Mike Elko, Texas A&M Head Football Coach
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on Senior Bravion Rodgers)
“He had the best game of his career, winning defensive and special teams’ player of the week for us. We thought he did a really good job on critical third downs and getting us out of some bad leverage spots in the perimeter by winning on blocks and making plays.”
“He has become a menace on punt and had a really big tackle on the first one and then did a really nice job of getting the returner away from the ball on the second one, allowing us to recover the fumble.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on the showing of the 12th man on Saturday)
“Thank you to the 12th man once again, we all know Texas I early September is not fun. Texas at 11 AM is challenging and for us to have 107,000 in back-to-back weeks to open the season is something that we have never done before as a program.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on the offensive running game)
“It is an area we have to improve, when you look at the tape you can see we have to do a better job blocking up front and do a better job of running behind the blocks.”
“Finding leverages at halftime helped us get going in the second half, K.J. Edwards came in and provided a noticeable spark.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on Quarterback Marcels Reeds game play)
“He was up and down, certainly better than the stats would say, I don’t think he played poorly but there were some poor plays but he bounced back and made some plays.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on his Linebacker room)
“It has been awesome to see Ray Coney and Noah Mikhail and continuing to point out what Tamarian Watkins and Jordan Lockhart have looked like too when they have been out there which has been really good. It is a deep group and I continue to point to that; I think that is our strength that we will continue to lean on.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on Defensive Lineman T.J. Searcy)
“He does not surprise us at all; he does not flash stat wise but he has been player of the week more often for us and NFL scouts are very aware of who he is and he is certainly rater a lot higher with them than what he is talked about.
“He is a really talented player, very long and physical at the point of attack and hard to move. He can rush the passer and create problems for the quarterback with his length
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on Bravion Rodgers growth)
“I see a great story; He is a kid who has just worked and been very selfless for the team. He has been a phenomenal player on special teams which does not garner a lot of attention, and he has continued to develop as a defensive player finding himself in a position where he is helping us at nickel as well. He has been out there in some critical situations at the nickel position and from our perspective he has made a lot of impactful plays in those areas. He may not have the biggest name but he is certainly a big piece of why a team can be successful and win football games.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on the momentum shift of the game on Saturday)
“The second half felt like we had a much better grip minus the one coverage issue where they scored on a long touchdown. I thought that coming out of halftime we played much better on both sides of the ball and I felt like we had more control of the game.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko on seeing any familiarity facing Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman)
“Certainly, a mixed bag, some philosophical things that were important to me that we ran here on defense that Jay liked mixed with what he has traditionally been or wanted to be in his career.”
(Ref: Coach Mike Elko Tamarian Watkins Growth)
“He is a kid who had a phenomenal summer, he got over some frustration of his spring which by his measure was not what he hoped it would be and put in an unbelievable amount of work in the film room, OTA’s and he just started to get much better command in indie drills and work of what we were doing. When he started fall camp he looked like a completely different kid from where he was in the spring and we have had a lot of confidence in his growth since fall camp started and it has been good to see it translate onto the field.”
(Ref: On Marcus Ratcliffe’s impact on the defense)
“Safety is obviously a huge position from a communication standpoint, and we lost the void of Taurean York and what he would do from a communication standpoint. It has kind of been a group effort and Marcus and even Dalton [Brooks] to some degree with his experience, the two of them back there add so much value just from an experience and communication standpoint by getting us on the same page. Marcus is really flexible in what we can do with him. On some of our third down stuff we are able to play him at linebacker some and use him in different ways from a blitz standpoint. His body type is so unique in what he can do so he provides a lot of value for us in a lot of different ways. We're really glad we have him.”
(Ref: On Mark Nabou Jr.’s impact versus Arizona State)
“I thought he did a really good job blocking people and a really good job communicating at center. He helped the o-line function which is obviously a huge part of what the center does. There were certainly less miscommunications and issues like that on Saturday so that was good to see from him.”
(Ref: On tight ends Richie Anderson III and Houston Thomas)
“I think they provide us value in the run game, obviously still trying to get them unhinged a little bit in the pass game. They are in a difficult spot from a past game standpoint, I think because of some of the talent we have at the wide receiver position. Like every season, it's a long season and what ultimately will happen is, when teams will start paying a little bit more attention to the receivers and the outside guys, and that'll ultimately create some windows for them, and I would throw Micah Riley into that conversation as well.”
(Ref: On the importance of having a deep defensive line)
“I think we talk a lot about how important effort is in being a great defense. You talk about strain and effort as being one of the core principles of being really good on defense. When you talk about being a 260 to 300 plus pound guy playing in the Texas heat, if you have to play every snap for four quarters, that's a challenge if you want to play at the level and standard that we want to play at. The ability to rotate guys, the ability to keep guys fresh, the ability to kind of come in waves at offenses, I think is something that we've always kind of viewed as a weapon for us. We've done it a lot with 6 or 7 has kind of been our number since I've been here in 2018 and this is the first time where we're really doing it with 9 or 10 and maybe even sometimes 11 guys. There's so much talk about the nine-game SEC schedule and we had to build ourselves for that too. That's going to be part of it because this is going to get real physical real fast and playing nine SEC football games is going to require a lot of guys in the trenches to be ready to step up.”
(Ref: On looking ahead when doing rotations of defensive line players)
“The conversation never has anything to do with anything beyond that game. You're doing what you think needs to be done to win that game. I think one of our goals, specifically on defense and really as a program, is to get a lot of guys that are capable of playing at a high level so that the level doesn't drop. If you can do that, then you can rotate guys. Specifically to the one Arizona State game, I think you see that play out in the fourth quarter. I don't think it's a mistake that we won the fourth quarter 24 to nothing because we were able to go out there in waves and maybe be in a better position down the stretch to attack, continue to attack the quarterback, continue to disrupt the quarterback, continue to play hard and fast. I think those things matter. We had the pick six and then we came back at a fumble on the next play. If you watch that play, the amount of bodies in that picture, and the amount of bodies in and around him there to recover the fumble, to me, a lot of that is where you are in the fourth quarter from a stamina standpoint. I just don't know that you can do that if you're asking one kid to play 72 plays at any position.”
(Ref: On having a coach leave the program and play against them later)
“People would tell you I'm probably on the extreme paranoid end when it comes to things like that. I think I'm on probably like the seventh version of terminology in the last eight years and probably the third or fourth version of offensive terminology in my four years as a head coach. I probably live on the uber paranoid side of that. Then you factor in a coach leaving this building, going to multiple programs last offseason and you can imagine quite a few things around here have had to change.”
(Ref: On Bravion Rogers’ growth from last season to this season)
“I think he's just gotten a little bit more confident. The thing about Bravion is that he's always been a really good run and hit player. That's why he's always been a major factor for us on special teams because when it was like ‘who's the best gunner?’ his name always came up. He always did really good. When it was who's the best guy to cover their gunners, he's always been a big part of that. A big part of KC Concepcion's success returning punts last year, he would tell you was Bravion keeping the gunner way away from him and that's something that kind of goes unnoticed. I think he has just gotten more comfortable and he has started to learn and understand what it takes to really master the ins and outs of every play on defense. We talk about this mindset of you can play 40 plays on defense and have three bad ones and that's way too many. That's a hard thing sometimes for kids to process and I think he has just started to learn and understand that a little bit more through spraying into this offseason. In fall camp, I think it even took another level to where we started feeling confident that he was going to be a kid that was going to get out there in regular snaps for us and be a factor and so he's taken those and really grown with them.”
(Ref: On the shift from nonconference games to SEC)
“I don't think you can stop it. Since I got here in 2018, it's always kind of felt that way. You play these games and they're meaningful games because every game has meaning and every game has a stage in importance. But the second you throw up an SEC logo on that Monday meeting, you just kind of see everything perk up a little bit and I just think that's the nature of playing in this conference. We don't talk about it like that. I certainly don't tell them it's an SEC game so now we've got to try. But you certainly see the energy in the room change the second that SEC logo goes up on the on the screen in the morning for your Monday morning meeting.”
(Ref: On the shift of the defense from the first half to the second half of the game versus Arizona State)
“We have to find creative ways to solve that solution and I think that's what we did at halftime. I think the structure and the system is made to be flexible and adaptable so that's why we were able to handle it. We talk about this a lot in our building but the first couple of weeks, the reason why you see such fluctuation in games and scores and performances, a lot of times is because, you see this in the NFL too, three months is a long time to study somebody. You give somebody three months and you can find things. We certainly found things in them and they found things in us. Then from there, your job is to adapt and adjust and I think that's what football is. You get into a situation in the game and they find some creative ways to go after your structure and your personnel and now moving forward, you've got to find creative ways to adapt and adjust and make sure that it doesn't become a problem. I think one of the things we've always been good at is finding those solutions in game, in particularly at halftime, because it helps you win the game and not have to worry about just fixing it for the next week after a loss.”
(Ref: On how to stop a specific player on defense after having so much success)
“Part of the halftime adjustments. I thought we did a much better job controlling him [ASU’s Reed Harris] in the second half. I think so much of how we play defense is leverage and structure. Where you think matchups are and without a ton of tape sometimes you maybe don't fully understand how people are going to utilize their personnel yet. I think that’s one of the challenges in these early games. They were able to get him in some one-on-one matchups that were very favorable to them in the first half and our job was to adjust and try to take those away in the second half.”
(Ref: On seeing players succeed outside of football)
“I think we try to chase both of those things. What you're talking about is every bit as important to me behind the scenes. I think we're as proud of being over a 3.0 GPA than we are of anything. I think we're as proud of the community service hours that we do as we are of anything. And our kids are getting opportunities and doing internships, I think you're talking specifically about the two at NASA. It's a really cool thing. I think when we can see growth as young people in our program, I think that's something that really means a lot to me and certainly something we invest a lot of resources in in this program to help our kids in a lot of those areas. So obviously football matters and going to the NFL matters, but life matters a lot more and making sure that our kids are prepared for life is something that we spend a lot of time on around here.?
