Aggies Hold Missouri Week Press Conference
Sep 30, 2024 | Football
Texas A&M held its weekly press conference on Monday as the Aggies begin preparation for Saturday's game against No. 9 Missouri. Joining Mike Elko were quarterback Marcel Reed and defensive back BJ Mayes.
Quotables: Mike Elko
OPENING COMMENT:
Thank you guys for coming out today. Just to kind of recap the weekend, we'll start with our players of the week. Offensive line, it was Trey Zuhn again. He continues to be the anchor of our front. Played a really, really good game again. Excited with how he continues to develop. Defensively, we went with Nic Scourton. Kind of wreaked havoc. Two sacks, obviously the strip sack to win us the football game at the end. So I thought he stepped into his own. Players of the week, offensively we went with Le'Veon Moss, over 100 yards again. Doing a really nice job for us in the running game. Defensively, obviously Nic is a part of this, but we went with Dezz Ricks. Stepping in his first game as a starter I thought he played really, really well. And then on special teams obviously Tyler White had a phenomenal game and he was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. Excited for him.
I think when you recap it, we won the turnover battle 3-0. That's going to win you a lot of football games. I thought defensively we were really happy with the way our defensive line played. I thought they controlled the run game as well as the pocket. Didn't really let the quarterback get comfortable back there. Didn't let him escape either. And those two things are a really hard job. I thought we took a step in the secondary. We got our hands on a lot of footballs, made some plays back there. Still work to do to clean up some things. And certainly some areas we can get better and improve, for sure.
I think offensively, probably most proud of the responses. If you look at the game, you know we got down 7-0. We responded. We got down 14-7. We responded. We got down 17-14. And it was the next drive that we responded. I think it was what happened in the middle. We just kind of got into a little bit of a rut and couldn't get out of it. Obviously we've got to take a hard look at ourselves, what we're doing, what we're calling, the best situations we're putting kids in...again it comes down to that focus level to be able to consistently do the things over a long period of time. I think that's still an area we have to get better. I thought we were good in the red zone game. Two-for-two in touchdowns. I thought that was really good. Still got to find ways to get a little bit more explosive in the passing game. I thought we finished the day 3-for-3 in the fourth quarter. I thought we put together three really big drives in the fourth quarter, which was important. And so that was good.
Special teams, I'll own the punt problem. We'll get that caught better and fixed and corrected. Outside of that, I thought we had a pretty good day on special teams. Obviously, we punted the ball nine times, which you don't ever want to do. But he hit six of them on the ten or inside the 10. So I thought we controlled field position with our kicking game. I thought the effort and strain on kickoff coverage, even though they were all touchbacks...we kind of chart miles per hour and how fast everybody's running down the field. And that was our best day by far running down the field the way we want to. Then on the punt return unit, we've still just got to find some ways to to create space for Terry. I think that's something we continue to try to find, different ways to create opportunities for him to get going.
So that's Arkansas. We brought the trophy home, and so that's hopefully the end of that series up in Dallas. And that trophy will stay here for a while. So we're excited about that.
ON SATURDAY'S OPPONENT, MISSOURI:
Turning our attention now to Missouri, obviously a really talented team, a 4-0 team, top-10 in the country. Eli Drinkwitz has been there for a while. A lot of respect for him. Known him for a long time, going all the way back to when he was the offensive coordinator at NC State and I was at Wake Forest, and that was the first time we went head to head with each other. Just a lot of respect for who he is, how he runs a program, what they do.
Offensively, they're a top-20 national offense. They're seventh in the country on third down. So another really good third-down unit. I think it all starts with the quarterback, Brady Cook. I think he's extremely talented. Can throw the ball all over the field. Makes plays with his feet. Extends drives. Makes plays on third down. Has enough athleticism to do some things running the football. I don't know that I would label him a dual threat, but he makes plays with his feet a lot more than I think people give him credit for. And he's such a winner. He plays the game the right way. And so you can see why he's been really successful for them. They've got an outstanding wide receiver corps. Obviously, Luther Burden is the headliner. He went over 1,200 yards last year, is on pace to do the same thing again this year. An electric kid, they play him in the slot primarily. Theo (Wease Jr.) we're very familiar with. He's having another outstanding year for them. And then Mookie Cooper lines up on the outside. So three outstanding wide receivers. Seems like they always go in the transfer portal to find a running back. And they did it again with Nate Noel, who's having an outstanding year. So they're really good. And then they've got a ton of experience on the offensive line. They've got three guys who are in their third year as starters. It's a really good group.
Defensively, they're eighth in the country in scoring defense, third in the country in total defense. And so again, playing at a really high level. They've got a really big physical front, probably going to be the best one we've seen to this point. They're really athletic at linebacker. They run sideline to sideline and are really talented on the back end. Toriano Pride is an elite corner...we tried multiple times to try to get him here. He's just a really good football player. And then obviously Dre Norwood was a kid that was here in our program, and we have a lot of respect for him as a player. So it's a talented group. It's going to be another big national stage here in Kyle Field. We're excited for the opportunity in turning the page forward.
MIKE, AS A DEFENSIVE COACH, YOU'VE PREPARED OVER THE YEARS FOR STAR PLAYERS AND GUYS YOU'D LIKE TO HOLD DOWN. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH GUYS LIKE LUTHER BURDEN WHO CAN CHANGE A GAME REALLY QUICKLY ON SATURDAY?
Yeah, I think each team presents their different challenges. And you know with this one it's really challenging because you've got an elite runner in the running back room. You've got two other really talented receivers in Theo (Wease Jr.) and Mookie Cooper. And so it creates some challenges. I think that's what allows Burden to be as successful as he is. It's not a one man show. And it's not just, oh, okay, hey, we're going to stop him at all costs and not worry about anybody else on the field. So you've got to obviously be aware of him, know where he is and know how you're leveraging him and making sure that you've got as much help as possible most of the time. But at the end of the day--as special of a player he is, and he's truly special....I mean, he'll be one of the first wide receivers taken in this year's draft--it's a really talented offense, which makes it challenging.
NIC (SCOURTON) TOLD US AFTER THE GAME THAT HE FELT LIKE THE DEFENSE PLAYED WELL, BUT JUST STILL A NEED TO CUT DOWN THE BIG PLAYS. WHEN YOU'VE GONE BACK AND JUST WATCHED THE TAPE THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU SEE THAT YOU GUYS ARE TRYING TO CORRECT TO LIMIT THOSE MOVING FORWARD?
It's been a huge focus on communication. That's the biggest thing. And making sure that we're on the same page across the board with what we're doing. I think Saturday the big play was, at least, not communication. They ran a route, we covered the route, the quarterback extended the play. The route broke off. It was actually the clear route. It wasn't even part of the progression. But he broke off, we lost him when he broke, and he got separation on Jay Hill and wound up making a good throw and catch. And so, we don't want those things to happen, but at least we were on the same page with how we were trying to execute the coverage. That's where the consistency I think comes from. And again, I still think, in the kids' defense, you're still doing it all. I don't mean to keep coming back to this, but you are. like, this was no different when I was here in 2018. We gave up way more explosive plays on defense in 2018 than we did on 2019. We made a massive jump forward in 2019. I'm not suggesting we have to wait a whole year to get where we want to go, but sometimes it just takes time to get all of the opportunities in the system to communicate the way you want to. I think we're getting better. I think we're getting more comfortable. I thought we were much better across the board, but still some areas we've got to fix and clean up.
CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RED ZONE SCORING THIS WEEK? TWO-FOR-TWO IN THERE IN A GAME THAT FIELD GOALS WOULD HAVE MAYBE TIED THE GAME OR LOST THE GAME, BUT YOUR ABILITY TO PUT IT IN WITH YOUR PLAY CALLING AND EXECUTION.
We talk about only a couple things when it talks about winning football, and when we talk about it offensively it's converting money downs and and scoring touchdowns in the red zone. And those things are critical. We work four-point plays, which are third downs inside the red zone, every Monday, every Wednesday, every Thursday. And so we put a huge emphasis on that area of the field, trying to make sure we know how to put the ball in the end zone when we get down there. You don't always get it right, but I think we've been in two big games where we've gotten it right and it's helped us certainly win games.
HOW DID YOU SEE JAYDON (HILL) RESPOND TO GIVING UP THAT FIRST BIG PLAY? AND THEN WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM BJ (MAYES), MOVING AND PLAYING SOME NICKEL?
I thought the response was really good. And you need that when you're a secondary player. It's the most lonely position on the field sometimes because every time you get beat, everybody on the planet knows it was you. And so the response was good. I thought he bounced back. I thought he did the things that you would like to see him do. And I think that was good to see.
And then, I said this in the locker room to the team after the game, BJ Mayes...when things like that happen, you have to stop and point them out. You know, here's a kid who wanted to be the starting corner, gets nicked up, doesn't go into the opener as a starting corner, doesn't play the amount of reps maybe he wants to play in the first couple games. We lose Tyreek and so we go to him and say hey, here's an opportunity for you. You haven't taken a snap at nickel yet, but we think this is a chance for you to really enhance your role. And he jumps all over it, spends a ton of extra time meeting, learning it, learning all the things he needs to learn. And, I thought the last two games he's been out there on third down, and last game we were able to get him out on first and second down a little bit more too. That's been a huge help for us.
LE'VEON MOSS JUST HIT 1,000 CAREER RUSHING YARDS. WHAT HAS LED HIM TO BE SO CONSISTENT AND EFFECTIVE THIS SEASON?
I think he had an unbelievable offseason. I chuckled a lot at some of the things that were written in the offseason regarding him because he's been one of our hardest workers since the day I got here. Hasn't missed a workout. I think he's really changed his body. I think he would tell you he feels much better from a physical stature, strength, stamina standpoint than he ever has. And I think that's allowed him to go out there and practice a lot more consistently...that's tightening down his lines, his angles, his entry points into the run game. Those things I think have helped him be more consistent. And he's got unbelievable physical ability. He always has. And so then you see him get out in space and run the way he runs and that's something that certainly God gave him. We didn't have a lot to do with that part of it.
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