Elko, Aggies Meet Media at Weekly Press Conference
Sep 02, 2024 | Football
Mike Elko, Conner Weigman, WR Cyrus Allen and DB Marcus Ratcliffe met the media on Monday at the Aggies' second weekly press conference of the season. The group discussed the loss to Notre Dame and looked ahead to the game against McNeese on Saturday morning at Kyle Field.
Quotables: Mike Elko
OPENING COMMENT:
Certainly a disappointing loss, one where we felt like we had an opportunity to really set this season off on a really good foot and just were unable to get it done. I think when you go back and watch the film, offensively, obviously we struggled in the passing game. I think what we went back and evaluated, obviously it starts with us. I think we've got to try to find some ways to create better opportunities for our kids to get open and get vertical down the field and make plays.
And then in regards to Conner, I think the thing we just talked to him about, it looked like his feet just never got settled. Maybe some of the past residue kind of showcased itself in his first time back. He had much cleaner pockets than I think he played like. I think his feet just got out of control underneath him a little bit. I think that caused a lot of his inaccuracies. When you watched him settle his feet at different times, which didn't happen a lot, but when it did happen, he was able to deliver the ball the way he's capable of. On the interception he threw to Noah, probably one of the most noticeable examples, his feet just kind of were all over the place. And so, he knows it. He saw it. He's confident in the corrections he needs to make and have a great week of practice and put himself in position to make the improvements we need to make. And it certainly isn't all on him by any stretch of the imagination. We've still got to do a better job throughout the game of keeping pressure off of him. We've still got to do a better job throughout the game of creating separation and running routes. And we've got to get the passing game on track. We know that.
Defensively, I thought for most of the game we played the way we wanted to. I thought there were two really critical stretches in the second half that we didn't play to the best of our ability, and it ultimately cost us the game. We had them backed up on the 1st-and-25 and, you know, back-to-back plays we gave up an 11-yard pass and then the long run for the touchdown. And that's something we've got to get better at. That's probably the one area we looked at, as coaches, is what we're doing on second and off schedule. That was probably the one down and distance we really struggled the most defensively. And then, we had them 3rd-and-5 on that last drive of the game and didn't make the play. It felt like maybe we started pressing at that point and really gave up some uncharacteristic runs, all the way down to the final touchdown.
So hats off again to Notre Dame. They made the plays to win it, and we didn't. And so now we've got to go back to work. And we've got to figure out how to close that gap.
ON SATURDAY'S OPPONENT, McNEESE:
Obviously a school that has some connections to Texas A&M. I think when you look at these types of teams, the biggest thing to note is just they're going to be at their best. This is their opportunity to come play on the big stage. Kids are competitors, and they're certainly going to rise to that challenge. And so we certainly anticipate their best football game.
Offensively they're an 11-personnel group. They spread it out. They're an RPO team. They're led by quarterback Clifton McDowell, who led Montana State to an FCS national championship appearance last year. He's a dual threat kid. He's their leading rusher as well. He's completing 63% of his passes. And so he kind of makes the offense go. At tailback, they've got a big kid, D'Angelo Durham, who's been around for a while. He's 6-1, 210. He's averaging over six yards a carry at this point. Wideouts, tight ends are kind of a mix of returning players and Power 5 transfers. So they're still trying to kind of sort through that. They're playing a lot of guys at both of those positions. (On the offensive line) Three of their five returning starters are back. And so it's an experienced group up front.
Defensively, they've been really good through two games. They're very similar structure-wise to what we do and what we play. They've got an experienced front coming back. Three of their four starters return. They had a linebacker, Micah Davie, who led the nation in tackles last year with over 150 tackles. He's already got 31 in two games coming into this one. Their secondary, like their wideouts, is a mix of returning starters and kids who have transferred in. So they're trying to sort that group out still. And then they've got a punter who's punted nine times and is averaging 50 yards a punt. Certainly some pieces on there on the roster that we need to respect and prepare for.
But at the end of the day, just like last week, it's going to be about us. It's going to be about us playing this game to our standard and making the improvements we need to make going into week two to get this thing where we want it to go.
WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU AND YOUR STAFF THIS WEEK AFTER THE GAME SATURDAY NIGHT?
It's the same challenge we've been embarking on, which is continuing to look internally at our own faults, figuring out what we're not doing to get the results that we want, and continuing to make improvements to do that. The challenge I laid out to the kids was, if you have 150 people, say, in our organization, they all look in the mirror and see the areas in which they can improve this thing, and we get 150 people better going into next Saturday, we'll be on the course we want to be on to have the season we want to have. If 150 people in our building point the finger at someone else as to why things didn't go the way we wanted them to go, then we make no progress and then the results will continue to be the results. And so I just think it's still that same mindset of we're not where we want to be. The only way to get there is to continue to work and continue to strain and do that from an internal lens. I think maybe in the past we've been very quick to externalize failure. It happened because of this, which is not my fault. I think in order to grow, it has to be my fault. Like it has to be my fault as the head football coach that we didn't beat Notre Dame. And I've got to figure out how to fix that. That's how we've got to attack this.
DID PLAYING SUCH A QUALITY OPPONENT LIKE NOTRE DAME POSSIBLY SHOW YOU SOME WEAKNESSES THAT YOU DIDN'T THINK YOU HAD, MAYBE A SILVER LINING TO THE LOSS?
Yeah, I certainly don't take any silver linings in it, but to your point, when you play those big games in the opener, you always figure out where you're at. I don't know that I would say 'weaknesses', but when you go into camp, you have a feel, but you never...like if you're being honest with yourself, you never really know, you know? How good is the defensive line? How not good is the offensive line? How does that balance it out, right? How good are the running backs? How not good is the tackling? You just you never really know where those levels are until you get into like competition against other people to truly evaluate it. And so when you play these games, you have to learn. And even if you win them, you have to learn. Because you've got to learn where you are, you've got to assess where you are. And, again, it's a 12-game season. So we've got to figure out how to get better. Ideally we'd be 1-0 talking about that. Unfortunately we're not. But we still have to find ways to get better.
THE CROWD WENT CRAZY WHEN Y'ALL CAME OUT TO POWER…WHAT WENT INTO DECIDING TO BRING THAT BACK AND HOW DID YOU KEEP THAT UNDER WRAPS FOR SO LONG?
Well, you guys have often asked me how my experience at Texas A&M has helped me. And one of the things I've learned over the years is if you don't want something to get out, don't tell anyone. And so, that's maybe where my experience at Texas A&M has helped me. So yeah, we were sitting on that one for a long time. That was something I know that was really important to this fan base. I know that's something that's really important in Kyle Field. And, I think when we had a change in leadership in the athletic department, we kind of felt like that was something we could we could bring back. And that's kind of when that got put in motion...I don't think I needed to ask the players what they wanted. And I didn't tell the players. I didn't ask them. I didn't tell them. I didn't ask anybody. I didn't tell anybody. I know what that song means to Kyle Field. And so we just brought it back.
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