Below is a transcript from Elko's press conference at the Kyle Field Media Center:
Mike Elko, Texas A&M Head Football Coach
(Ref: On Offensive Lineman Tyree Adams performance)
“I thought he graded out really well, both in the passing in the run game he played really physical.”
(Ref: on the Aggie Defense)
“Defensively we looked good throughout the game, there was not much on the tape that we looked at and felt like we did not execute, and we were able to play the game the way we wanted to.”
(Ref: on the Aggies early offensive woes)
“We have to figure out the lull we hit in the beginning of the first quarter into the second, A lot of that was self-inflicted so we have to go back to the drawing board to get that fixed.”
(Ref: on the growth of the Aggies offensive line)
“I thought we grew into the game on offense, especially on the offensive line, there were a few guys out there who were really anxious at the beginning and by the second, third, and fourth series you could see them slowing down and playing the way that they did through fall camp. I thought there was a lot of good, but certainly some things to clean up. It was a lot of things that we had not practiced with a lot of the guys out there playing and we certainly did not play to the standard we needed to early in the game. It was good to see us adjust, settle in and start making better plays as we move forward from an Offensive line standpoint. There are big challenges coming up and that group is going to have to continue working hard to get better every time they go out there.”
(Ref: on the comfort level of his two freshman Running backs)
“We have a lot of confidence in them, I think they are both talented players, and we certainly create standards in that room in terms of how to play the game, how to get the extra yards, how to run behind your pads, how to protect the football and pass protect. All of the fundamentals of being a running back at Texas A&M and you do not get on the field if you can’t do those things and they work hard and we are really excited about them.”
(Ref: on his Recollections of 9/11)
“It still hits close to home, as a kid, being from up north working at the Merchant Marine academy on 9/11 I was right on the other side of the water. I walked down to the water and saw the city when the first plane hit so a lot of feelings and emotions when that day rolls around. Some people that I was close with were really affected so it is a very meaningful day for me.”
(Ref: on facing Arizona State this week)
“It is going to be a huge challenge for us, they are a really talented football team that has been producing a lot of NFL players, and a lot of future NFL players on the field for them this weekend so it will certainly be a really big challenge for us.”
(Ref: on his evaluation process after week 1)
“As you go through this, you realize there is a jump from kids who have not played in real games and it is always different the first time they do it. We needed to figure out what the bar was, and what people are really capable of doing on the big stage under the lights and we need them to go out there and grow though the growing pains. I think we learned a lot about where we are and what we need to do to get to where we want to go.”
(Ref: On previously coaching against Kenny Dillingham)
“I think both of us probably have changed a lot. I certainly remember the game, remember what they did, remember how they tried to attack us. I'm sure he remembers everything we did on defense and why they tried to attack us the way they did. But I think both of us have grown and evolved schematically quite a bit since then and so I don't know how much that one is going to be on the radar for this one.”
(Ref: On seeing the crowd in red, white and blue for the 25th anniversary of 9/11)
“I think that day hits a little different to people from up there. It's not a memory that I like to bring back and it's not something I like to think about. It's an extremely tragic event for the people that were up there. There will probably be a little bit of emotion when you see it more than anything else.”
(Ref: On how Marcel Reed is as a quarterback)
“I'm very supportive of Marcel because I wish people would spend more time studying him and watching him and seeing how good he really is. As he continues to move up the all-time passing record at Texas A&M and he starts to move past some quarterbacks who are very successful quarterbacks here and were viewed as very successful quarterbacks here. I wish people would start to appreciate who he is, what he does, and how successful he's been for us as a starter. He's now 12-1 as a regular season starter over the last two years. I don't know what his overall record is but it's really good for a starting quarterback at Texas A&M. I bet it ranks very favorably amongst the starting quarterbacks at Texas A&M. I wish people would appreciate who he is a little bit more
(Ref: On what he wishes people would appreciate more from Reed)
“How good of a quarterback he is, how much he helps us win football games, how successful he's been, how many yards he throws for, how many yards he runs for.”
(Ref: On challenges that Arizona State brings)
“They're going to present a lot of challenges. They’ve got a really talented defensive line, they got two NFL corners, they got two NFL wideouts, they got a quarterback who's really big and talented and they're really aggressive on special teams.”
(Ref: On Terry Price going into the Hall of Honor this week)
“His passing was unbelievably unfortunate. I think we still kind of feel that in this building. He was a guy that was beloved, not only to his family, but to Aggie's and certainly to the people in this building who worked with him. He certainly was a guy who took me in as a first time SEC coach and first time Texas A&M coach, He showed me the respect that I really appreciate because for as long as he had been doing it and as good as he had done it, he certainly had no reason to have to pay attention to me or respect me the way he did. I was always appreciative of TP, the job he did, the work that he put into it, the impact he had on not only his players but really all of our players on defense. Any way that we can continue his memory and continue to keep him a part of people's thoughts, I think is really cool. It's awesome that he's getting nominated and put into the Hall of Honor. It was great to call his wife and let her know. That was a really cool experience for me.”
(Ref: On Devin Price moving into a coaching journey after playing)
“Devin's a young kid and I think as he moves into his coaching journey he's still trying to figure it all out for himself. We're real excited to have him. He does a really good job for us. He's really good in recruiting and he's really good working with the players. He's at that stage in his life where he's doing a lot of work with the scout team guys and those types of things but I think if this is what he ultimately wants to do for a living, he's got a really bright future in doing it.”
(Ref: On evaluating film for opponents after Week 1)
“It's hard for us to look at that film and I'm sure it's hard for them to look at our film from last week. It’s another one where you're just relying on player tapes. You're watching player tapes that are a little bit of last week, a lot of bit of last year and trying to work your way through personnel, watching a lot of different colleges again, which seems like that's what you're doing nowadays for probably the first three or four games of every season. You draw what you can from last week, but we know it's a really talented team and certainly with this environment, this venue, this stage and this game, I think both teams will be a little bit better on Saturday than they were last week.”
(Ref: On Kenny Dillingham’s success as a younger coach)
“I think he's a really bright football guy. I think he's got a great football mind and I think he's got a really charismic personality. I think people would gravitate to him. You can see it and how they play, one of the things that just jumps out on tape is how hard those kids play. That’s usually a really good sign of culture and leadership and what he demands in the standard that he demands and for him to have the success that he's had so quickly at Arizona State, which was not a place that had been winning a lot of football games before he got there, I think that's always a testament to a guy as a coach is when he's outdoing the standard at a program. I think those guys to me are always a lot more impressive.”
(Ref: On Marcel’s incompletions during Week 1)
“There were two drops and a couple of throwaways that I thought were good throwaways. There were a couple of balls that he wished he would have thrown a little bit better I'm sure and a couple ofdecisions in the pocket where maybe he’d wish the ball would have gotten out a little bit quicker. There were a couple times where he made things happen when really most quarterbacks would have been sacked. I thought there was a lot of progress in him going through progressions and reads. I thought there was a lot of progress in the timing and how the ball came out of his hands. Completing a very high percentage of his passes was good and that was a big emphasis for him and for us as we moved into this. I think it was it was a really good performance for game one.”
(Ref: On Tyree Adams and Ray Coney during their first game)
“To start with Tyree, it wasn't a ton of tape, but the tape that we saw we thought it was really impressive. To us, it's another one of those kids where he was probably a lot higher on our board, maybe than your crew had him on our board. Amidst a lot of talented tackles that had come through here, he was kind of the one that we really wanted. We were really excited when we were able to land him and that was a choice by us. In our eyes, we got the number one guy that we coveted and I think he's been everything that we thought and hoped he would be and I think this program has impacted him in the way that he would hope it would impact him. We had to get an older guy after losing Taurean and Scooby. We needed to make sure we got a veteran presence in there and Ray was a guy that we felt was really explosive, really powerful, made a ton of plays and was a really productive player at linebacker. We really just felt like he had a game that would transition up to this level and we've been really fortunate and that we've been pretty good at making those decisions. I think we made another right one with him. I think he's going to be a really impactful player for us.”
(Ref: On Ryan Henderson’s performance this past weekend)
“He's been really good. Again, we talk a lot about depth and we're deeper at defensive end than we've ever been in my time here and we have a lot of guys that are capable of going out there and playing really good football. I think it's an extremely competitive position to get snaps and so that's always the challenge is in order to give them to somebody, you've got to take them away from somebody else. I think Ryan can play both sides. He can play our end jack position, he's good in pass rush, he can rush as a three technique at times if we need to use him in that way. He's a really talented player and again, another one of those guys that I think we identified off a tape to be maybe a little bit better than perception was and I think it's playing out that way.”
(Ref: On Coney wearing the green dot on defense during Week 1)
“He was. I think it's just he plays Mike linebacker and I think it's a natural fit to be able to talk to him and have him be the communicator. I think it's probably more the position than necessarily we identified him as the right green dot type of guy to be honest.”
