Wasson: Mike Elko is pitch-perfect as Texas A&M is on the brink of Atlanta
We said, right here in this very space last week, that Texas A&M fans needed to practice a smidge of patience.
You can read it right here, in fact. This scribe opined that “yes, you’re rooting on the 14th-ranked team in the country right now. But every goal is still very much in reach for Texas A&M should they keep doing what they’re doing right now. Winning by survival is a part of the deal in this conference, after all.”
And what happened? You know the answer …
Beating then-No. 8-ranked LSU on Saturday night was exactly the kind of mid-season litmus test that was previously lacking from the Aggies’ schedule to date. And the manner in which Texas A&M dispatched the Tigers clean out of College Station sent a clear and precise warning shot to the rest of the Southeastern Conference.
Many a team would have folded the tent and called it a night in the second half Saturday, what with Aggieland drooping, starting quarterback Conner Weigman floundering and LSU going up and down the field.
But not this squad.
Calm, cool and collected the entire time, first-year Aggies coach Mike Elko pulled the trigger on Weigman – bringing in backup Marcel Reed and hoping for an offensive spark trailing by 10 in the third quarter.
Moves that bold either get you widely lauded or roundly jeered, and in Elko’s instance it earned the former. Texas A&M suddenly looked like a nitro-powered Funny Car in a Model T world, cranking out touchdowns on 4 straight possessions with Reed at the steering wheel.
Final score: 38-23. Bigger result: Texas A&M suddenly has a huge inside track to the SEC Championship Game – needing only to not stumble over their shoelaces in November before a regular season-ending tussle with No. 6 Texas.
The reason we say it is an inside track is that the Aggies are the SEC’s only team without a conference loss and they can earn their first trip to Atlanta without having to play Alabama or Georgia, the conference heavyweights that ruled most all of the time since Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012.
Of course, tangling with Texas will be no easy task — even at raucous Kyle Field. The programs waged one of the more heated rivalries (and the 3rd-longest running) in the country before Texas A&M bolted from the Big 12 – playing every year from 1915 to 2011. And because the Longhorns enjoy a 76-37-5 series lead on their presumptive Little Brothers, you know no matter where Texas is in the rankings come Nov. 30 it will be insane.
But again, Texas A&M has the advantage there as well – as Texas must invade Kyle Field, home of the 12th Man and all those legendarily weird Yell Leaders. The Aggie Bonfire will probably be spotted from International Space Station, and lord knows the Midnight Yell Practice would violate local noise ordinances if any existed around the 102,733-seat chapel of Aggie football.
Elko deserves a lion’s share of the credit for Texas A&M’s slow-but-steady ascension to the Top 10 (the Aggies’ highest ranking since they were No. 6 in September 2022). Not only did he do a remarkable job jamming myriad fingers in the dam’s myriad holes left by former coach Jimbo Fisher, Elko’s instinct to go with Reed in an attempt to un-jam the offense Saturday was pitch-perfect – as Reed scrambled for 3 rushing touchdowns to break the unit and game open.
It also certainly helps that the defense got extra salty in the face of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who was 25-for-50 passing for 405 yards with 2 touchdowns but threw 3 extremely untimely second-half interceptions to move Big Mo over to the home sideline for good.
For what it’s worth, the entire college football galaxy still isn’t totally sold on Texas A&M. The whole Weigman situation could cause some long-term agita and going to both Columbia to play South Carolina and suburban Opelika to play Auburn won’t be picnics. That’s partly why college football computer predictors still list the Aggies behind Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Alabama as SEC teams that could earn a Playoff bid.
The main reason, though, is Texas. Ah yes, the Longhorns – the thorn in Texas A&M’s side since Woodrow Wilson was Progressing all over the White House.
Now is the time, Aggieland, to start steeling yourselves not for the patience we recommended just a week prior but instead for the very best that Steve Sarkisian and Big Brother can throw at you.
Because it’s coming. Survive the stampede, and you can book a trip to Atlanta to play for the big enchilada for the first time ever.
If neither TAMU or LSU lose another conference game they’ll play a rematch in the SECCG.
IF LSU and UGA don’t lose another conference game this season, would LSU jump UGA (and Texas if they don’t lose again either) in the SEC standings?
LSU would have beaten Bama, which UGA lost to. TAMU would have beaten TX in this scenario.
Ah, right. LSU would have a victory of the common opponent that beat UGA in this scenario. I think, however, that will be a tall task for LSU.
A 1-loss UGA makes the play-offs regardless of missing the SECCG; if UGA wins out they don’t drop from their current #2 ranking.
However, after watching Marcel Reed have his way with the LSU defense I don’t see LSU stopping Milroe and the rest of the Alabama offense.
“A 1-loss UGA makes the play-offs regardless of missing the SECCG; if UGA wins out they don’t drop from their current #2 ranking.”
you’re incorrect. in the stated scenario of lsu and a&m winning out, uga would drop out of the top 4…
Which could be the weirdest thing ever. UGA could even be the #1 ranked team (if Oregon lost somewhere) in the AP and Coaches Poll and not ranked #1 by the Playoff committee.
PtheRicker
I said “A 1-loss UGA team makes the play-offs”
You said “you’re incorrect”
Are you saying a 1-loss UGA doesn’t make the 12 team playoff, or there is a scenario where a 1-loss UGA doesn’t make the 12 team playoff?
A 1-loss UGA will be in the play-offs, you can cast that in stone.
It’s hard to speculate how the committee will rank LSU, TAMU, and UGA without considering how other teams from other conferences fair. If UGA wins out, I highly doubt they drop out of the top 4. It won’t matter though, because in that scenario UGA will make the playoffs.
@jtf. agree.
@TDOW, you said, “A 1-loss UGA makes the play-offs regardless of missing the SECCG; if UGA wins out they don’t drop from their current #2 ranking.”
i’m simply saying that they’d stand no chance to finish #2 or even in the top 4 of the cfp rankings…in the scenario that jtf mentioned. the top 4 spots are reserved to the conf champs of the p4 conferences.
PT
“if UGA wins out they don’t drop from their current #2 ranking.”
Since there is CURRENTLY no CPF ranking for the 2024 season I am not referring to the CFP poll. I am referring to the AP, USA Today Coaches, The TDOW composite or whichever one of the current poles have UGA as #2. The first CFP Poll comes out in November.
Again, if UGA wins out they don’t drop from their current #2 ranking and they make the play-offs, regardless of their ranking in a FUTURE CFP poll.
Gut feeling says LSU loses to Bama (although could flip a coin)
Make it through this week and then A&M doesn’t have another SEC game till Nov 18th. A lot of teams play essentially elimination games by then. A&M just needs to worry about A&M at this point. I would assume if you make it to ATL, it would be very hard not to make the playoffs.
The SEC will not allow a team with an out of conference loss to win the SEC.
More diarrhea from you. Your throat must be exhausted from the effort.
The SEC will not allow a team with an unranked loss and a lone ranked win to win the SEC. They want deep playoff runs, not first round losses.
They will ensure you get to the Citrus bowl though
Thanks for this. Acting like the loss to Notre Dame is a bad one.
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Getting beat by a team who got beat by Northern Illinois (1-3) MAC is not going to cut it. If the SEC tries to send that team as our #1, that may be the only team the SEC gets in the playoff.
Week 1 is not week 15. Notre Dame will be 11-1 this year with 1 bad slip up. I know you are trolling but pls stop. It really isn’t even slightly entertaining or funny.
It can’t be allowed. Think of the long run. Would the SEC’s reputational loss be worth it? Would the loss of playoff spots be worth it?
Elko’s clearly the coach for this team. He’s great at making adjustments. As painful as the Jimbo era was toward the end, it was Jiimbo that brought Elko to College Station. You take the bad with the good, I guess.
Regarding the rivalry, the overall series record is in the horns’ favor because they took full advantage of the years during and after WWII when the Aggie players were in Europe and the Pacific theater, and in the era when TAMU was an all-male college. Put a stake in the ground at 1975 and the Aggies lead the series 19-18. True. Buckle up, my friends.
I don’t like the arbitrary 1975. I like the marker to be 1965, i.e. when the mandatory military service was dropped. So I think that is 27-21 in favor of Texas ( not quite .500). DKR was rolling in the 60’s and 70’s, A&M dominated the 80’s, 90’s were dead even, and Mack Brown and those unbelievable tu Rbs & VY dominated the 2000’s.
But it is not as lopsided as the overall record indicates. If ppl want to make fun of the 1939 National Championship from A&M, they cannot cite the overall record and disregard the fact that from 1894-1910, tu was 14-3-1 (A&M scored 80 points in 18 games, not scoring a single point in the first 9 matchups) and from 1940-1950 tu was 10-0 bc of this little conflict across the pond….. That is 25% of their wins in the overall series.
Well, scholarship limits in the mid 70’s (in reaction to title 9) were the real nail in the coffin for tu dominance. The end of mandatory corps enrollment and the vast increase in women students all made a big difference, but preventing tu from simply hoarding recruits put us all on a more level field.
Sarkisian and “big brother”. tu is not big brother. A&M is .500 against tu since the mandatory military service was dropped.
Yessir. It wasn’t that long ago that the cadets marched to breakfast & every cadet that had a car was headed to Waco on the weekend.
Georgia IS beatable this year, so might be a Vols vs Aggies matchup. It could happen! If Vandy can upset Georgia, anything can happen!
(Our luck, we upset Ooogly in Athens and get upset by Vandy in Nashvegas – that could also happen.)
The hillbillies winning a championship, any championship, is like defending and promoting evolution
the only way you can say it happens is after “millions and millions of years.” There is no evidentiary or empirical basis for it (evolution or Tenn championships) so one has to theorize and/or state hypothesis’ that can’t be observed, i.e. “might be a Vols vs Aggies matchup”
At what point does hillbilly nation just STFU and not say anything UNTIL Tennessee actually wins something?????
… hypotheses …
But Vandy didn’t upset UGA.
“If Vandy can upset Georgia”
Time to put the crack pipe down hillbilly, UGA and Vandy don’t play in 2024.
With the current SEC format & the new playoff system the SEC Championship game is a moot point. I don’t know if LSU can past Bama. As everyone saw at Kyle, LSU is vulnerable to a run first offense. LSU is also almost completely dependent on a pass first offense. A&M is vulnerable as well. WR’s have a hard time getting open. A&M’s secondary is not very elite either. Elko has two very winnable SEC road games ahead, an atrocious New Mexico State tune up game & the whorns. tu has been looking pretty vulnerable the last two outings. Their next game is UF next week.