Coach Elko seems to be addressing the most obvious challenges from last year.
Seems to be more practical and frankly smarter than the previous coaches.
Sumlin and Fisher were good when the talent supported the schemes, but egos limited their ability to fix gapping holes.


O-Line - Coach has held on to experience rather than trying to start a really good freshman.
LB - Held talent and recruited more
TE- Signing top talent
WR - Brought in two talents from portal

Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

Justice Beaver said:

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Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

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I'll give Bateman credit for one thing. He can recruit. We will see how the linebackers look on the field this year. At least he won't be calling plays.

Cajun Ag 86 said:

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You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

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8-5*


Let's not forget that disaster of a bowl game

Justice Beaver said:

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Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

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Bateman has been great recruiting. Apparently he is only our DC in name now. If true I don't mind him being here as long as the LB show development.

Don't really think he is answering critics. Sounds more like doing his job to improve his football team. Basically what every coach should be doing. Doubt critics have anything to do with it.

aggie-1997 said:

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Don't really think he is answering critics. Sounds more like doing his job to improve his football team. Basically what ever coach should be doing. Doubt critics have anything to do with it.

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Watch out, rational, optimistic thoughts about our football team will get you flamed!

Cajun Ag 86 said:

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You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

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Tick under that. 8-5 after the loss to U$C. And he lost to Texas which should count as two losses so 8-6…

Steve Sarkisian's record first two years at t.u.

2021: 5 - 7
2022: 8 - 5

Things change...

Cajun Ag 86 said:

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You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

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Wow

If he does this every year for the next 3. You have a good point. After just one season. You don't.

Justice Beaver said:

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Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

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So you are just ignoring Elko's statements about him being more hands on with the defense this year. Among other things he has stated about the defense.

Don't know if Elko will get us where we need to get but it's clear he ls a straight shooter.

I think Elko is for sure smarter than our last several head coaches. I just don't know if he's that much better of a coach when it counts. Last year indicates not, but we will see.

He's telling us he has his chosen QB on the roster already. I hope he's right, but the stats/eye test say he's likely wrong…

Paul Pierce Ag said:

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He's telling us he has his chosen QB on the roster already. I hope he's right, but the stats/eye test say he's likely wrong…

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Coach speak 101

He took up for Weigman last year after the Mizzou game as well and of course you see how everything played out.

I hope Reed is the guy and I really hope he plays the entire season. Pate has said A&M just having the same QB all season will work wonders. I agree with him. The last time we did, we finished 4th.

But if Reed struggles Elko has already shown he was no problem making a change.

Cajun Ag 86 said:

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You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

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in Nick Sabans first year at bama, he was 7-6. Not saying Elko (or anyone) will ever be on his level, but some people on here would've wanted him fired after that. Let's have a little patience.

One thing for sure, Elko does not have the over inflated ego of our last 2 coaches and 3 of last 4

8-5 as a 1st year HC in SEC.

***Check that stat with other coaches***

Paul Pierce Ag said:

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He's telling us he has his chosen QB on the roster already. I hope he's right, but the stats/eye test say he's likely wrong…

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His stats were decent and the eye test says he has potential to be even better than last year. Not saying there isn't work to be done but there's a reason a lot of people are high on Reed outside of the few on TexAgs.

A QB rating of 142 is good but not great
A QBR of 75.4 is very good

LB12Diamond said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

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So you are just ignoring Elko's statements about him being more hands on with the defense this year. Among other things he has stated about the defense.

Don't know if Elko will get us where we need to get but it's clear he ls a straight shooter.

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So you are just ignoring that we have a completely dead weight on the coaching staff now by Elko's own admission, being paid to not execute the duties of his title?
But it's ok, because Elko's a "straight shooter"…

LB12Diamond said:

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Paul Pierce Ag said:

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He's telling us he has his chosen QB on the roster already. I hope he's right, but the stats/eye test say he's likely wrong…

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Coach speak 101

He took up for Weigman last year after the Mizzou game as well and of course you see how everything played out.

I hope Reed is the guy and I really hope he plays the entire season. Pate has said A&M just having the same QB all season will work wonders. I agree with him. The last time we did, we finished 4th.

But if Reed struggles Elko has already shown he was no problem making a change.

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I'm pretty down on Elko's QB management so far. Stringing Conner along and letting him play injured (if that's what actually happened) was a catastrophe. I mean, who's the adult in the room here?

And it shows a huge lack of trust in Reed, to play a week-to-week injured QB over your healthy, durable backup.

So Conner leaves and we only pick up a UAB QB in the portal after Longstreet bails on us. And now we're confident we have "the dude" on campus? Doesn't quite add up.

Simplest explanation is Elko is super wishy-washy about QB management. Not a great place to be

some of you have an incredible ability to add 2 + 2 and come up with 8

Justice Beaver said:

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LB12Diamond said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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Bateman still on the payroll…so I'm going with no.

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So you are just ignoring Elko's statements about him being more hands on with the defense this year. Among other things he has stated about the defense.

Don't know if Elko will get us where we need to get but it's clear he ls a straight shooter.

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So you are just ignoring that we have a completely dead weight on the coaching staff now by Elko's own admission, being paid to not execute the duties of his title?
But it's ok, because Elko's a "straight shooter"…

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Hard to fire people after year one. You can do it if you are Saban or Urban, but nobody will want to work for Elko is he is canning guys without giving them at least a couple of years.

Love Coach Elko.

That being said, he won't have answered the critics until we win a natty.

Answering critics will come in a few places as the season goes on like

After big national tv nd game, several sec games, not falling apart in November.

Not in answering questions to start preseason camp.

chilimuybueno said:

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Steve Sarkisian's record first two years at t.u.

2021: 5 - 7
2022: 8 - 5

Things change...

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And don't forget the emotional support monkey.

tu is better at sports. So while things changed for them, it's the same for us.

The issue with hiring a defensive head coach, is that the league is built around offense. And we haven't had a good one in a long time.

Defensive head coaches are the way to go. Proven they win NCs allot more than offensive head coaches.

Not when the offense looks like ours.

Lots of assumptions in that post or yours. FYI Weigman was benched against LSU bc of performance. Do you not remember him rolling his eyes when he was benched.

And when he came back in the easy game and stink a ton more than Miles. Weigman had issues last year. Head case, something else. Who knows. But Elko gave him multiple chances to figure it out and he never did.

DT - didn't do a damn thing

SteveA said:

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tu is better at sports. So while things changed for them, it's the same for us.

The issue with hiring a defensive head coach, is that the league is built around offense. And we haven't had a good one in a long time.

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And for some reason their defensive staff and personnel is far better than ours.

Yeah, that Michigan offense two years ago was great. Lots of DC head coaches have won NCs with offenses that looked like ours. They just need the stud RB and starting QB to play the entire season.

Now I do agree we need a more balanced offense, and ELKO is working on it. But just disproving your previous statement.

LB12Diamond said:

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Lots of assumptions in that post or yours. FYI Weigman was benched against LSU bc of performance. Do you not remember him rolling his eyes when he was benched.

And when he came back in the easy game and stink a ton more than Miles. Weigman had issues last year. Head case, something else. Who knows. But Elko gave him multiple chances to figure it out and he never did.

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Uh… it's a fact that Conner had a throwing shoulder injury. Elko told us that, and we could all see it in his performance on the field. At least as early as the ND game.

Didn't Elko/a spokesman for Conner mention he was managing his pain with Toradol? His AC joint never fully healed, but somebody apparently wanted him to play so they strung him along with medication week to week.

Eventually, that caught up with him as he couldn't perform against LSU. There were signs of him not being 100% against MSU, but nobody here cares about that because his performance didn't suffer enough to lose us the game against a terrible MSU team.

Elko needed to be the adult in the room and bench Conner so he could heal properly

Gandalf the Maroon said:

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Cajun Ag 86 said:

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You are what your record says you are. He's 8-4 as our head coach.

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in Nick Sabans first year at bama, he was 7-6. Not saying Elko (or anyone) will ever be on his level, but some people on here would've wanted him fired after that. Let's have a little patience.

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My brother in maroon;

It has been 30 YEARS of "Just be patient, just wait till next year!"

The patience is gone