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Monday Down South: Texas A&M found the blueprint against LSU. Are Mike Elko’s Aggies built to last?

Matt Hinton

By Matt Hinton

Published:

Takeaways, trends and technicalities from Week 9 in the SEC.

Respecting the Reed Option

Mike Elko’s introduction as Texas A&M’s head coach, a 23-13 loss to Notre Dame, was a night Aggies fans would rather forget. Two months and 7 consecutive wins later, they mostly have. In hindsight, though, it turns out the shape of the season to come was right there from the beginning, even in a game that’s beginning to look more and more like an outlier by the week. It wasn’t on the scoreboard, or in the meltdown by blue-chip quarterback Conner Weigman. It was in the viral clip of Elko, draped in an ill-fitting hoodie, sans headset, unloading on an off-screen underling on the sideline: “Tell them to run the f—ing ball! Run the f—ing ball!”

10-4, coach. Message received. Since opening night, the Aggies have been more committed to and more effective at running the ball than any other SEC offense, with the record to show for it. They’ve lined up, slugged it out and won. Against Florida in Week 3, they ran 55 times for 310 yards, amassing a 15 1/2-minute advantage in time of possession in a demoralized Swamp. Against Missouri in Week 6, they ran for 236 yards and 5 touchdowns on 6.6 per carry, steamrolling a then-top-10 team by 31 points in the process. In Saturday’s come-from-behind 38-23 romp over LSU, they chewed up 264 yards on 5.9 per carry (excluding sacks), the majority of it coming between the tackles. By the fourth quarter, A&M’s massive offensive line, averaging 327 pounds per man, was pushing around LSU’s smaller, spread-oriented front seven virtually at will, paving the way for chunk after chunk as the Aggies turned a nail-biter into a party.

When was the last time the Aggies won a game that made a statement about the kind of team they are, identity-wise? Sure, A&M had its fair share of upsets and high-profile wins under Jimbo Fisher: Florida in 2020, Alabama in ’21, LSU in ’22, just to hit the high notes. All those teams were ranked in the top 10 at the time. (Bama, of course, was No. 1.) None of them, however, pointed the way out of the doldrums that eventually cost Fisher his job.

In keeping with the old cliché about teams taking on the personality of their coach, Fisher’s teams were like Fisher: Well-heeled but never quite on the same page about exactly what it was they were supposed to hang their hats on. It’s almost impossible, for example, to imagine Fisher arriving at the decision to bench Weigman, one of the gems in the 2022 recruiting class that was hailed as the crown jewel of Fisher’s tenure, in the middle of the third quarter of a must-win game, no matter how stagnant the offense had looked up to that point. After all, just a few backs, Weigman had played well in the blowout win over Missouri that rejuvenated the Aggies’ season coming off a 3-game absence due to a shoulder injury. That was the version of Weigman everyone around the program had been waiting 2 long, injury-plagued years to see. They’re invested in Weigman, literally. It’s his team.

Elko, who inherited the pocket-bound Weigman and his more dynamic understudy, redshirt freshman Marcel Reed, made the call, and potentially salvaged his team’s season.

Weigman went to the bench midway through the third quarter (to his visible disappointment) with A&M trailing 17-7 and stuck in neutral offensively; Reed, who was 3-0 as a starter in Weigman’s absence in September wins over Florida, Bowling Green and Arkansas, came off the bench like a missing key that immediately started the ignition. Benefiting from a suddenly stingy defense and operating offensive coordinator Collin Klein’s zone-read scheme to perfection, Reed led 5 consecutive scoring drives that covered a combined 198 yards on 23 plays — nearly all of them on the ground. Excluding a screen pass (which gained 16 yards, for the record), Reed only put the ball in the air once, connecting on a 54-yard strike that served as an exclamation point and a dagger.

https://twitter.com/AggieFootball/status/1850371939526644075/

With the ground game running on schedule, that was all he needed. Reed’s emergence — or re-emergence, to be more precise — opened up parts of the playbook that Weigman didn’t have access to, which happen to be the parts that align with what this offense does well: Run the (dang) ball. Whoever the Aggies thought they were at the beginning of the night, by the end there was little doubt who they’re going to be going forward: A no-frills outfit in their head coach’s image, built from the trenches up, with the quarterback who gives them the best chance of playing to their strengths.

Is that enough to get them to the Playoff? Whatever the the percentages say, Texas A&M is in enviable position. Saturday’s win moved the Aggies into sole possession of first place in the SEC standings with only a pair of ominous but manageable road trips to South Carolina and Auburn standing between them and a season-ending date with Texas in College Station. (We’ll go ahead and pencil in a nonconference W against New Mexico State on Nov. 16.) If they avoid the upset hammer against Carolina and Auburn, the reunion with the Longhorns will arrive with a trip to the SEC Championship Game on the line, and potentially with a ticket to Atlanta already sewn up. They have a solid road win on their résumé at Florida and have walloped top-10 opponents in 2 of their past 3 games.

More important, they know who they are — and, after Saturday night, have a better idea of who they’re not. If A&M has a sustained postseason run in it, it’s going to be by playing defense, pounding the rock, keeping the quarterback involved as a runner, and picking their spots to go for broke. That’s the style of offense Elko hired Klein from Kansas State to install, and which Reed has proven adept at running.

Time will tell how long he sticks once defenses are better prepared for his game, as well as if Weigman still has a future in Maroon and White. By trusting his instincts with the walls closing in, though, their head coach has kept A&M more relevant heading into the November stretch than almost anyone outside of College Station imagined. Whatever happens next, these are more Elko’s Aggies with each passing week.

Superlatives

The week’s best individual performances.

1. Auburn RB Jarquez Hunter. Anyone who has watched Auburn’s offense the past 2 seasons could have told you that Hunter, a born workhorse, wasn’t touching the ball enough. For all the locals who have spent the Hugh Freeze era muttering “run the dang ball,” Saturday’s 24-10 win over Kentucky was for you: Hunter logged a career-high 23 carries for 278 yards, the best single-game rushing total for any FBS running back this season. (The previous high for an SEC back was a 199-yard effort by Missouri’s Nate Noel vs. Vanderbilt in Week 4.) That number included 10 carries of 10+ yards, highlighted by Hunter’s 3 longest runs of the year, covering 50, 46 and 45 yards, respectively.

https://twitter.com/AuburnFootball/status/1850365390435864642/

Hunter’s output was the 4th-best in school history, which given the history of Auburn running backs is a fine list to be on. And considering nearly all of it came after the Tigers trailed 10-0 in the first quarter, “playing from behind” no longer qualifies as an excuse for neglecting to keep him fed.

2. Arkansas QB Taylen Green. Mississippi State’s defense is on pace to go down as one of the worst in the modern history of the SEC, and Green’s contribution to the Bulldogs’ misery in a 58-25 blowout in Starkville is a big reason why. As a passer, he finished 23-for-29 for 314 yards, setting season-highs for completion percentage (79.3%), yards per attempt (10.8), touchdowns (5), and efficiency (220.3); as a rusher, he accounted for 79 of Arkansas’ 359 yards on the ground, highlighted by an absurd bit of open-field athleticism to kick off the bonanza:

Folks, the man is 6-6, 230 pounds. Altogether, Arkansas racked up 673 total yards and scored on 10 of 12 offensive possessions despite finishing … wait, do I have this right, 0-for-7 on 3rd-down conversions? Huh. I suppose converting on third down takes on slightly less urgency when you’re averaging more than 10 yards per play.

3. Ole Miss edge Suntarine Perkins. Perkins is here representing the entire Ole Miss defensive line, which collectively dominated Oklahoma’s offensive line in historic fashion in a 26-14 win in Oxford. After a rocky first half, the Rebels made OU quarterback Jackson Arnold’s life miserable in the second, ultimately sacking him 10 times — the most sacks ever allowed by an Oklahoma offense. (That broke a 7-day-old record set in Week 8 by South Carolina, which recorded 9 sacks in a blowout win in Norman.) For his part, Perkins was credited with a team-high 11 total tackles and 4 of those 10 sacks, moving him into a tie for the conference lead with 8.5 sacks on the year. Prince Umanmielen, JJ Pegues, Walter Nolen, Jared Ivey and Akelo Stone also recorded at least 1 takedown.

Just as telling as the sack total was the fact that they didn’t have to bring any extra rushers to generate it: Per PFF, Ole Miss blitzed on just 7 of Arnold’s 49 drop-backs, and didn’t record a sack on any of them. All 10 takedowns were the result of a basic 3- or 4-man rush.

4. Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed. It was only three weeks ago that I wrote “so much for a QB controversy” after Conner Weigman’s successful return from injury against Missouri, so I’ll hold off for at least another week or two before anointing Reed the new face of the program. For now, let’s just say a 99.8 QBR rating in a must-win game against a top-10 opponent is a pretty good start.

5. Texas A&M DB BJ Mayes. On the other side of the ball, Mayes was just as unlikely a catalyst in A&M’s second-half rally as Reed. A UAB transfer making his first start as an Aggie, Mayes set the comeback in motion when he picked off an ill-advised pass by Garrett Nussmeier midway through the third quarter, returning it to the LSU 8-yard line; Reed scored the first of his 3 rushing touchdowns on the next play, and the pendulum never swung back. Later in the quarter, with A&M still trailing 17-14, Reed stepped in front of another pass for his second INT, this one setting up the offense at the LSU 26-yard line; 5 plays later, Reed was back in the end zone and the Aggies were on top for good.

Honorable Mention: Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart, who passed for 311 yards and a touchdown with an 88.6 QBR rating in the Rebels’ win over Oklahoma. … Texas A&M edge Nic Scourton, who led the Aggies’ pass rush against LSU with 7 QB pressures and 1 sack. … Texas A&M LB Taurean York, who had a team-high 7 tackles and the game-clinching interception. … LSU WRs Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson, who combined for 232 yards and a touchdown in a losing effort. … Texas DB Michael Taafe, who picked off a pass, broke up another and forced a fumble in the Longhorns’ 27-24 win at Vanderbilt. … Vanderbilt DB Randon Fontenette, who recorded 2 sacks and forced a tip-drill interception against Texas. … Alabama DB Malachi Moore, who had an interception and a PBU in the Tide’s shutout win over Missouri. … And Arkansas RBs Braylen Russell and Rashod Dubinion, who contributed to the Razorbacks’ annihilation of Mississippi State with a combined 273 rushing yards on 10.1 per carry.

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The scoring system for players honored in Superlatives awards 8 points for the week’s top player, 6 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd, 4 for 4th, 3 for 5th, and 1 for honorable mention, because how honorable is it really if it doesn’t come with any points? Standings are updated weekly with the top 10 players for the season to date.

SEC Power Rankings

Updating the food chain.

1. Georgia (6-1). For such a wide-open season in the polls, there’s near-unanimity at the top. Georgia received a single first-place vote this week in both the AP and Coaches’ polls, with the other 114 votes all going to consensus No. 1 Oregon. | Last Week: 1 ⬌

2. Texas (7-1). The 27-24 margin over Vanderbilt wasn’t nearly as concerning as the ongoing struggle to protect Quinn Ewers, who was sacked 4 times in Nashville after taking 5 sacks in the Longhorns’ Week 8 loss to Georgia. Ewers is sharp when he’s kept clean, but under pressure his lack of mobility is glaring. For a 21-year-old he often looks like a late-career NFL vet who’s been reduced to a sitting duck in the pocket if the ball doesn’t come out right away. | Last Week: 2 ⬌

3. Tennessee (6-1). The Vols are well-positioned, CFP-wise, but after a middling October offensively it would be nice to see some explosiveness over the next two weeks against Kentucky and Mississippi State ahead of a Week 12 trip to Georgia. | Last Week: 4 ⬆

4. Texas A&M (7-1). The immediate assumption on Saturday night was that Mike Elko’s postgame line, “it’s not politician running this program, talking fast and BSing everybody,” was a dig at his former boss/predecessor, Jimbo Fisher. (Fisher did indeed talk a hundred miles a minute, as any reporter who ever had to transcribe his interviews learned the hard way.) But it could have just as easily been a reference to Elko’s other former boss, Brian Kelly, on the opposite sideline. Given that Kelly’s father was a politician, he majored in political science, and he’s one of the smoothest talkers in the business, Elko’s line could cut either way. In fact, why not both? | Last Week: 5 ⬆

5. Alabama (6-2). The sigh of relief on Saturday wasn’t only for the defense: The backfield committee piled up 282 yards on 8.1 per carry, easily Bama’s best rushing line of the season vs. a Power 4 opponent. | Last Week: 6 ⬆

6. LSU (6-2). I’m not an LSU fan, but if I was I think I’d rather have been beaten soundly right out of the gate at A&M than watch yet another would-be win topple like a sand castle. In all 5 of their losses the past 2 seasons, the Tigers have been even or ahead at halftime, only to be outscored in the second half by a combined 124-51. | Last Week: 3 ⬇

7. Ole Miss (6-2). Lane Kiffin’s offense have always been more balanced than he generally gets credit for, but running the ball against SEC defenses this season has been a slog. The Rebels finished with a season-low 69 yards on 2.2 per carry against Oklahoma, their first conference win under Kiffin with less than 100 yards on the ground. | Last Week: 7 ⬌

8. Arkansas (5-3). If I’m a team in the Playoff hunt, the Hogs with a healthy Taylen Green are one of the last teams I want to see up next on the schedule. They’ve already ambushed 1 contender in Fayetteville, upsetting Tennessee in Week 6; next up, Ole Miss and Texas visit the league’s answer to the Bermuda Triangle on the other side of an open date. | Last Week: 10 ⬆

9. Missouri (6-2). Mizzou still has a path to 10 wins, but Brady Cook or no Brady Cook, getting outscored 75-10 against the only 2 currently ranked teams on the schedule is a nail in the coffin for the Tigers’ bid to crash the Playoff. | Last Week: 8 ⬇

10. Vanderbilt (5-3). How in the world did Diego Pavia complete this pass?

There’s throwing into a tight window, and then there’s throwing through the windows of cars moving in opposite directions across 3 lanes of traffic. | Last Week: 9 ⬇

11. Florida (4-3). The Gators are in a better place heading into the dreaded November gauntlet against Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss than they were a month ago. Billy Napier’s future still depends on how competitive they are over the next few weeks with hyped freshman DJ Lagway still just getting his feet wet as QB1. | Last Week: 11 ⬌

12. South Carolina (4-3). Saturday’s date against Texas A&M is the Gamecocks’ first primetime home game of the year in Williams-Brice Stadium, where they’ve made a habit of springing after-dark upsets under Shane Beamer. If the vibes aren’t convincing, maybe the ability of South Carolina’s outstanding d-line to hold up against the Aggies’ ground game will be. | Last Week: 12 ⬌

13. Oklahoma (4-4). The offense actually showed some signs of life in the first half at Ole Miss, moving the ball consistently and putting 14 points on the board courtesy of a couple of extended touchdown drives. But then, in the end that only served to make the historic sack-fest in the second half that much crueler. Nineteen sacks allowed over the past 2 weeks is 2 more than Oklahoma allowed in the entire 2023 regular season. | Last Week: 13 ⬌

14. Auburn (3-5). Ideally, the Tigers would like to be in a place where they could treat routine wins over the likes of Kentucky as, well, routine. As it actually stands, snapping a 7-game losing streak vs. Power 4 opponents dating to last season qualified as a much-needed catharsis. Back to the grind this week against Vandy, another one they can’t afford to take for granted. | Last Week: 15 ⬆

15. Kentucky (3-5). Remember that brief moment last November when Mark Stoops was the next head coach at Texas A&M for about an hour before a fan revolt wrecked the deal? I suspect it’s been on his mind a lot lately. The Wildcats’ loss to Auburn was their 7th consecutive loss at home in SEC play, and 2nd straight as the betting favorite. | Last Week: 14 ⬇

16. Mississippi State (1-7). The Bulldogs looked like they were moving in the right direction heading into Saturday’s game against Arkansas, their best shot at notching an SEC win in Jeff Lebby’s first season. Instead, they got run out of their own stadium in one of the worst defensive performances in school history. This weekend’s date against UMass should get them back in the win column for the first time since Week 1, but barring a miracle in the home stretch, they’re well on their way to their first 10-loss season since 2003. | Last Week: 16 ⬌

Moment of Zen of the Week

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Matt Hinton

Matt Hinton, author of 'Monday Down South' and our resident QB guru, has previously written for Dr. Saturday, CBS and Grantland.

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