Photo by: Jack Coil/Texas A&M Athletics
Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: Missouri
Nov 03, 2025 | Football
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION--Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko met with the media on Monday in his latest weekly press conference.
The third-ranked Aggies (8-0, 5-0) are off to Columbia this weekend to face the Missouri Tigers. Kickoff on ABC is set for 2:30 p.m. Fans can also listen to the game along the Texas A&M Sports Network (1620 AM/94.5 FM locally) or worldwide inside the 12th Man Mobile App or at 12thman.com.
Opening Statement...
"First of all, congratulations to Coach Morrison and the women's volleyball team for what they did this weekend. What an awesome environment in Reed on Friday night. It was great to be part of that. Unfortunately, I could only stay for two sets because I had a father engagement that I had to be involved in, but I will let him know that I am 2-0 in watching volleyball sets this year. Want to give a shout out to Coach McMillan, Coach Bucky for them going to start it tonight. Good luck to those guys as they open their season tonight over at Reed. Good luck to Joni and the women's basketball team that starts their season on Wednesday. And so all the sports are now kind of up and rolling, and it'll be an exciting time here at Texas A&M."
"Going back to the LSU week and just recapping our players of the week, our scout team player of the week on offense was Kiotti Armstrong. He drew a tall task of kind of simulating their big, athletic tight end and did a really good job with that. On defense it was Jeremiah Searcy. He's doing a good job at linebacker, getting better every week. And then on special teams, it was Preston Landis. Our offensive lineman of the game was Chase Bisontis. Our defensive lineman of the game was Tyler Onyedim. Chase, again, continues to be just a physical force at guard and has really, really blossomed into a consistently talented elite player in this conference. And Tyler had another really, really disruptive game. They don't always show up in the stats, what the inside tackles do, but he played a really, really good game both against the run and the pass for us. And then the players of the week, Marcel Reed on offense accounted for 310 all-purpose yards and 4 touchdowns. Cashius Howell on defense again with two sacks, continuing to put relentless pressure on the quarterback. And then on special teams, KC Concepcion. KC finished with 175 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns. So we're excited to get back to work, had a really good bye week. I think we were able to accomplish the things that we wanted to accomplish. We went out, we stayed sharp last week, we practiced, we did the things we needed to do to start looking ahead to Missouri. But we were really able to get the guys some good rest, some good recovery time, a lot of treatment, which you need at this point in the season. Came back today in the right mindset to get back after it. And so we're excited to go down to Missouri and play another top-20 team on the road in the SEC. It'll be a huge challenge and we'll certainly have to get our guys ready to play our best football to have a chance."
Looking at some of the stats from Mario's time at Mississippi State, they used him to go deep a lot. How did y'all know and formulate that he's a guy that you can just get the ball into his hands and he's able to make them miss tackles and things like that?
"I think practice always kind of reveals that stuff. You guys have been out there a little bit. Practice for us is extremely intense, and so you get a really good look at what kids are capable of when you kind of watch them go through Spring ball and Fall camp. We realized how twitchy and athletic he was. We realized he was a kid who could really do a lot with the ball in his hands. I think maybe in the beginning of the year you started to realize how elusive he was at getting himself out of tackles. I don't know how much that showed up until we started playing people for real. Obviously he's a really talented player and you want your talented players to have the ball in their hands and space as much as you can."
Any missed tackles, broken tackles that stand out to you the most this season?
"For sure the Notre Dame game (where) he makes that play on that sideline. I don't think there's a lot of people that I've been around that get out of that tackle with the power to get out of it and the balance to stay on their feet and finish that thing into the end zone."
Is this weekend similar to the beginning of the season when preparing for a quarterback where there's not a lot of film this late in the year?
"I think the only difference is I don't know how much you can change the structure of the offense when you get to this part in the season. They're coming off a bye week and I'm sure they'll have their wrinkles and then build the thing around him as best they can. But you've got 10 other guys out there who have 8 games of experience playing in a certain system, a certain kind of way. It's hard to deviate that. I'm sure what they'll do is try to tailor it to him, to what he does well, what he's really capable of, and I'm sure anticipate that the 10 guys around him will step up and support him and he'll go out and play a really good game with those guys as a as a tremendous supporting cast for him."
Different question, but college football playoffs, this expanded version's only a year old. Do you have a set strategy, if you will, for peaking then as it could be half the season at this point? You still have a long way to go if it goes the way you want it to go.
"No, I don't think so. And somebody asked me that last week, too, in terms of the peaking part. It's such a hard thing to gauge. You certainly don't go into the season when you look at, okay, we've got to go to South Bend in week three. We're going to identify week nine as when we want to peak. I think you're trying to push this growth mindset in your program that we've got to come out of the blocks ready to go. No team is their best version in the start of the season. You want to really be a team that grows every single week and really understands that the best teams and the teams that are standing at the end get significantly better as the year goes on. And then you hopefully get into this month of November where everything's at stake and you understand the urgency of that better maybe than we did last year and you continue to see that growth through the month of November…which then I think leads to people talking about, oh, it looks like they're peaking. But I think it really kind of just step ladders all the way through the season if you do it the right way."
Two questions about Missouri's offense. On the tape that you have on (Matt) Zollers, what has stood out to you about the way he's played quarterback in the time he has?
"There's obviously not a ton of film. We go back and watch his high school stuff, watch the part that he played in the Vanderbilt game. Obviously he's a talented kid. I think he throws the ball really well. The ball jumps out of his hands. You can see that. So I anticipate him being able to make all of the throws and see what he can do with his feet. He's an athletic kid. I think he'll present a lot of challenges to us."
And then they're leading the conference in rushing and (Ahmad) Hardy's leading the way. What have you seen from him and maybe that offensive line that's just made them so effective running the ball this year?
"He's a really talented back. He big, he's powerful. He runs through tackles. I think you see that consistently. He's always leaning forward, and so he always gets more than is blocked. That's obviously a testament to being a really good running back. Systematically they do a really good job of running the football. I think that's the kind of the blueprint of an Eli Drinkwitz offense is they're gonna base it out of the stretch run game. They're going to have the complimentary pieces of it, but you go all the way back to NC State and that's the one thing that stays the most consistent throughout his time. They have a really, really strong system in how they run the football that they're committed to and they do it really, really well."
When you have success, you get a lot of end of the year nominations for big awards for individuals on the team. Do you address that at all within the group and with the guys that are up for all these big end of the year awards?
"No, I don't think we talk about it. I talk about this always, and I think this is so critical in a lot of these conversations, but I have two jobs here. The head football coach doesn't talk about those things at all. He doesn't talk to players about individual awards. He doesn't talk about those types of things. Those things are completely irrelevant to the job at hand, right? The job at hand is to figure out how to play our best football Saturday against Missouri and none of that stuff is going to have anything to do with that. Then there's the CEO part of my job that it's my responsibility to push our players for those awards, right?
Behind the scenes with our media team, with our branding team, we want to make sure that we're doing the things as a program and as a university that we need to do for people to become aware of the types of seasons some of our guys are having because it matters. It matters that our players get the recognition that they deserve for playing the way that they play. And those two things then become intermingled, because in order for them to win any of those awards they're going to have to play the next four games at a really high level--which means they're going to have to focus on one game at a time and the preparation and what it takes to go out and play really, really good football on Saturday. You kind of blend it all together that way."
You're facing a defense here that's top five in the conference in a lot of categories. Does the bye week help to kind of get that extra week to kind of work or does it really matter and the plan is what it is?
"It's interesting because when they have the bye week too, it probably is kind of a balance. We're going to look hard and look harder at what they do. They're going to have more time to adjust what they do. So those two things go hand in hand. I think it becomes a big advantage if you have a bye week and they don't, right? And you get two weeks to prepare and they only have four or five days. When you're working on the same timeline it helps, but you also then have to be ready for what adjustments or what changes or what wrinkles are you going to see because they had the extra time to get ready as well."
You talked about your team playing with a sense of urgency. Teams like Missouri that you're playing, they are desperate for wins. While mathematically you guys aren't, it seems like your team has been playing--I don't know if desperate is the word--but with a sense of urgency. What do you attribute that to?
"Yeah, I think we are desperate. I tell them all the time, we have earned everything that we've got, right? We've got a record, we've got a ranking, we've got opportunities that we have worked really, really hard to earn. And every single Saturday someone's coming in and trying to take all of that from us. That's the urgency that we have. In terms of Missouri--this is the challenge that you have in college football today, they're still very much alive for the playoff. This is a playoff game for them. They obviously know they're going to have to win out in order probably to get in. So this is a huge opportunity for them at home on a big stage to make a statement that they're going to go chase a spot in the playoff. There's a lot more of that nowadays than there's been in the past when only two or four teams were making the playoffs. So in a lot of ways, this is a playoff game on Saturday in Columbia."
One thing you've really pressed over the season is mindset, not worrying about the past. Coming off this bye week, what's the biggest difference mindset-wise you've seen from the players and I guess your fellow coaches as well?
"It's hard to tell if there's a difference. The differences always seem to show up on Saturday. I think we understand where we're at. I think we understand the task at hand. I think we understand to be in the moment and to focus on being in the moment. But all of that's got to play itself out on Saturday."
Coach Bateman talked a little bit last week about loving the intensity and attitude that Cashius Howell plays with on the defense. How have you seen that attitude from your entire defense as a whole grow throughout the season?
"The more at times that they've been able to have success, success breeds confidence, and confidence allows you to play with a little bit more of a swagger. And I think there's a consistency to all of that that we're still searching and looking for. Certainly when we are able to get rolling like we have at times this year you see that confidence build and that energy build, and that's when we're playing at our best. The challenge to those guys is to go do that consistently start to finish from the beginning to the end of a game. We've done it at times, but probably not enough yet."
What do you think you guys got out of this past bye week in terms of what you guys focused on and just how fresh would you say you guys are compared to just typical point of this season?
"I think we got rest and recovery, that was the goal. In terms of how fresh we are, I don't know. Obviously energy is high because of the situation that we're in. If we were 3-5, I'm sure we would feel more tired. We would feel more fatigued. We wouldn't have as much energy going about our daily business. That plays a role for sure. It's hard to compare how fresh we really are, but certainly the bye came at a really good time for us as we head into this November stretch and it was good to kind of unplug and recharge."
It's been a few weeks, is there an updated timetable that you expect Le'Veon Moss to come back?
"No, not yet."
You think the regular season's a possibility at all?
"Yeah. The timeline is still exactly what we anticipated from the beginning. It's still too early to tell whether that's going to move or not. We're hopeful that by the end of the regular season we'll have a chance to get them back out there. Certainly we feel very confident for anything beyond the end of the regular season, if that presents itself. It's just still a little bit too early to tell how that will be and how it'll respond."
Talk about the challenges that the Missouri offense is going to create for your defense…
"They're really talented. They do a really good job. They're coached exceptionally well. They're really good on the line of scrimmage. They've got a really talented back. They've got an elite wide receiver. And they've got really good tight ends. We're on the road, and they're really good."
You had two freshmen out there on defense for critical points against LSU, Marco Jones and Noah Mikhail. Obviously these were guys that were highly rated coming out of high school but can you talk a little bit about how they've impressed you with their rapid development?
"I think it's a testament to how much better you can get during the season if you continue to put your head down and work, and that's been really cool to see from both of those guys.
Both of them have had different packages or different roles at different times throughout the year. Noah's has kind of been a third backer at opportunities or times where we've needed a third backer on the field. Noah's really been able to step in and fill that role for us.
They got into some multiple tight end packages inside the red zone and that gave him an opportunity and obviously he went out there and made the most of it. He's a kid that just continues to get better every single week and gets more and more comfortable in the base down system and in what we're trying to do. He's certainly a kid that we have a lot of confidence in. And then Marco has kind of been like, and I don't want to use the word 'role player' because that doesn't do the justice that it deserves, but a guy that has gotten in there for your handful of snaps here and there and giving us rush and as drives extend he becomes a rally guy for us. He's another kid that we have a lot of confidence going to whenever we need to. I think just with the way the snap counts were he was out there at a critical time in the LSU game."
Via The Pulse we got a sneak peek at your halftime speech at LSU…how proud are you of the way your guys responded?
"Yeah, I don't remember anything I said at halftime. I think this, and I'm chuckling a little bit because of this…I think we have done a really, really good job at times this year of responding. When things weren't going our way, when we needed to step up and elevate our game and make plays, we've done that, right? We did it at Notre Dame. We certainly did it a bunch on offense in Arkansas. We did it on defense at Auburn. We did it in the second half against LSU. My chuckle a little bit is I kind of wish at times we would stop putting ourselves into some of those positions. Some of the reasons why we have to respond is because of some of the things that we still do to ourselves. The inner competitor kind of wants us to stop doing that. But again, we'll probably never be to the level I want us to be. I have a very, very high standard. The kids know that. So when we do get into those situations where we need to make plays, we've responded in a really positive way."
No one coming into the year expected the offensive line to be really good and they have been. Over the last several games has it been just continued consistency or have you seen a surge or a spike in their performance?
"I think you're seeing them play to the level we believe they were capable of. They're a veteran group. They were excited to get into SEC play, and I think that was part of what we went through a little bit at the beginning of the year. No disrespect to anybody, but I think there was some big games on the schedule, some games that our guys were looking forward to. And we kind of built our way into the season, it felt like a little bit, in terms of how well we were playing. And as we've hit the part of the season where it's full all-in SEC play, and the line of scrimmage is critical, our offensive line has elevated to that challenge. You've seen them go out and play really well. Now they have a massive challenge in front of them this (week). This is the best defensive line that we've seen to date. They're an extremely talented group. They've got two of the best end rushers in the country. We're going to have our hands full on Saturday in Columbia."
Would you think for an offensive line is a greater asset experience or physicality?
"Oh, I'll take physicality over experience all the time. You're experienced, but I don't think I'm going to play you at right tackle this week because I don't think you have the physicality that we need (laughter). Physicality wins out. But no, the physicality is such a huge piece of this conference, right? Your ability to run the ball, your ability to create clean pockets. That's the thing that in the last few weeks you've seen at a really high level is how clean the pocket has been for Marcel. And then obviously he plays a role with his athleticism. When the pocket does break down, he can make things happen. But I think the group is really playing well together, and the physicality is a huge piece of it. No disrespect (laughter)."
What kind of freedom does it give you as a play caller to have the kind of versatility in your safeties room that you do?
"I think it gives you a lot. What are we now, 21 games in I think? So you've got a really good feel for what those kids do well, what they're capable of doing. I think that always helps.
We're doing a better job putting those guys in positions to be successful because we have a really good feel on what they're good at and maybe what situations to try to keep them out of. So that helps. The versatility of skill set that that group has is really, really important and plays a big role in what we're doing."
Coach Bateman, what kind of advantages or changes have you noticed with him being on the field this season as opposed to last season?
"When you talk about in-game adjustments, creating the extra position, having Coach Hemphill come in and kind of be the box guy has allowed Jay the freedom to come down to the field. So now the linebackers see him in between every possession. He's also able to make the adjustments that are necessary across all 11 guys. That's been obviously something I know he's been really excited about because that allows us to adjust in game at a much higher level maybe than we were at times last year just because he had to be in the box and I really wasn't another option. I also think from a mentality and a temperament standpoint he does a really good job of having a pulse of making sure the energy and that stuff is at the level that needs to be. So that's always good having them on the sideline for that as well."
You've had a couple of punts blocked. Has that led to any personnel changes or schemes in how you protect?
"No. From our perspective, it's execution that needs to improve. I don't think that we've identified flaws in our system. I think we've identified flaws in how we've executed what we were trying to get accomplished. So like everything you continue to tinker and make sure that you put kids in the best possible position to be successful. It becomes execution as an all-encompassing thing, right? It's not just the players have to do it. We've got to make sure we're calling things and creating leverage and opportunities that allow us to go out and execute at the level we want to. But no, I don't think it's a mass reload or anything. We've just got to fix what we've got to clean up."
First College Football Playoff rankings come out tomorrow. How much do you pay attention to those or even what's said about why you're in the position that you might be in?
"Not at all."
What do you think is something that has separated y'all from other teams in the SEC that are trying to catch you in the standings?
"Um, we haven't lost yet (laughter). That would probably be a good starting point. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to compare yourself to other teams in the league. I'm just trying to figure out how to play good football on Saturday against Missouri."
I'm also curious, someone dressed up as you for Halloween at the volleyball game. What did you think about that?
"I told my kids and the family group chat afterwards that you know you've made it in life when people are dressing up as you during Halloween. I didn't realize the glasses have become such a big thing because I don't even realize that I'm wearing them anymore. But no, it's cool to see the support from the students. I appreciate how they've taken to me and to my family. It means a lot to me."
You've seen four of your colleagues get fired already this year. Any thoughts about, you know, what seems to be an increasingly quick trigger to get rid of guys that have otherwise had some fairly decent success?
"Yeah, I think you're giving a good platform for me to make a case for myself, so I'm going to do that right now. This is what I've said a lot about this, and I really, truly believe this. People are having a really hard time adjusting to what is becoming a new era of college football. If you look at the SEC, I was just reading some of these stats. I read somewhere that there's been like 27 one-score games in the SEC this year, more than we've had in a really long time. I think there were 6 games last week, 5 of them came down to one-score games. The parity in this conference is at an all-time high. When you look at it, week in and week out, people are still looking for the days when the best team went out and won by 40 every week and 12-0, 11-1 were kind of the standard of what was good. I think a lot of us as coaches have continued to try to preach that it's not the same feeling anymore. It doesn't feel like that's what's really good. What's really good is finding a way to win enough games to get yourself into the playoff where you have a chance to go make a run at this thing. I just think that's how modern college football is. Much like you see in the NFL happen, you see more spikes and swings. Team makes the Super Bowl, maybe doesn't make the playoff the next year. Bounces back and goes to the Super Bowl. You see that consistently at times in the NFL because of the parity, because of how hard it is to win. That's what's creeping into college football and I'm not sure that everyone from a fan base, from a supporter, has identified that. And so, my opportunity to maybe preach."
We've talked about the physicality that this defensive line has shown this year and last year too, but what is it about Coach Spencer that's made him so successful seemingly to develop all this talent?
"I think it's a collaborative group. Obviously he does a really good job with the culture and the energy in the room. We made a little bit of a shift to get Coach Stan Watson a little bit more involved with our edges this year. That's paid off at a really high level. And then what coach Tony Jerod-Eddie brings to the table is really good too. And so we've got three really good football coaches in that room and they collectively do a really, really good job with their piece of building the culture, the physicality, the toughness that we're looking for."
(Volleyball) Coach (Jamie) Morrison made a comment that he feels like it's a really special deal here at A&M with all the head coaches and how they're all supporting each other. Do you kind of feel that and would you just speak upon that?
"I think we all kind of identify what it's like to be a coach in these high levels. We all have aspirations for our programs to be elite. We talk about culture within our program, and it's as important that we have culture within our department. It's all the same, and we're all extremely competitive. We all want what's best for us, but we also want what's best for everybody else too, and you want to see everybody else succeed. So when coaches can get together collaboratively in an athletic department and do that it certainly makes it a lot easier for us to get in front of our team and ask for the same thing from them. A lot has been made about me and what I've done, but honestly I'm just a big sports fan. I enjoy being at sporting events. I enjoy supporting our teams. I don't do it for show. I do it because I appreciate what they're doing and what they're putting into it. Any chance I get to go out and support, I love to take it."
The third-ranked Aggies (8-0, 5-0) are off to Columbia this weekend to face the Missouri Tigers. Kickoff on ABC is set for 2:30 p.m. Fans can also listen to the game along the Texas A&M Sports Network (1620 AM/94.5 FM locally) or worldwide inside the 12th Man Mobile App or at 12thman.com.
Opening Statement...
"First of all, congratulations to Coach Morrison and the women's volleyball team for what they did this weekend. What an awesome environment in Reed on Friday night. It was great to be part of that. Unfortunately, I could only stay for two sets because I had a father engagement that I had to be involved in, but I will let him know that I am 2-0 in watching volleyball sets this year. Want to give a shout out to Coach McMillan, Coach Bucky for them going to start it tonight. Good luck to those guys as they open their season tonight over at Reed. Good luck to Joni and the women's basketball team that starts their season on Wednesday. And so all the sports are now kind of up and rolling, and it'll be an exciting time here at Texas A&M."
"Going back to the LSU week and just recapping our players of the week, our scout team player of the week on offense was Kiotti Armstrong. He drew a tall task of kind of simulating their big, athletic tight end and did a really good job with that. On defense it was Jeremiah Searcy. He's doing a good job at linebacker, getting better every week. And then on special teams, it was Preston Landis. Our offensive lineman of the game was Chase Bisontis. Our defensive lineman of the game was Tyler Onyedim. Chase, again, continues to be just a physical force at guard and has really, really blossomed into a consistently talented elite player in this conference. And Tyler had another really, really disruptive game. They don't always show up in the stats, what the inside tackles do, but he played a really, really good game both against the run and the pass for us. And then the players of the week, Marcel Reed on offense accounted for 310 all-purpose yards and 4 touchdowns. Cashius Howell on defense again with two sacks, continuing to put relentless pressure on the quarterback. And then on special teams, KC Concepcion. KC finished with 175 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns. So we're excited to get back to work, had a really good bye week. I think we were able to accomplish the things that we wanted to accomplish. We went out, we stayed sharp last week, we practiced, we did the things we needed to do to start looking ahead to Missouri. But we were really able to get the guys some good rest, some good recovery time, a lot of treatment, which you need at this point in the season. Came back today in the right mindset to get back after it. And so we're excited to go down to Missouri and play another top-20 team on the road in the SEC. It'll be a huge challenge and we'll certainly have to get our guys ready to play our best football to have a chance."
Looking at some of the stats from Mario's time at Mississippi State, they used him to go deep a lot. How did y'all know and formulate that he's a guy that you can just get the ball into his hands and he's able to make them miss tackles and things like that?
"I think practice always kind of reveals that stuff. You guys have been out there a little bit. Practice for us is extremely intense, and so you get a really good look at what kids are capable of when you kind of watch them go through Spring ball and Fall camp. We realized how twitchy and athletic he was. We realized he was a kid who could really do a lot with the ball in his hands. I think maybe in the beginning of the year you started to realize how elusive he was at getting himself out of tackles. I don't know how much that showed up until we started playing people for real. Obviously he's a really talented player and you want your talented players to have the ball in their hands and space as much as you can."
Any missed tackles, broken tackles that stand out to you the most this season?
"For sure the Notre Dame game (where) he makes that play on that sideline. I don't think there's a lot of people that I've been around that get out of that tackle with the power to get out of it and the balance to stay on their feet and finish that thing into the end zone."
Is this weekend similar to the beginning of the season when preparing for a quarterback where there's not a lot of film this late in the year?
"I think the only difference is I don't know how much you can change the structure of the offense when you get to this part in the season. They're coming off a bye week and I'm sure they'll have their wrinkles and then build the thing around him as best they can. But you've got 10 other guys out there who have 8 games of experience playing in a certain system, a certain kind of way. It's hard to deviate that. I'm sure what they'll do is try to tailor it to him, to what he does well, what he's really capable of, and I'm sure anticipate that the 10 guys around him will step up and support him and he'll go out and play a really good game with those guys as a as a tremendous supporting cast for him."
Different question, but college football playoffs, this expanded version's only a year old. Do you have a set strategy, if you will, for peaking then as it could be half the season at this point? You still have a long way to go if it goes the way you want it to go.
"No, I don't think so. And somebody asked me that last week, too, in terms of the peaking part. It's such a hard thing to gauge. You certainly don't go into the season when you look at, okay, we've got to go to South Bend in week three. We're going to identify week nine as when we want to peak. I think you're trying to push this growth mindset in your program that we've got to come out of the blocks ready to go. No team is their best version in the start of the season. You want to really be a team that grows every single week and really understands that the best teams and the teams that are standing at the end get significantly better as the year goes on. And then you hopefully get into this month of November where everything's at stake and you understand the urgency of that better maybe than we did last year and you continue to see that growth through the month of November…which then I think leads to people talking about, oh, it looks like they're peaking. But I think it really kind of just step ladders all the way through the season if you do it the right way."
Two questions about Missouri's offense. On the tape that you have on (Matt) Zollers, what has stood out to you about the way he's played quarterback in the time he has?
"There's obviously not a ton of film. We go back and watch his high school stuff, watch the part that he played in the Vanderbilt game. Obviously he's a talented kid. I think he throws the ball really well. The ball jumps out of his hands. You can see that. So I anticipate him being able to make all of the throws and see what he can do with his feet. He's an athletic kid. I think he'll present a lot of challenges to us."
And then they're leading the conference in rushing and (Ahmad) Hardy's leading the way. What have you seen from him and maybe that offensive line that's just made them so effective running the ball this year?
"He's a really talented back. He big, he's powerful. He runs through tackles. I think you see that consistently. He's always leaning forward, and so he always gets more than is blocked. That's obviously a testament to being a really good running back. Systematically they do a really good job of running the football. I think that's the kind of the blueprint of an Eli Drinkwitz offense is they're gonna base it out of the stretch run game. They're going to have the complimentary pieces of it, but you go all the way back to NC State and that's the one thing that stays the most consistent throughout his time. They have a really, really strong system in how they run the football that they're committed to and they do it really, really well."
When you have success, you get a lot of end of the year nominations for big awards for individuals on the team. Do you address that at all within the group and with the guys that are up for all these big end of the year awards?
"No, I don't think we talk about it. I talk about this always, and I think this is so critical in a lot of these conversations, but I have two jobs here. The head football coach doesn't talk about those things at all. He doesn't talk to players about individual awards. He doesn't talk about those types of things. Those things are completely irrelevant to the job at hand, right? The job at hand is to figure out how to play our best football Saturday against Missouri and none of that stuff is going to have anything to do with that. Then there's the CEO part of my job that it's my responsibility to push our players for those awards, right?
Behind the scenes with our media team, with our branding team, we want to make sure that we're doing the things as a program and as a university that we need to do for people to become aware of the types of seasons some of our guys are having because it matters. It matters that our players get the recognition that they deserve for playing the way that they play. And those two things then become intermingled, because in order for them to win any of those awards they're going to have to play the next four games at a really high level--which means they're going to have to focus on one game at a time and the preparation and what it takes to go out and play really, really good football on Saturday. You kind of blend it all together that way."
You're facing a defense here that's top five in the conference in a lot of categories. Does the bye week help to kind of get that extra week to kind of work or does it really matter and the plan is what it is?
"It's interesting because when they have the bye week too, it probably is kind of a balance. We're going to look hard and look harder at what they do. They're going to have more time to adjust what they do. So those two things go hand in hand. I think it becomes a big advantage if you have a bye week and they don't, right? And you get two weeks to prepare and they only have four or five days. When you're working on the same timeline it helps, but you also then have to be ready for what adjustments or what changes or what wrinkles are you going to see because they had the extra time to get ready as well."
You talked about your team playing with a sense of urgency. Teams like Missouri that you're playing, they are desperate for wins. While mathematically you guys aren't, it seems like your team has been playing--I don't know if desperate is the word--but with a sense of urgency. What do you attribute that to?
"Yeah, I think we are desperate. I tell them all the time, we have earned everything that we've got, right? We've got a record, we've got a ranking, we've got opportunities that we have worked really, really hard to earn. And every single Saturday someone's coming in and trying to take all of that from us. That's the urgency that we have. In terms of Missouri--this is the challenge that you have in college football today, they're still very much alive for the playoff. This is a playoff game for them. They obviously know they're going to have to win out in order probably to get in. So this is a huge opportunity for them at home on a big stage to make a statement that they're going to go chase a spot in the playoff. There's a lot more of that nowadays than there's been in the past when only two or four teams were making the playoffs. So in a lot of ways, this is a playoff game on Saturday in Columbia."
One thing you've really pressed over the season is mindset, not worrying about the past. Coming off this bye week, what's the biggest difference mindset-wise you've seen from the players and I guess your fellow coaches as well?
"It's hard to tell if there's a difference. The differences always seem to show up on Saturday. I think we understand where we're at. I think we understand the task at hand. I think we understand to be in the moment and to focus on being in the moment. But all of that's got to play itself out on Saturday."
Coach Bateman talked a little bit last week about loving the intensity and attitude that Cashius Howell plays with on the defense. How have you seen that attitude from your entire defense as a whole grow throughout the season?
"The more at times that they've been able to have success, success breeds confidence, and confidence allows you to play with a little bit more of a swagger. And I think there's a consistency to all of that that we're still searching and looking for. Certainly when we are able to get rolling like we have at times this year you see that confidence build and that energy build, and that's when we're playing at our best. The challenge to those guys is to go do that consistently start to finish from the beginning to the end of a game. We've done it at times, but probably not enough yet."
What do you think you guys got out of this past bye week in terms of what you guys focused on and just how fresh would you say you guys are compared to just typical point of this season?
"I think we got rest and recovery, that was the goal. In terms of how fresh we are, I don't know. Obviously energy is high because of the situation that we're in. If we were 3-5, I'm sure we would feel more tired. We would feel more fatigued. We wouldn't have as much energy going about our daily business. That plays a role for sure. It's hard to compare how fresh we really are, but certainly the bye came at a really good time for us as we head into this November stretch and it was good to kind of unplug and recharge."
It's been a few weeks, is there an updated timetable that you expect Le'Veon Moss to come back?
"No, not yet."
You think the regular season's a possibility at all?
"Yeah. The timeline is still exactly what we anticipated from the beginning. It's still too early to tell whether that's going to move or not. We're hopeful that by the end of the regular season we'll have a chance to get them back out there. Certainly we feel very confident for anything beyond the end of the regular season, if that presents itself. It's just still a little bit too early to tell how that will be and how it'll respond."
Talk about the challenges that the Missouri offense is going to create for your defense…
"They're really talented. They do a really good job. They're coached exceptionally well. They're really good on the line of scrimmage. They've got a really talented back. They've got an elite wide receiver. And they've got really good tight ends. We're on the road, and they're really good."
You had two freshmen out there on defense for critical points against LSU, Marco Jones and Noah Mikhail. Obviously these were guys that were highly rated coming out of high school but can you talk a little bit about how they've impressed you with their rapid development?
"I think it's a testament to how much better you can get during the season if you continue to put your head down and work, and that's been really cool to see from both of those guys.
Both of them have had different packages or different roles at different times throughout the year. Noah's has kind of been a third backer at opportunities or times where we've needed a third backer on the field. Noah's really been able to step in and fill that role for us.
They got into some multiple tight end packages inside the red zone and that gave him an opportunity and obviously he went out there and made the most of it. He's a kid that just continues to get better every single week and gets more and more comfortable in the base down system and in what we're trying to do. He's certainly a kid that we have a lot of confidence in. And then Marco has kind of been like, and I don't want to use the word 'role player' because that doesn't do the justice that it deserves, but a guy that has gotten in there for your handful of snaps here and there and giving us rush and as drives extend he becomes a rally guy for us. He's another kid that we have a lot of confidence going to whenever we need to. I think just with the way the snap counts were he was out there at a critical time in the LSU game."
Via The Pulse we got a sneak peek at your halftime speech at LSU…how proud are you of the way your guys responded?
"Yeah, I don't remember anything I said at halftime. I think this, and I'm chuckling a little bit because of this…I think we have done a really, really good job at times this year of responding. When things weren't going our way, when we needed to step up and elevate our game and make plays, we've done that, right? We did it at Notre Dame. We certainly did it a bunch on offense in Arkansas. We did it on defense at Auburn. We did it in the second half against LSU. My chuckle a little bit is I kind of wish at times we would stop putting ourselves into some of those positions. Some of the reasons why we have to respond is because of some of the things that we still do to ourselves. The inner competitor kind of wants us to stop doing that. But again, we'll probably never be to the level I want us to be. I have a very, very high standard. The kids know that. So when we do get into those situations where we need to make plays, we've responded in a really positive way."
No one coming into the year expected the offensive line to be really good and they have been. Over the last several games has it been just continued consistency or have you seen a surge or a spike in their performance?
"I think you're seeing them play to the level we believe they were capable of. They're a veteran group. They were excited to get into SEC play, and I think that was part of what we went through a little bit at the beginning of the year. No disrespect to anybody, but I think there was some big games on the schedule, some games that our guys were looking forward to. And we kind of built our way into the season, it felt like a little bit, in terms of how well we were playing. And as we've hit the part of the season where it's full all-in SEC play, and the line of scrimmage is critical, our offensive line has elevated to that challenge. You've seen them go out and play really well. Now they have a massive challenge in front of them this (week). This is the best defensive line that we've seen to date. They're an extremely talented group. They've got two of the best end rushers in the country. We're going to have our hands full on Saturday in Columbia."
Would you think for an offensive line is a greater asset experience or physicality?
"Oh, I'll take physicality over experience all the time. You're experienced, but I don't think I'm going to play you at right tackle this week because I don't think you have the physicality that we need (laughter). Physicality wins out. But no, the physicality is such a huge piece of this conference, right? Your ability to run the ball, your ability to create clean pockets. That's the thing that in the last few weeks you've seen at a really high level is how clean the pocket has been for Marcel. And then obviously he plays a role with his athleticism. When the pocket does break down, he can make things happen. But I think the group is really playing well together, and the physicality is a huge piece of it. No disrespect (laughter)."
What kind of freedom does it give you as a play caller to have the kind of versatility in your safeties room that you do?
"I think it gives you a lot. What are we now, 21 games in I think? So you've got a really good feel for what those kids do well, what they're capable of doing. I think that always helps.
We're doing a better job putting those guys in positions to be successful because we have a really good feel on what they're good at and maybe what situations to try to keep them out of. So that helps. The versatility of skill set that that group has is really, really important and plays a big role in what we're doing."
Coach Bateman, what kind of advantages or changes have you noticed with him being on the field this season as opposed to last season?
"When you talk about in-game adjustments, creating the extra position, having Coach Hemphill come in and kind of be the box guy has allowed Jay the freedom to come down to the field. So now the linebackers see him in between every possession. He's also able to make the adjustments that are necessary across all 11 guys. That's been obviously something I know he's been really excited about because that allows us to adjust in game at a much higher level maybe than we were at times last year just because he had to be in the box and I really wasn't another option. I also think from a mentality and a temperament standpoint he does a really good job of having a pulse of making sure the energy and that stuff is at the level that needs to be. So that's always good having them on the sideline for that as well."
You've had a couple of punts blocked. Has that led to any personnel changes or schemes in how you protect?
"No. From our perspective, it's execution that needs to improve. I don't think that we've identified flaws in our system. I think we've identified flaws in how we've executed what we were trying to get accomplished. So like everything you continue to tinker and make sure that you put kids in the best possible position to be successful. It becomes execution as an all-encompassing thing, right? It's not just the players have to do it. We've got to make sure we're calling things and creating leverage and opportunities that allow us to go out and execute at the level we want to. But no, I don't think it's a mass reload or anything. We've just got to fix what we've got to clean up."
First College Football Playoff rankings come out tomorrow. How much do you pay attention to those or even what's said about why you're in the position that you might be in?
"Not at all."
What do you think is something that has separated y'all from other teams in the SEC that are trying to catch you in the standings?
"Um, we haven't lost yet (laughter). That would probably be a good starting point. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to compare yourself to other teams in the league. I'm just trying to figure out how to play good football on Saturday against Missouri."
I'm also curious, someone dressed up as you for Halloween at the volleyball game. What did you think about that?
"I told my kids and the family group chat afterwards that you know you've made it in life when people are dressing up as you during Halloween. I didn't realize the glasses have become such a big thing because I don't even realize that I'm wearing them anymore. But no, it's cool to see the support from the students. I appreciate how they've taken to me and to my family. It means a lot to me."
You've seen four of your colleagues get fired already this year. Any thoughts about, you know, what seems to be an increasingly quick trigger to get rid of guys that have otherwise had some fairly decent success?
"Yeah, I think you're giving a good platform for me to make a case for myself, so I'm going to do that right now. This is what I've said a lot about this, and I really, truly believe this. People are having a really hard time adjusting to what is becoming a new era of college football. If you look at the SEC, I was just reading some of these stats. I read somewhere that there's been like 27 one-score games in the SEC this year, more than we've had in a really long time. I think there were 6 games last week, 5 of them came down to one-score games. The parity in this conference is at an all-time high. When you look at it, week in and week out, people are still looking for the days when the best team went out and won by 40 every week and 12-0, 11-1 were kind of the standard of what was good. I think a lot of us as coaches have continued to try to preach that it's not the same feeling anymore. It doesn't feel like that's what's really good. What's really good is finding a way to win enough games to get yourself into the playoff where you have a chance to go make a run at this thing. I just think that's how modern college football is. Much like you see in the NFL happen, you see more spikes and swings. Team makes the Super Bowl, maybe doesn't make the playoff the next year. Bounces back and goes to the Super Bowl. You see that consistently at times in the NFL because of the parity, because of how hard it is to win. That's what's creeping into college football and I'm not sure that everyone from a fan base, from a supporter, has identified that. And so, my opportunity to maybe preach."
We've talked about the physicality that this defensive line has shown this year and last year too, but what is it about Coach Spencer that's made him so successful seemingly to develop all this talent?
"I think it's a collaborative group. Obviously he does a really good job with the culture and the energy in the room. We made a little bit of a shift to get Coach Stan Watson a little bit more involved with our edges this year. That's paid off at a really high level. And then what coach Tony Jerod-Eddie brings to the table is really good too. And so we've got three really good football coaches in that room and they collectively do a really, really good job with their piece of building the culture, the physicality, the toughness that we're looking for."
(Volleyball) Coach (Jamie) Morrison made a comment that he feels like it's a really special deal here at A&M with all the head coaches and how they're all supporting each other. Do you kind of feel that and would you just speak upon that?
"I think we all kind of identify what it's like to be a coach in these high levels. We all have aspirations for our programs to be elite. We talk about culture within our program, and it's as important that we have culture within our department. It's all the same, and we're all extremely competitive. We all want what's best for us, but we also want what's best for everybody else too, and you want to see everybody else succeed. So when coaches can get together collaboratively in an athletic department and do that it certainly makes it a lot easier for us to get in front of our team and ask for the same thing from them. A lot has been made about me and what I've done, but honestly I'm just a big sports fan. I enjoy being at sporting events. I enjoy supporting our teams. I don't do it for show. I do it because I appreciate what they're doing and what they're putting into it. Any chance I get to go out and support, I love to take it."
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