Aggies Hold Las Vegas Bowl Preview Press Conference

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, captain Taurean York and quarterback Marcel Reed met the media on Tuesday as the Aggies discussed the upcoming SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl.

Quotables: Mike Elko

OPENING COMMENT:

I want to just start by saying another thank you to Dave Clawson. Obviously, he had his press conference this morning stepping away. Anybody who knows me knows how important Dave has been and how much he's impacted me and my family's life. And so it's a sad day, but it's also a happy day because I know he's doing what he feels like is right for him and his family. And so just a special thank you once again to him and everything that he has done for me to kind of help me get where I'm at in my career. In terms of what's going on around here, not much (laughter). No, it's about as busy a two weeks as you can get, between roster management and the portal and finishing up the last recruiting class and getting ready for a bowl game that we're all excited to play against USC out in Las Vegas. Things are crazy.

WE SEE THAT IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOW IT'S NOT UNCOMMON FOR SIGNIFICANT NUMBERS TO OPT OUT OF A BOWL GAME. SO WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR GUYS, FOR THE MOST PART, HAVE DECIDED TO PLAY?

Again, I think it probably speaks to culture. When you talk about kids who've exhausted their eligibility, I think each one of them has a choice to make. And we sit down and we kind of talk them through it, and I don't think it's possible to make a hard stance on it because each kid has his own objective. And so for some of our seniors, I think there's an opportunity for them to go out there and have a really big game against a name brand like USC and boost their status moving forward into an NFL offseason. For some of them, it didn't make sense to play any more games. I just think it's an individual basis...I think our kids trust in the culture here. They trust in the coaches. They trust in what we're saying. And so for the kids who it's beneficial for them to play, I think they understand that and believe in that.

THE PLAYERS SEEM EXCITED ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SUIT UP AT LEAST ONE MORE TIME THIS SEASON. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT MENTALITY AND JUST THE FEELING IN THAT LOCKER ROOM OF THE GUYS WHO ARE GETTING ONE MORE CHANCE, AND MAYBE GUYS WHO ARE GETTING A REAL GOOD CHANCE FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR?

I think when you talk about--and this is how we talked about it with the team--when you're trying to build a championship program and you're trying to build a championship team, that journey doesn't stop, you know? And so in order to become a really good football team, you have to play football really well consistently over a long period of time. And the Las Vegas Bowl is another opportunity for our team to go through game preparation, go out onto a field, play another opponent, play for a trophy, all of those things. Just because it's a bowl game it doesn't mean that the journey stops or, oh, it's just a bowl game and we can go out there and not play well and then just start over again. It doesn't work like that. We talk about that a lot in our building. It's a mentality of what we're trying to do around here, build a championship team. Obviously it's a great opportunity to go out and play a big school on the West Coast, and it's a Big Ten/SEC matchup. Those matchups mean stuff. It's kind of, in our opinion, the first game moving forward to the 2025 season. And it'll kind of launch the offseason one way or the other.

USC IS A TEAM THAT A&M HASN’T PLAYED IN 50 YEARS. IS IT EXCITING TO GET TO BE A PART OF TWO BIG PROGRAMS COMING TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE?

Yeah, I think so. I think when you get a bowl game, location and venue matters, right? Obviously going to Las Vegas, playing in the Raiders’ stadium? That's a cool venue. It's a great opportunity in that regard. Matchup matters, and so does playing a brand in the Big Ten like USC. Certainly with our recruiting on the West Coast and how we've crossed paths with those guys, I think it's a really cool opportunity and a really cool game. So we're excited to go out there and play.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GAME PLAN FOR A TEAM LIKE USC OR WHOMEVER YOU PLAY IN A BOWL GAME WHEN THEY'RE DEALING WITH THE SAME STUFF THAT EVERYBODY IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS DEALING WITH AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO'S GOING TO BE OUT THERE FOR THEM?

I think bowl games now are going to start to play very much like openers. When you go into an opener, you kind of have a general gauge on what you think you're looking at. But you've got to go into every opener ready to adapt because you're going to have to figure it out a little bit on the fly. I think bowl games now are very similar, how they decide to adjust to their new personnel, how we decide to adjust to our new personnel. All of that is going to kind of impact the start of the game. So I think you're going to have a plan and a baseline of what you think you need to do, but you're going to have to be really flexible and ready to adjust as the thing moves on.

WHEN YOU LOOK AT WHAT USC WANTS TO DO OFFENSIVELY AND DEFENSIVELY, DO THEY REMIND YOU OF A TEAM THAT MAYBE YOU PLAYED OR IS THAT WAY OFF IN LEFT FIELD TOO?

No, I think offensively they're a little bit unique. Obviously Coach Riley has kind of come from the Coach Leach tree and expanded that on his own level and has been doing a really good job running offense for a long time. That system's always a little bit unique and different, so I don't know that there's anything that really marries it completely in this conference. Obviously having worked with Coach Henson and Coach Huard for a while here, there's some familiarity with those guys and some of the thoughts and philosophies that they have. But, no, I think it's a little bit of a of a unique offense for sure.

Defensively, they've done a really good job. Coach Lynn I knew a little bit when he was with the Houston Texans. We spent a day together up here when I was a defensive coordinator. He's done a really good job of creating a baseline structure for what they want to do fundamentally. I think they've gotten better from last year to this year, significantly, on defense. They'll present us challenges for sure.

TO FOLLOW UP ON JOSH HENSON, WHAT WAS HE LIKE WHEN HE WAS WITH YOU HERE AND WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE LIKE GOING UP AGAINST ANOTHER COACH THAT YOU'VE SHARED SIDELINES WITH BEFORE?

From a game standpoint, I think it's a lot different. Obviously he was the offensive line coach here for Coach Fisher. And so that was Coach Fisher's offense. Now it's Coach Henson kind of putting a blend together with Coach Riley of what the two of them want to do. That part makes it completely different. The neat thing when you go out to bowl games with people that you've worked with or people that you know is the families can reconnect with some of the events in the week leading up to the game. It'll be good to see some of the people that were here in the past.

WITH MARCEL REED KIND OF ESTABLISHING HIMSELF AS A LEADER IN THE QUARTERBACK ROOM THIS YEAR, BUT STILL REALLY YOUNG, HOW IMPORTANT IS A GAME LIKE THIS FOR HIM?

I think it's a good opportunity for him to start to step forward as QB1. And I think obviously this year was challenging for the quarterback spot. There was a lot of up and down in terms of how it played itself out. Marcel is a young kid and we have a tremendous amount of confidence in what he'll be in the future and certainly what he'll be next year. So this is an opportunity for him to get a lot of reps as QB1 clearly, and go into this bowl season with this being his team and go out and play the game next Friday night.