Talking Texas A&M's Strong Start to the College Football Season

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00:00Andrew Monaco is the voice of the Texas A&M Aggies down in College Station.

00:10You can follow him on X at Andrew Monaco, M-O-N-A-C-O underscore senior S-R and follow

00:17the voice of the Aggies all season long.

00:20They've rattled off five straight wins after losing to Notre Dame at Kyle Field to start

00:26their season.

00:27And Andrew, it's great to see you.

00:28I know that Elko, their new coach, said at the time that, you know, we're not going to

00:34flinch.

00:35We got beat.

00:36They came in here and beat us flat out.

00:39We're a growth team.

00:42We're here to get better every week, every day.

00:45And boy, have they lived up to that.

00:47And then we'll get into Saturday.

00:49But what do you think of what he said after the fail against Notre Dame and the success

00:55since?

00:57Scott, he said even before that game, he told his coaches that if we beat Notre Dame, then

01:01the entire message around all of college football is going to be, wow, Texas A&M, they're dark

01:08horse contenders.

01:09And if they lost to Notre Dame, be ready for this.

01:12Elko's not the guy.

01:13Got to get a new guy in there, brand new coaching staff.

01:16It's failed.

01:18It's not a one-week rebuild, right?

01:19Or it's not a one-week build, if you will.

01:22So Mike had everybody set up for that.

01:25And I'm with you.

01:26This is a team that keeps getting better every single week.

01:30They did it against McNeese.

01:31I thought the road win in Florida was the one where, and even Coach Elko said this,

01:37that's the most strain and effort he had seen from this team that gave them that road win

01:42for a team that had struggled in true road games.

01:45And then they keep building from there until this past Saturday.

01:49And they know the job's not done.

01:50But quite a stretch for the first six weeks to be five and one in his first season back

01:55here at Texas A&M.

01:57You can see the growth from week to week.

01:59The guy can coach flat out.

02:01Everyone saw that at Duke.

02:03And now he's on a, you know, he's gone up in weight class.

02:06I think he's like a fighter moving up the food chain and going for a bigger belt at

02:12a heavier weight.

02:14I think he's doing a great job.

02:16I have to say, like, one thing I noticed is that, remember, they went on the road and

02:22won in a hostile environment.

02:24You talked about it.

02:26But Missouri hadn't been on the road yet.

02:27So I think they're a lot better football team, frankly, than what I saw on Saturday.

02:32That was a team that went on the road and laid an egg.

02:36And obviously, A&M played fantastic.

02:39I thought Moss was incredible.

02:40We'll talk about him.

02:41But let's face facts.

02:43It is brutal to go on the road in the SEC.

02:47And it's brutal to play your first road game in a place like Kyle Field, like Notre Dame

02:53pulled it off.

02:54But they're not in the SEC.

02:55It's tough in conference to go on the road and win a game in anything like Big Ten, Big

03:03Twelve, SEC, ACC.

03:06I don't care what it is.

03:07Those road games are brutal.

03:11Could not agree with you more.

03:12I totally agree.

03:13And you have to be, you actually have to be better on the road than you are at home.

03:17And for Missouri, they're going to learn some things about themselves.

03:21And I have total confidence that Eli Drinkwich will say, hey, okay, guys, this is what we

03:25did.

03:26That's not us.

03:27How do we get better?

03:28It's the only thing you can do after a loss.

03:31And that's Notre Dame, here's the beauty of Notre Dame coming in.

03:35Notre Dame has played under Marcus Freeman.

03:37They played under Al Golden, especially that defense.

03:41And they have been comfortable together.

03:43What I'm watching with Mike Elko in this Jay Bateman defense is getting comfortable together

03:50now through six weeks.

03:52There's still a way to go.

03:53There's still a way to go.

03:54They're not a finished product yet.

03:55It reminds me of Mike being here in 2018 under Jimbo Fisher as the defensive coordinator.

04:01There's an awful lot that he installed.

04:03And even he says, we were better in 2019 than we were in 2018.

04:08Doesn't mean you can't get better over the course of the season.

04:11And I asked Mike, is this a team that can do that over the course of the season?

04:15And he says, you're seeing that.

04:17Scott, I think the other thing is, when you come into a program, you've got to address

04:21what you have, and you've got to address the deficiencies.

04:24And not only just address the deficiencies, you've got to correct those.

04:28And that's what I think Mike Elko was able to do.

04:31Can you correct those deficiencies?

04:34The offensive line is better.

04:35The defensive line is a monster.

04:37And the back end on defense is better.

04:40And that's what's showing up this season.

04:42How about Moss?

04:44I mean, the guy had three tutties, and they were up 24-zip.

04:48And then I think it was the first play of the second half, he had another tutty.

04:53I was like, this game's over.

04:56They were already up 24-zip.

04:58And I think it really just literally ripped the soul out of Missouri's chest.

05:04I mean, they were done right then and there.

05:06Yeah, it did.

05:08And for Texas A&M, at times they've kind of stumbled out of that second half gate, but

05:12not with that run.

05:13And the seed just parted, and Le'Veon did the rest.

05:16He's a mature young man.

05:18And I'll be honest, he's in better shape than he was in the past.

05:22And all that is paying off.

05:24Scott, I call it this.

05:25It's all the work that a player does in the dark that fans never see.

05:30And then when it shows up on the field, you know it leads to more confidence when you're

05:36running.

05:37And it's that trust with one another.

05:39He trusts that that part of the line's going to be open.

05:43And he's getting through that line.

05:44He's not dancing.

05:45He's getting through.

05:46And that's what's really been impressive.

05:48Look, he was the number two back.

05:50It was Reuben Owens who was going to be the bellwether back.

05:53He gets hurt in training camp.

05:55So Le'Veon and Amari Daniels and EJ Smith, they've done it collectively.

06:00But Le'Veon is getting most of the rushes and doing an awful lot of damage.

06:04But he's now seeing all the work that he did in this offseason is paying off for number

06:08eight.

06:09Respectfully, I got one minute.

06:12You got your quarterback back on Saturday.

06:15Connor, I thought, played very well.

06:17I did not think Brady Cook played well.

06:19I was surprised because he's a really good quarterback.

06:22And I thought the Aggies took his game right out of his hand and said, not today.

06:28It ain't happening today.

06:29But I thought Connor played great after missing three games.

06:33I think simply it's a line of scrimmage game and the offensive line gave Connor the time

06:37and established the running game.

06:39Brady Cook was on the run because of the defensive line of the Aggies.

06:43And Missouri couldn't get Nate Noel going.

06:45He's a very good running back.

06:47You know, guys with the hands in the dirt, Scott, they determine everything.

06:52That confidence in Connor.

06:53And I think it was a defense where there's some windows that are open and give Connor

06:58credit because he's a very good quarterback that way.

07:01And he threw into those windows.

07:03I'm with you.

07:04I'm thrilled for the young man.

07:05And now that he's healthy and throwing like that, this offense can proceed.

07:09I can't wait, Andrew, to see how they do the rest of the way.

07:13And then that last game against Texas on November 30, it's going to be sick.

07:17Always great to see you, Andrew.

07:18Thanks for taking the time to come on, Coach.

07:20Coach, brother.

07:21Great job Saturday.

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