about Mississippi State right now.

I know the Aggies are a 3-point favorite to LSU, but to me, this is a total coin-flip game. It will all come down to which quarterback has the best game.

LSU is coming off what is probably their best game of the season. They basically controlled Arkansas from start to finish. Arkansas got down early and fought back in the second quarter and early in the third quarter, but they never truly threatened. LSU put it away late in third quarter thanks to an interception at the Arkansas 2 yard line. It was over at that point with the score at 24-10.

I’ve watched a good portion of LSU in their bigger games this season. They have an amazing collection of talent at some key positions.

Nussmeier can sling it as well as any quarterback in the country. Kyren Lacy has the talent to be the best receiver in college football. Caden Durham is starting to come on as a true freshman running the ball. They have one of the best offensive lines in the country.

Their offense has struggled at times, but when they find their gear, it’s as good as any offense in the country.

Their defense has been an issue this season, but they’ve played really well in the last two games against Ole Miss and Arkansas. Their defense seems to be finding its footing under first-year defensive coordinator Blake Baker.

Whit Weeks is the heart and soul of this defense, especially with Harold Perkins gone for the season.

The rest of the defense has talent, as there are plenty of guys that A&M recruited but ended up in Baton Rouge.

As usual, talent is not the problem in Baton Rouge.

The coaching matchup is going to be interesting because I don’t think Brian Kelly is that involved during a game. I think he approves the game plans during the week and then just lets it roll on Saturday nights.

He’ll ask some questions occasionally but doesn’t appear to be active in giving his coordinators guidance.

He’s a damn fine football coach, but I think he believes more in letting the script play out than tinkering with it during the game. It’s won him a lot more games than he lost, but I think it’s bit him a few times, especially in season openers.

Elko, on the other hand, seems a bit more involved with making adjustments, especially from a defensive standpoint.

This game will be a chess match because each team’s offense and defense are so different. LSU’s strength is its offense, while A&M’s strength is its defense.

A&M would love to establish the run and keep the LSU offense off the field while the LSU offense will want to take shots through the air. Nussmeier is averaging 40 passes a game at a 65% completion rate.

The dude wants to sling it. Nussmeier is going to get yards through the air. It’s just a matter of limiting the big plays and obviously score.

It’s all going to come down to Conner Weigman keeping the chains moving to chew the clock and then the Aggie defense pressuring Nussmeier for what snaps he’s taking out there.

It’s entirely possible, but I don’t see it.

I think LSU is playing with too much confidence coming off the big wins against Ole Miss and Arkansas. Confidence and talent are tough to overcome.

I don’t think A&M has been tested quite enough where LSU has. I see LSU making more plays than the Aggies.

I do think the Aggies will make a game of it, and it’ll be a back-and-forth contest for much of the night.

I just don’t think the Aggies have LSU’s talent, and LSU seems to be clicking right now.

I think LSU wins 27-23.

I hope Conner proves me wrong and he has the game of his life on Saturday night. The Aggies will need it to beat the Tigers.

I’m ready for things to not be like they used to be.

Georgia/Texas:

Real quick thoughts on the game in Austin on Saturday night:

• Kirby Smart is the new Nick Saban. The dude is head and shoulders above every college coach out there. I know he lost to Bama, but Georgia is about to march to Atlanta, taking out Tennessee and Ole Miss along the way. When the dust settles, they’ll be the SEC Champion and number one seed in the playoff.

• Texas is a damn good football team. Their offense just wasn’t ready for Georgia’s defense. Their defense is legit, and they did everything they could to keep them in that game. I think it’s possible they drop another game before coming to Kyle, but if I had to wager, they roll into Kyle at 10-1, looking to get past us and to Atlanta. I think it’ll be LSU and Georgia in Atlanta, but Texas will roll into Kyle determined to get past us to Atlanta.

• I hope the officiating fiasco on Saturday night finally spurs Greg Sankey into doing something about the quality of officiating in his league. Schools are making hundreds of millions from their football program, and the SEC is trotting out officials that screw up time and time again and aren’t held accountable. It’s bad leadership from him.

Have you ever had that family member or friend who always let you down? But, you loved them so much you couldn’t quit loving them?

Well, for many of us, that’s been Aggie Football for 25 years. There have been a few moments of elation and excitement, but there has been a lot more head-shaking in disappointment.

I don’t know if what we saw on Saturday is the moment things will finally be different than they used to be. Or, that game was just a blip like we’ve seen before, and we’ll return to things being just as they used to be.

Nobody has any idea. I hope this moment is different, but we’ll have to wait 3 more weeks until LSU comes to Kyle Field for a better idea.

We haven’t seen a game in which we dominated a quality opponent from start to finish since South Carolina in 2014. Yes, it’s been a decade in which the game was never in question against a quality opponent.

What we saw on Saturday was a molly whopping. If you’ve ever wanted a visual definition of a molly whopping, you saw it on Saturday. We went bell to bell and hammered Missouri the entire game.

I had my concerns going into the game, but I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the elation and excitement from that game. We looked like a team that could beat anyone in the country. As the clock struck midnight on Saturday, it looked more and more like it. Every team in college football looks beatable this season.

I don’t know if this game was a case of the team taking extra motivation from everything Missouri said and did, but I hope the Aggies can bottle what they did and use it for the rest of the season.

If so, things are gonna turn much better for the Aggies.

With that win, the floor for calling this a successful season is now 9-3. 8-4 seems like a lock, as we need to find 2 wins out of Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Auburn. I’d like to think those are possible wins, but as you saw on Saturday, you can’t take anything for granted in the SEC.

It’s very possible we can go 10-2 and sneak into the college football playoff. It’s also possible we go 11-1 and find ourselves in Atlanta the first weekend in December.

Because our lone loss is to Notre Dame, we may also find our way to Atlanta at 10-2. We would only have one SEC loss, but a lot would have to be shaken loose.

We actually control our own destiny to Atlanta and the College Football Playoff. I would have NEVER guessed that after the Bowling Green game.

Say that again – We have a legit shot at controlling our own destiny to Atlanta and the College Football Playoff. College Football is WILD!

Let’s talk about the game.

Offense:

Welcome back, Conner Weigman. Completing 18 of 22 passes for 276 passes is flat-out having a day.

I don’t expect him to complete 82% of his passes the rest of the game, but the Conner we saw on Saturday should complete between 60% and 70% the rest of the way.

He completed passes to 10 guys. That’s spreading it out. He wasn’t just honed in with one guy.

He didn’t hit a ton of big passes, but he did have passes of 40, 33, and 29 yards. He was VERY methodical and surgical in carving up the Missouri defense. He didn’t have guys running wide open but they had enough separation and he was putting balls in the perfect spot.

My favorite pass from him was the 32-yarder to Terry Bussey on the second drive of the third quarter.

Thanks to a holding call, we had a 2nd and 20. Bussey had man coverage and was streaking down the field. When Conner let it go, I thought he was going for a deep ball. I quickly realized it was vastly underthrown, but then Bussey saw the ball and adjusted to it for a completion.

For the first time since I can’t remember, the Aggie offense completed a deep back shoulder fade. I’ve seen countless other college teams run that on Saturdays, and we finally did it!

It was the perfect play call in the moment and perfect execution.

I don’t know who this Collin Klein is. In the previous five games, I feel like we would have run some kind of screen or draw to hopefully get it to 2nd and 10 at best. It was definitely not a pass over 5 yards.

Instead, we threw caution to the wind and went for the big hit.

I LOVED IT!

Maybe Klein was just playing it conservatively due to Reed’s apparent passing limitations. Perhaps he read this blog and realized he needed to open things up. Whatever it was, I’m glad he did.

I sure hope there’s more of this Collin Klein in the second half of the season.

As for the rest of the offense, I can’t say enough great things about Le’Veon Moss. The dude carried the ball 12 times for 138 yards and 3 touchdowns.

His 75-yard run to open the second half was an absolute gut punch. The way he’s running, he will find himself playing on Sundays.

A part of me wants him to get more carries, but if we’re better off giving him fewer carries to keep him fresh, I’m okay with that. He’s clearly the best running back on this team.

As for the offensive line, I’m not saying anything bad about them. They had some frustrating holds and false starts, but they gave Conner plenty of time to throw and opened enough holes for 236 rushing yards.

They were magnificent. The progress we’ve made from last year is outstanding. I hope they continue to get better each week.

On the receiving side, nobody did anything truly special, but they all contributed to catching balls and moving downfield. I know that’s really generic-sounding, but the way Conner distributed the ball was truly an entire unit effort.

I’d like to think Noah Thomas and Conner will become a very reliable pass-and-catch duo in the second half. Coming into the season, I said their connection would be the biggest benefit to this offense. I hope it comes to fruition with those two.

I also hope Terry Bussey’s use in this game continues for the second half of the season. The formations where we had Moss and Bussey in the backfield had me salivating. Bussey’s athleticism and versatility in motioning in and out of the backfield will keep defenses guessing.

I have no idea why Collin Klein waited until the sixth game of the year to try new things on offense. I’m just glad he did.

I hope he’s not a turtle and goes back into his shell for the rest of the season.

Defense:

My biggest fear coming into this game was that Missouri, like Bama last year, would be able to neutralize the pressure from our defensive front after watching them destroy the Arkansas offensive line the week before.

Boy, was I wrong.

This defensive line destroyed the Missouri offensive line and pressured Brady Cook all game. Cook was a miserable 13 for 31 with only 186 yards passing. 52 yards came on Missouri’s final drive when the game was over. 59 came on the big touchdown catch.

75 yards of passing the rest of the game.

He was sacked five times and pressured the entire game. He never got comfortable in the pocket, and it was clear he was hearing footsteps the whole game.

I know Nic Scourton got a pretty good NIL deal to come to A&M, but he’s making himself a TON of money with his play on the field. He looks like a top 10 draft pick. The dude is an absolute beast and terrorizes offensive tackles. He wasn’t officially credited with a sack but he was in the backfield the entire game.

His three other buddies on the defensive line aren’t far behind him. What the four of them did against Missouri was domination. I don’t have any reason to think they can’t continue this.

My main reason for that belief is that Elko and Bateman are helping them. Unlike D.J. Durkin, who put last year’s defensive line on an island, Elko and Bateman are dialing up pressure from the second level. They’re putting at least two additional guys on the edge or gaps to confuse the offensive lineman about who’s coming.

You have no idea how helpful that is to the defensive front. That’s the biggest difference between last year’s defense and this year’s defense.

Speaking of those second-level guys, the whole rotation of York, Sanford, Williams, Kennedy, and Howell has been working really well. In that Missouri game, everyone seemed to know their assignments and execute them.

I was concerned with this unit coming into the season because Edge Cooper is such a talent. Not one of these guys has Edge’s talent, but they have progressed from the start of the season, at least from an applying pressure standpoint. I still have concerns with their coverage ability, but if they’re applying pressure, that helps a ton in coverage.

The coaching staff’s scheme is helping these guys. However, these guys deserve a ton of credit for executing the plan. Jimbo has to be so proud watching these guys execute.

Elko’s specialty is bringing pressure from areas that are hard to tell pre-snap. I know Bateman is the defensive coordinator, but I have to imagine Elko has some influence on the blitz packages and timing.

Dalton Brooks had the game of his young career on Saturday. The dude is a true sophomore, so he’s still developing, but he was all over the field on Saturday. He led the team in tackles and was laying the hammer. Fortunately, he’s doing it with his head up, so he doesn’t get called for targeting.

I guess Bryce Anderson is hurt. He doesn’t show up on the injury report, and I also don’t remember hearing his name called. He didn’t show up on the stat sheet, either. I’m not sure what’s going on with Anderson, but he and Brooks could be quite the duo.

As for coverage, we looked pretty damn good. Ricks got burned on a touchdown, but for the most part, our corners locked down their receivers.

I know the whole drama with Will Lee and the blanket for Theo Rease. That’s all stupid stuff because play on the field matters more than silly motivation tactics off the field. Especially when they wind up motivating the wrong guy. Lee got the better of all the Missouri receivers in the game. That’s what matters most.

I think Elko handled that nonsense well. Elko used it to motivate Lee and then accurately told people to ask the Missouri head coach about it. It was a clear motivation tactic from the Missouri side. It fell flat on the Missouri side.

I still have a feeling we’re going to bust coverage occasionally, but we shut down some pretty good receivers on Saturday. That was by far the best we’ve looked all season.

The most impressive thing from this defense was Missouri’s final drive. I believe we let our foot off the gas a bit, and Missouri drove down the field with a couple of nice passes to Luther Burden and a facemask by the Aggies.

Missouri got to first and 10 at the Aggie 11-yard line. They gained 8 yards on the first down, so they had second and 2 on the Aggie 3-yard line.

At that point, the Aggie defense decided to make a statement.

Missouri gained 1 yard on the next play and then stopped for no yards on the third play. The guys making the tackles on those two plays? The Shemar Brothers.

On 4th and 1, they gained a yard with a tackle by Albert Regis. That got them a first down at the Aggie 1.

In three plays on the three-yard line, Missouri only got 2 yards. It was a meaningless drive and meaningless points, but the Aggie front four was determined not to let them score up the middle.

That set up 1st and goal from Aggie 1 yard line. Missouri didn’t want to try up the middle again for whatever reason. They went outside to Luther Burden on a swing pass. Dalton Brooks read the play the entire way and took Burden down for a five-yard loss.

It’s 2nd and goal from the 6-yard line. Two incomplete passes later, Drinkwitz is running the field goal unit out there.

That was a massive goal-line stand in a meaningless moment. The Aggie defense was playing with a lot of pride.

Looking Forward:

So here’s the $20 million question: Was that game a Jimbo Blip, or are things finally going to be different than they used to be?

I’m putting on my maroon-colored glasses but leaving the maroon Kool-Aid on the counter for now. I’m hopeful but not certain. I’ve seen this situation before, and I’m hoping for a different outcome.

I know we control our own destiny for Atlanta and are in excellent shape. However, I’m gonna tap the brakes for just a bit.

We really have to win out to make Atlanta. We’re started too far back in the pack, and we’re not a blue blood. If we have 1 SEC loss and there are a couple other 1 loss teams that are blue bloods, we’ll find ourselves on the outside looking in.

I don’t see us winning out because the SEC is so tough. I don’t think we make Atlanta.

Even if we have 1 SEC loss, which I think is attainable, that still puts us in a 10-2 football program and likely in the College Football Playoff. That’s REALLY DAMN GOOD in Elko’s first season.

Losing two SEC games puts us at 9-3, a massive improvement over what we’ve seen. I want more than 9-3 right now, but I won’t complain about 9-3.

Let’s get through Starkville in two weeks because that place has been tough on us. I would love to see a convincing win on the road in the SEC, even if it’s Starkville.

Let’s get through that, and then we can focus on the swamp kitties coming to town.

Maybe, just maybe, things aren’t going to be like they used to be.

I absolutely love an Aggie win, especially when it’s over Arkansas. Love it or hate it, the Arkansas series in Jerry World, since we entered the SEC, has been WILD.

I mean WILD.

Somehow and someway, the Aggies have been on the winning side of 10 of the 11 Arkansas games played in JerryWorld. It’s been dicey at times, but we keep pulling out victories in this series. I can’t imagine being an Arkansas fan going into this game. Especially afterwards. Just totally deflating.

With all of that, I will sound like a wet blanket. Despite the win, none of my concerns for the rest of this season changed.

Arkansas isn’t a bad team, but they’re not very good. They didn’t really test the Aggies at all.

This game really reminds me of last year’s game. Arkansas took a few shots early on, but then our defensive line harassed their quarterback so much that he never got comfortable. With this loss, I don’t think Arkansas will go bowling this season.

I feel like we just beat a 5 win team. It’s hard to know if that translates to anything positive for the rest of the season.

I hope I’m wrong, but our next game is set up like Alabama last year. They came to Kyle after we beat Arkansas with a fantastic performance from our defensive line. Alabama slowed down our pass rush and exposed our secondary, walking out of Kyle with a win.

Luther Burden against our secondary frightens me. He’s not a superstar receiver, but as we saw with Isiah Bond last season, it doesn’t take a superstar receiver to have a great day against the Aggie secondary.

We’ll worry about that on Saturday, but let’s talk more about Arkansas.

I’m still not sure about Mike Elko. I wanted more out of this Aggie team against Arkansas, but we played just well enough to win. It was very Jimboesque in my mind. I keep waiting for something to happen that will differentiate Elko from Jimbo, but I haven’t seen it.

My two biggest issues were Arkansas’s fake punt execution and our walking off the field at the end of the first half.

The fake punt by Arkansas was simply wonderful coaching by Arkansas and TERRIBLE coaching by Texas A&M. It technically wasn’t a fake. Still, in their film, Arkansas picked up a tendency that our punt return team released to block downfield before the ball was kicked. That’s lazy coaching on A&M’s part. Incredibly lazy. You must ensure the ball is gone before turning your back and heading downfield.

Even worse, one of our guys stayed engaged with an Arkansas player while the punter with the ball ran right by him. Just lazy, lazy special teams. Remind you of anyone?

Don’t forget the blocked punt against Bowling Green last week. For the second week in a row, we had a special teams snafu that could have changed the outcome of the game. I’m not sure what’s going on with our special teams, but it’s pretty clear opponents have picked up weaknesses on film. That’s on our coaching staff.

At the end of the first half, Elko raised the white flag rather than take a chance on scoring. I get it was 3rd and 19 on our 43-yard line, but we could have easily run another play. You never know. Walking off the field in that moment is the sign of a coach who has little to no confidence in his offense.

It was tied 14-14. Elko felt there were more negatives than positives that could happen by snapping the ball. Remind you of anyone?

I’m not saying Elko is a defensive Jimbo, but after five games, things look more similar than different. I’m ready for things to be different than they used to be.

Offense:

I won’t spend much time on this offense because it’s not worth it. Five games in, Colin Klein looks like an absolutely horrible hire.

I’ll admit there are some flashes of excitement, like our third touchdown, but most of Klein’s play calls are unimaginative and becoming increasingly predictable.

We had 14 possessions in this game.

Three possessions resulted in touchdowns.
Two possessions ended the half and game.
NINE possessions resulted in punts.

Do you notice anything? We didn’t attempt a single field goal in this game. In ten possessions, we couldn’t even maneuver the ball into field goal range once. That’s a MASSIVE concern in my mind. I don’t like kicking field goals, but I like kicking field goals more than punting.

We could not consistently move the ball on a very average Arkansas defense.

Our first touchdown was an excellent move by Noah Thomas to juke his defender and then was able to outrun the other defenders to the end zone. The pass itself was less than 20 yards in the air.

Our second touchdown was thanks to an amazing play by our defense, which gave the offense the ball at the ten-yard line. It was a total gift from the defense. It was nice that the offense converted it, but they didn’t do anything to move it there.

Our third touchdown was a nice 75-yard drive, but 46 yards were gained on three straight carries by Le’Veon Moss. Moss basically carried the offense on his shoulders for three plays, running over and through the Arkansas defense. The touchdown pass to Tre Watson was a beautiful play but plays like that were few and far between.

Other than that drive, there was a lot of sputtering around by our offense. Just absolutely uninspiring offensive football. An average Arkansas defense shut us down.

I have ZERO confidence this offense can come back from a deficit of 14 points or more. A two touchdown deficit and we’re cooked I think.

The receivers aren’t getting consistent separation, running backs not named Moss aren’t cranking out yards, and Marcell Reed struggles to throw a pass longer than 10 yards. You really only have to defend this team in a 20-yard box.

Like his predecessor, Elko is running an offense that he hopes doesn’t make mistakes and can somehow put up one more point than his defense allows.

Maybe it turns out differently this time, but insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result.

As for the quarterback situation, here is my take: Conner clearly isn’t healthy. He hasn’t suited up the last two games and, according to most reports, isn’t taking any practice snaps. Or if he is taking practice snaps, they’re minimal.

He’s clearly hurt.

Until he’s fully healthy and Reed struggles or stumbles, you won’t see Conner under center.

I believe that Reed will start against Missouri, and things will be reassessed during the bye week.

I don’t have a preference on who plays quarterback. At this point, I have no idea who the best quarterback is for this system. I’d say it doesn’t matter. The whole scheme is a MUCH more significant issue than who’s under center.

We focus on the quarterback because it’s the most obvious position, but Elko and Klein’s decisions are much bigger concerns than who’s under center.

Defense:

I can’t fault the defense for how they played on Saturday. The front four were completely disruptive and got Taylen Green out of rhythm. Green’s stat line doesn’t look bad; he completed 23 passes in 41 attempts for 279 yards. That’s not a bad day passing.

We’d certainly take that from a quarterback right now.

However, when it mattered, Green had to avoid pressure and never completed a big pass other than on the third play of the game, when he connected for the 75-yard touchdown. He was worried about avoiding pressure over finding open guys.

The defensive front four brought pressure the whole game. It was the main reason the Aggies walked out of JerryWorld for the final time with a win. Without their effort, I’m not sure the Aggies win.

The absolute play of the game was Shermar Stewart forcing the fumble on the 10-yard line. Somehow, Arkansas didn’t touch him, and he ran wide open to the backfield, where he took out the running back and quarterback—two guys at the same time. It was a beautiful play.

I don’t think we would have won without that play. It allowed us to tie the game, which swung the momentum from Arkansas to A&M. It was that big.

Nic Scourton only had two sacks, but he spent much of the game chasing Green out of the pocket. He was a force.

The unsung hero of the front four is Albert Regis. He doesn’t have the physical talent of the other three, but his motor and effort are unreal. He never slows down when he’s in.

Much like last year, my fear is that this Arkansas game is the most disruptive game of the year from our defensive front, and we won’t have the same results in another game. We’ll spend the rest of the season wondering where the pressure we saw in the Arkansas game went.

Beyond the defensive line, the rest of the defense played well enough. Our linebackers did fine, but I’m still slightly concerned about them against better teams. Scooby Williams can be quite disruptive at times, as he loves crashing the line of scrimmage.

Lee and Ricks seem like an upgrade over last year’s corners, but I’m still concerned about their ability to cover big-play receivers. We’ll find out this weekend when Luther Burden comes to town.

I liked what Elko and Bateman did as the game wore on. They seemed to adjust and bring additional pressure at the right time and in the right place. That did seem to be missing in the previous four games, where some of our blitzes weren’t getting there. They worked virtually every time against Arkansas after the first quarter.

Arkansas rushed 30 times for 100 yards, the longest for 25 yards. One run for 25 yards and an average of 2.6 yards on the other 29 carries. It’s a significant improvement over what we saw against Bowling Green and Notre Dame.

I still have questions about this defense, but I can’t fault anything they did on Saturday. They’re far and away the reason we won the game.

Looking Forward:

I’m excited about Missouri coming to town. We are essentially getting another shot at Notre Dame, a Top 10 ranked team that’s probably ranked a little higher than it should be. I do think Missouri is better than Notre Dame, but not by a large margin.

Missouri is the better team, but we’re completely capable of beating them.

I hate the 11 a.m. start time at Kyle Field, but it’s part of all the TV money we get.

If we’re going to be better than 8-4 this season, we must win this game. I think Missouri is the most likely win of the big games left at Kyle this season. I worry about LSU and Texas’ passing attacks. I don’t think our sputtering offense can win a shootout.

Elko needs to advise Klein to work up some wrinkles to win this game. The standard Run Pass Option or Zone Read that he’s running will not work. That Arkansas defense clearly knew the keys we were looking for and shut us down for the most part.

Something has to be different about our offense this Saturday.

If not, there will be a lot of disappointed Aggies around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.

You know, just like it used to be.