Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: Samford

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 (10-0) close the home portion of the regular season with a non-conference matchup against Samford (1-10) on Saturday morning. SEC Network Plus will air the game at 11 a.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

"Starting with recapping the game, I always start with players of the week. Scout team players of the week were Solomon Williams on defense, Luke Braden on offense, and it was Blake Buntyn for our special teams. Lineman of the week, defensively we went with TJ Searcy. A lot of guys flashed and made a lot of flash plays. TJ I thought was the most consistent all day, holding the point in the run game. He's really kind of grown into that strong side defensive end role and is doing a really, really good job there for us. Chase Bisontis was our offensive lineman of the week. It certainly wasn't our best game for our front guys, but he we felt like had the best game. Players of the week, KC Concepcion and Ashton Bethel-Roman split it on offense. It's the first time we've had two 100-yard receivers in a game since I think it was 2016. So it was exciting to see that, to see the production we could get through the air. Obviously we needed it in the second half. Defensively, it was Dalton Brooks. I thought he made a couple critical plays, maybe a little unheralded where he made the sack on the last drive when it was 2^nd-and-1 that knocked it back to whatever, it became 3^rd-and-10 and really kind of got them off schedule. And I think that ultimately paved the way for us to end that drive and win the game. And then special teams player of the week was Tyler White, net punting of 44 yards. He did a much better job punting the football and that was good to see.

"Recapping the game, I think it was a little bit of what we talked about in the postgame. I think we started okay. If you look at the start of the game, the first two drives, it was kind of a little bit back and forth. Then we had the turnover for the touchdown, and from the turnover to the half was probably the worst football we've played in my tenure here, going all the way back probably as a defensive coordinator too. I think we were panicking. I think we were pressing. I think we were trying so hard to make things right that we just were making things worse. We just couldn't seem to get back into any type of rhythm. Either side of the ball had opportunities. We forced the turnover, we couldn't convert. We missed a kick. We gave up an 80-yard pass. As much as we've played complimentary football all year, we just didn't. We went into halftime, and I told the guys I was extremely proud of the locker room composure. There was a lot of positive talk. There was a lot of talk about what we needed to do. There wasn't a lot of arguing, there wasn't a lot of pointing fingers. There was just a sense of we've got to fix this. That was the first sign that there was a chance that we could come out and do something. And then obviously came out in the second half and made a lot of football plays and flipped the script on the game and got the crowd behind us. Once that starts happening in Kyle Field, anything can happen. That's kind of my story on how it went.

"Now we turn our attention ahead to Samford and an opportunity for us to get back to playing football at our standard. We talk a lot about playing to our standard, regardless of opponent. I told the guys this this morning. It's not something we've been good enough at. So this is an opportunity for us to take a maturity step and go out there and play the game at the level that we're capable of playing it regardless of who we're playing. That's gonna matter a lot, for me, in terms of how we approach this one. And then obviously with it being Senior Day, there's going to be a lot of kids walking across that field for the last time and that's a memory that they'll take with them forever. It's an opportunity for them to end their senior season undefeated at home, and that hasn't happened around here in a long time. I think it was the COVID year. But outside of the COVID year, it's been a long time since that's happened. It's a great chance, it's a great opportunity to keep this thing going."

Do you look at Saturday as this teachable moment with the best outcome possible, with this team being able to beat you in multiple ways, but now you've really put it all on display?

"Yeah, and I think this is probably something that needs to be said about it too. You can think back to a lot of our recent seasons, and you can point at games that we lost, that had we won would have completely changed the script on the season, right? Whether that was last year against Auburn or last year against Notre Dame, where we had chances in the fourth quarter and we didn't get the job done. And that ultimately was the reason why it was not as successful a season, right? I think if you look around, the thing that makes a season successful is your ability to make those plays in those moments to win football games. And that's what this team is doing. There's certainly lessons that we're trying to teach about trying to stay out of those situations, but if you look across the country, that's not really happening anywhere. Everybody's getting into these situations, these moments, where the teams that are going to have successful seasons are going to find ways to make plays and win games and the teams that aren't are going to find ways to lose them. I just think that's kind of where we're at right now in college football. So, yeah, for sure teachable moments about trying to stay out of those situations, but probably also pointing out that while you don't want those massive swoons--at the end of the day, we're probably going to wind up in more of those types of fourth-quarter situations than we want to. The resiliency to continue to find ways to win games is ultimately going to be what defines success in this program as we move forward."

When you look back at the tape and you watch Cashius Howell's play, you guys are doing an amazing job of not letting them know what he's gonna do. Just talk about his performance.

"Yeah, so let's not give us any credit for that. That's him. That play he made at the end of the game to win that football game…that is an elite level play, right? Obviously we dropped them and that was the scheme, but there's a lot of people that drop that guy in that spot and he doesn't make that play. That's just unbelievable awareness, unbelievable feel to close space and close the gap on the quarterback before he could get going. And then unbelievable feel to not yank the horse collar as he was kind of getting his hand around it. Great players can find ways to help you win football games and he certainly did that for us on Saturday."

How long had the contract been in the works and how much did that mean to you to kind of get that done and everything that was in it?

"It meant a lot. Meant a lot to see the commitment that the University had, not only to me--because it really was…I never felt like it was going to be about me. It was never going to get stuck on what I wanted. It was the commitment to the program, to the staff, to the support staff, to the auxiliary staff, to the players, to making sure that we could run this program in a way that I believe will allow us to continue to chase championships year in and year out. When I came here, we weren't in a position to create that type of situation for our program. With the success that we've had, we were able to kind of have some of those conversations. I'm thankful to all of the people behind the scenes who believed enough in what we were doing to match what we wanted for all of those areas to allow this thing to continue. It's really important."

And over the last few weeks, I know there were reports about schools being interested in you. How easy was this decision? Was that anything you entertained, or was this something you were pretty confident would get done all along?

"I've said this before. It's how we run our program. I want to value people because I believe they do a good job and I believe in what they're doing. That was the message to our administration. I don't want to have to come to you and say, this school…I don't do that. That's not who I am. That's not how I want to be. If you believe in this program and you believe in what we're doing, this is what we believe that belief should look like. And I think everybody just kind of agreed. I don't think there was much back and forth. Once we knew the university and the athletic department were willing to commit to the program the way they were, we were never going anywhere."

On the same thing, you kind of touched on it, but part of that is extended pool for your support staff, for your assistants. How important is that to make sure that as you increase in value that their value increases as well?

"It's critical. It's absolutely critical. One of the biggest things that we were able to get done was a bonus structure for the assistants that kind of married something similar to the bonus structure that I had. I thought one of the things that was not right was the bonus structure that I was going to receive had we qualified for the playoffs that was not on par with what the assistants…certainly I'm no more valuable to this thing than they are. We were able to get that done immediately, and so that'll go in effect immediately so that if this thing continues and we wind up getting rewarded with a playoff berth, those coaches who were a huge part of it will get rewarded at a very similar level. That was really important to me."

How do you evaluate where the place kicking is right now? And is Jared Zirkel back to full health?

"Yeah, Jared's back to full health. Randy's still our guy. We still have confidence in Randy. Obviously two big misses on Saturday, and those are things that we've got to try to get fixed. He had gone through a three or four-week spell where we had not missed a kick, and so felt like we had gotten into a better rhythm from where we were in the beginning of the year. And then those misses kind of came out of nowhere a little bit in the recent form. We'll continue to evaluate it and try to get back into a position and kind of see where it's at. But right now Randy's our guy moving forward."

You talked about this Saturday being an opportunity to kind of get back to play to your standard. Knowing what's ahead how do you get your team focused for Saturday? What challenges does that present? And then what do you want to see out of them with your final home game here?

"Hopefully at this point it doesn't present a lot of challenges. Hopefully at this point, with as close as we came on Saturday to letting this all go in another direction, we understand how important it is to come out of that locker room every single Saturday with the right frame of mind to compete and play. Then I think the message is simple: you're going to remember the last game you play in Kyle Field forever. And this is the last game we're guaranteed to play in Kyle Field. So let's go out and do it the right way and let's make sure it reflects who we are as a program and all the work that we've put in this thing to be successful."

You mentioned how it's senior day. For the group of guys that have been here their whole four years, came in a very heralded group, and it's a pretty small group now. What's stood out to you about the small bunch that has stuck it out here and is going to be playing their last game here?

"It's funny because you're right. There's not a ton of them left. There's probably a bigger mix of guys from the '21 class, when you think about guys like Deuce Fatheree and Trey Zuhn and Dametrious Crownover, and some of that group…Crownover might have been '22…but there's a blend now of kids. And so I think to all of those kids it's just a credit to who they are as people that one, they stuck through it, they endured a coaching change, they endured ups and downs. They endured failure. And they believed in what this new staff was preaching, not only to be a part of it, but also to kind of be the group that spearheaded this revival a little bit from a culture standpoint. It's a special group. It'll be a special group to me for as long as I'm the head football coach here. I just appreciate everything that they stand for and everything that they represent."

You talked a little bit about Nate Boerkircher after the game Saturday. Where do you feel like you guys have been able to get the most out of him? Statistically, it's been his most productive season in college.

"I think he's a really good player. He makes it easy. He's a pure tight end. I think having him and Theo on the field, both of those kids have the ability to do both. They can block, they can run routes, they can catch the ball. As attention starts kind of drifting away from that position and onto the talent that we have outside at wide receiver, they've gotten some favorable matchups here in the back part of the season and have just been able to take advantage of that. They're both really, really good players. Nate's a good football player."

Saturday, you talked about how good this team is when they remember their identity. Why do you think that gets away from them, and how do you remind them?

"Yeah, it's hard. You're dealing with 18- to 21-year olds. They're not by nature the most consistent group on the planet. That's not just Texas A&M football players. That's just 18- to 21-year olds everywhere. There's a lot of noise that goes into this thing and when you start having success, you got to make sure that you understand the process it takes to continue to have success. And it's really, really important. Our process is we're a blue collar group. We're a physical group. We play really hard. We lay it out there with a ton of energy and a ton of emotion. And if we ever walk away from that blueprint, it's going to be very hard for us to have success. That's just who we are at our core. Again, when you talk about getting away from it, I just think that's happening more and more across the board. I'm not giving them an out and I'm not making an excuse for it, but I just think it's becoming more and more the norm across the sport of football, not even college football. You're seeing it week in and week out. You've just got to try to continue to find the recipe for consistency and figure out if we can get that equation."

I want to ask your opinion of what you think after you look at Marcel's performance as a whole. In your opinion, how do you think Heisman voters should react to what they saw from him?

"He threw for 439 yards and three touchdowns, and he led us to a comeback and a win. I think that probably should hold a lot of stock with Heisman voters, I would hope. He has elevated himself week in and week out. When we've needed him to step up and make plays to win football games, he's done it. There's been a lot made of some other people across the country when they've had opportunities to step up and make plays, and they were rewarded for it. I'd like to see our quarterback rewarded for it the same way. He certainly threw for an awful lot of yards to bring us back and lead us to that victory."

Trey Zuhn is one of those seniors that opted to come back for another year. Just what is his leadership, his versatility on the field, everything that he's poured into this program…what has it meant?

"Oh, gosh. How long you got? He's what you want and Aggie to be. For him to come back again, be a captain again, for him to be as consistent as he is, as tough as he is…he plays through pain, he plays through injury, he'll play through anything. This place means an awful lot to him. When you talk about like true Aggies and kids who were born and bred Aggies because their family are Aggies, that's Trey. It's just awesome to see it working out for him. We talked about that last a couple weeks ago…it's really cool, when kids believe in you and make a decision to come back and do this another year, to see them get rewarded with success, accolades, and hopefully a better draft status when it's time to go do that part of this thing. He'll go down as a very, very special part of this football program for a really long time, and I know how important being an Aggie is to him and his family, and he's certainly done everybody in that family very proud."

To go back to the contract for just a second, just specifically wanted to ask, did you get a commitment from Trev to get more NIL money for 2026?

"I'm not going to comment on that publicly."

That's okay. And then secondly, I'm writing a story about just roster construction for '26 as a whole. How much time do you and the staff talk about or contemplate how you allocate this money to each room, on a percentage basis? And how does that change or does it change over time over the season with we need to get stronger here, or this is too much, or whatever?

"A lot would be the short answer. The long answer would be it's very much a moving target. Unlike other operations where there's a little bit more of a hard cap, it doesn't seem as though that's what exists in college football. I've had a lot of conversations with front office people in the NFL about how to do it, what the right ways are, what the right ways are to allocate funds and resources. You have these principles for sure that you stick to, but the situation for us in college is just so different. There's not a lot of structure, there's not a lot of rules, there's not a lot of regulations, and so it just makes it really difficult to come up with an actual strategy and standard. You've just got to stick to your principles and make sure that you balance your roster with enough of the type of players that you believe can build a championship."

Have you come to a point in your mind where you already know, like, that's too much for this guy, or this guy's underpaid, at each position?

"See, I don't think you can do it like that in college. I think what you have to do is you've got to identify difference makers and you've got to figure out how to bring them into your program. And as you're doing that, I think you've got to identify how they're wired and what they're driven by. That impacts kind of where you're willing to go for certain players and how much they're actually really worth as you go through the process with them."

With your new contract, do you think you could have predicted this level of success in your field when you first started coaching at Stony Brook?

"I've said this to a couple families in recruiting. When I was a GA at Stony Brook, they were redoing the stadium, and so we were in trailers. That was our office. We were in a trailer and because I was the GA, my desk happened to be right next to the bathroom. And so as I was sitting at that desk next to the bathroom, no, I did not envision signing an extension like I just signed or being the head football coach in Texas A&M. That wasn't on the radar."

There was a lot of talk online from former offensive linemen about Chase Bisontis' 4th quarter holding penalty on that snatch technique. What's kind of your perspective on flags being thrown on that kind of play?

"I mean, it's hard. They do the best they can. It's a hard job being an official. It's certainly not a rewarding one. Yeah. It's a hard job."

You guys started off with Trey at center and Deuce at left tackle. Seemed like a couple of series in it switched back to the regular group. Was that something that you were planning on doing or did the pressure that they got early made you change that group up?

"Probably a combination of both. We go into every game with a rotational plan. And then as the game unfolds, you try to find what's going to allow you to have the most levels of success. Coach Cushing does a really good job. We discuss the original plan, and then he kind of takes it over in the in-game feel, the in-game mode, and we try to do what we think is best in the moment to win us a football game."

A couple of weeks ago you named Tyler Onyedim the defensive lineman of the week and said that it goes beyond stats. Well, this time there were stats from him. Can you just talk about how he has improved, especially in rush defense since he got here?

"He's kind of jumped out really early to us as a kid who had really good athleticism, really good twitch, was a really good fit for our system. We play a little bit more 4-down front. He had come from a place where it was a little bit more 3-down front. He's really grown into the ability to attack and be a little bit more twitchy and explosive, and I think you've seen that. I told him I thought that was the best second half that he's played since he's been here. I thought at times he really took the game over in the second half and it was really cool to see."

You had spoken about Le'Veon Moss as obtainable to be back for the regular season.
Two games left, is that still achievable here?

"Yep."

And then just secondly, Mario Craver, Rueben Owens, how are they going forward this week?

"Great."

You mentioned the first two possessions of the game, the offense was kind of normal and then things got away from you. Was last week just a normal week of practice and you wouldn't have seen this coming? And maybe is that a little concern as a coach when you do everything right and that can happen?
"No, I think...again, when you get into the moment of the game and you're competing, things happen. We didn't foresee that that they would cause a strip-sack fumble and run it back for a touchdown, that we would get down three scores as quick as we did. Then to the kids' credit, they're trying so hard to get back in the game, they're pressing. And because they're pressing, now we start dropping passes. We start forcing throws, we start getting unsettled with our feet. The ball starts sailing on us. Now we're turning the football over, now defensively we're chasing things…it just spiraled so much out of control. If we'd had the same week of preparation and went and played that game again, it goes to a completely different script. I don't know that you can identify or predict the script based on how practice goes. And so no, it's not concerning. I think it's that way every week. You're going to get into the game and for 3 ½ hours you've got to try to figure out how to win a football game. I always think…we talk too much about style points. Not us, just in general. We talk too much about style points. Obviously I would love for us to go out there and just cruise to victory every single week, but let's not forget we were picked to come what eighth, ninth in the conference? We were a team that was middling around the mid-20s in the preseason rankings--high teens, mid-20s. We talked a lot in the preseason that this was going to be a team that wasn't going to have a lot of margins. That we were going to have to find ways to go out and close the margins and win football games. And they've done that. And that's to me what we kind of talk about."

They showed you all the time on tv in the first half. You seemed from the outside cool, calm and collected. How are you able to do that?

"Because that's what we owe it to them. What do you want us to do, panic? This speech, I'm sure, will come out (from) halftime and everyone thinks this is this amazing speech at halftime. It's not. We won that game six months ago with what we did in the Winter. We didn't win that game because I went in at halftime and said something. We built a culture, we built a character, we built a commitment to doing things the way we want to do them back in January and February. And that's what came out in the second half. And it's not oh I went in and I riled them up and because I riled them up, they started playing. That's not how this works. It just doesn't. I have to be calm and collected. My job is to be calm and collected when they're frantic. My job is to create intensity when they're not intense. My job is to always be opposite the moment. It's not to let the moment take me away. I'm the 48-year-old guy who's supposed to see this thing with clear eyes. They're the 18- to 21-year old kids who get emotional. And so it's easy for me. It's easy for me to try to help them get through it as best I can. Now, again, I don't want to be in that situation. I'm not saying I do. But when you're in it, you've got to try to figure your way out of it, and we were able to do that."

Schedule

Players Mentioned

Ashton Bethel-Roman

Chase Bisontis

Nate Boerkircher

Luke Braden

Dalton Brooks

Blake Buntyn

KC Concepcion

Mario Craver

Dametrious Crownover

Cashius Howell

Le'Veon Moss

Tyler Onyedim

Tyler White

Solomon Williams

Jared Zirkel

Footer

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Football versus Samford on Nov. 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM

Upcoming Event: Football at (#17) Texas on Nov. 28, 2025 at 6:30 PM