Sure bud

Believe what you want to believe.


There is just too much that throws your stance to shreds.

Conner's reaction in the LSU game.
Conner playing in mop up time a couple of games later. No way that happens if he's injured.

Maroon Dawn said:

---

Gandalf the Maroon said:

---

Cajun Ag 86 said:

---

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

---

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.

---

My brother in maroon;

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

The patience is gone

---

I'm as jaded as anyone with A&M football. That said, Mike Elko hasn't had 30 years, he's had one. Constant turbulent changes in leadership get you to a place like this.

I kinda like Elko, I think he will be a solid coach but I don't predict major success like a National or SEC championship. I do think we'll see at least one 10-win season.

He's going to need time and space from the fanbase and athletic department to find out though, and grousing about our enormous championship droughts doesn't help when we're talking about Elko and his staff.

A&M has institutional problems with its athletic department and boosters, if you're looking for a proximate cause the issue is impatience and short-sightedness.

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

NeverSeenEmWin said:

---

Maroon Dawn said:

---

Gandalf the Maroon said:

---

Cajun Ag 86 said:

---

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

---

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.

---

My brother in maroon;

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

The patience is gone

---

I'm as jaded as anyone with A&M football. That said, Mike Elko hasn't had 30 years, he's had one. Constant turbulent changes in leadership get you to a place like this.

I kinda like Elko, I think he will be a solid coach but I don't predict major success like a National or SEC championship. I do think we'll see at least one 10-win season.

He's going to need time and space from the fanbase and athletic department to find out though, and grousing about our enormous championship droughts doesn't help when we're talking about Elko and his staff.

A&M has institutional problems with its athletic department and boosters, if you're looking for a proximate cause the issue is impatience and short-sightedness.

---

Pretty sure the cause is incompetence. But the fan base is the wrong kind of entitled believing they are due something they've done nothing to deserve.

What exactly do you disagree with? Do you think Conner didn't get injured?

Just saw your edit. I'm saying there's some evidence suggesting Elko mismanaged an injured Conner. You're saying Elko doesn't mismanage personnel, therefore Conner wasn't injured.

I don't think that's a strong argument.

Remember Conner playing against McNeese St. and being in visible pain (and not being very good)? Elko played an injured QB in a game we didn't need him for. I'm just suggesting that pattern repeated itself through the season.

Which is more reasonable?

Paul Pierce Ag said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

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.

---

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

---

He should have benched him for absolutely sucking in the ND game. Didn't they say the injury occurred during that game? Why did he suck the whole game?

vander54 said:

---

Paul Pierce Ag said:

---

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…

---

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

---

He was ranked 114th in the nation in passer rating last year so even if he can get inside the top 50.then he will have shown a lot of improvement and might be talking about a 10+ win team.

cupcakesprinkles said:

---

vander54 said:

---

Paul Pierce Ag said:

---

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…

---

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

---

He was ranked 114th in the nation in passer rating last year so even if he can get inside the top 50.then he will have shown a lot of improvement and might be talking about a 10+ win team.

---

Reed was 45th in passing efficiency and 22nd in QBR.

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/individual/8

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4870971/marcel-reed

Where are you seeing 114th in passer rating? Also is that all passers or are there minimum requirements in that ranking?

I personally don't think the staff was entirely honest with us about the where/when/how of Conner's injury.

Like you said, he was making uncharacteristic accuracy mistakes through the whole ND game. Supposedly this is where he originally got injured. He even played against McNeese the next week, though he was in visible pain. Only after McNeese did we hear anything official about his shoulder injury.

It seems possible that Conner was injured in fall camp, the staff judged it to be minor, so they forged on ahead and said nothing, only for the injury to become a much bigger deal in games down the road, so they had to admit he was injured to the public.

So basically something that is VERY common in football.

Granted this is just your theory.

Again

The injury thing was a cover up bc there were actually other issues taking place.

As I said. If it was an actual injury, he would not have played after being benched the second time in mop up time.

You can believe what you want to believe. But him playing in mop up time against a nobody would only occur if he was physically healthy.

Yes, injuries are very common, but how many well-run programs repeatedly put injured players on the field when their injury still is causing things like uncharacteristic INTs, etc.?

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Whatever you use to justify supporting an incompetent AD that has gone full Jerry Jones and isn't even attempting to be competitive because it knows it can just sell nostalgia to a complacent fan base so terrified of being called a bad fan that they keep turning over their wallets for mediocre results every year for decades now.

Elko has shown he can recruit, so that's one answer to criticism.

Let's see how the season goes.

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Or some of us have seen this same movie multiple times over now. But hey, *maybe* it will be different this time!

It's very doubtful Weigman's injury was some kind of coverup. It's ridiculous to suggest as much when the side effects of the drug he was given could easily have contributed to a lack of performance on the field. I'm not sure what Elko could have done differently though. We didn't get consistent results from either QB. That must change this year, hopefully Reed is ready. But I won't be shocked if starting QB is a debate again this season.

Maroon Dawn said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Whatever you use to justify supporting an incompetent AD that has gone full Jerry Jones and isn't even attempting to be competitive because it knows it can just sell nostalgia to a complacent fan base so terrified of being called a bad fan that they keep turning over their wallets for mediocre results every year for decades now.

---

I'm not sold on Trev yet (bc of his actions making Schloss' decision to leave easier). But what evidence do you have he's incompetent and doesn't care about winning?

Artorias said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Or some of us have seen this same movie multiple times over now. But hey, *maybe* it will be different this time!

---

You can think whatever you like but dealing in absolutes is never a great look. Only the sith deal in absolutes.

Law Of The Quad said:

---

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

---

Indeed, another example, lackluster performance from the secondary so he addresses it by adding Lyle Hemphill. He might be the biggest addition to the coaching staff that has completely gone under the radar. Previous working relationship with Elko and hugely productive with largely lesser talented guys. I'm excited to see the jump from our secondary. Elko is very good at evaluating weaknesses and finding beneficial pieces to bolster them.

Zone defense was horrific by Elko's admission. Let's see if it improves.

If Elko wins 9 this year, name a building after him.

NewEra2023 said:

---

Maroon Dawn said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Whatever you use to justify supporting an incompetent AD that has gone full Jerry Jones and isn't even attempting to be competitive because it knows it can just sell nostalgia to a complacent fan base so terrified of being called a bad fan that they keep turning over their wallets for mediocre results every year for decades now.

---

I'm not sold on Trev yet (bc of his actions making Schloss' decision to leave easier). But what evidence do you have he's incompetent and doesn't care about winning?

---

Hiring Earley.
Retaining Earley.

Nothing changes without a big step forward at the QB postion.

AgRyan04 said:

---

Nothing changes without a big step forward at the QB postion.

---

This. Exactly what it comes down to. We have the veteran OL we need, the talented/deep backfield, a better WR room. Biggest thing that'll make it all click is how much Marcel improves.

Oz pulled a GD card out of Connor's shoe. "Kerry" was the source of his woes.

LB12Diamond said:

---

Artorias said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Or some of us have seen this same movie multiple times over now. But hey, *maybe* it will be different this time!

---

You can think whatever you like but dealing in absolutes is never a great look. Only the sith deal in absolutes.

---

And the Dutch

Maroon Dawn said:

---

LB12Diamond said:

---

So you are hiding behind zero patience platform. Zero!

To justify your constant crying.

Well that makes sense bc ones that constantly cry have zero emotional intelligence.

---

Whatever you use to justify supporting an incompetent AD that has gone full Jerry Jones and isn't even attempting to be competitive because it knows it can just sell nostalgia to a complacent fan base so terrified of being called a bad fan that they keep turning over their wallets for mediocre results every year for decades now.

---

Unfortunately I believe your description of Texas A&M's AD is spot on.

Justice Beaver said:

---

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

---

Bateman is an excellent recruiter

Very smart of Elko to keep him as a position coach rather than let him go and have him go to another sec school to recruit against us

chilimuybueno said:

---

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

2021: 5 - 7
2022: 8 - 5

Things change...

---

Let's not forget Saban went 7-6 his first year at bama, and Kirby went 8-5 at Georgia..

LOL

Now you have transitioned into complaining about the AD. You are full blown BAS at its finest.

Beware of drinking the kool-aid

Mike Elkos Burner said:

---

chilimuybueno said:

---

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

2021: 5 - 7
2022: 8 - 5

Things change...

---

Let's not forget Saban went 7-6 his first year at bama, and Kirby went 8-5 at Georgia..

---

If Elko's record over the next 5 years mimics either Saban or Smart I will gladly say I was wrong.

Elko started 7-1 (5-0 SEC) before losing 4 of his last 5 games, including 3 consecutive losses to end the season. Our only win in that span was over New Mexico State. I have noticed several negative trends:

1. We have lost 4 consecutive games to Power 4 opponents, including our last 3 SEC games, since a 38-23 home win over LSU on 10/26/2024.

2. We have lost 4 consecutive November SEC games dating back to a 42-30 road loss at LSU on 11/25/2023.

3. We have lost 6 consecutive games to Power 4 opponents in November or later since a 51-10 home win over Mississippi State on 11/11/2023, including our last two bowl games. Our last bowl win was a 41-27 win over North Carolina in the 2021 Orange Bowl on 1/2/2021.

4. Even worse, we have lost 7 consecutive November road games since a 34-13 road win at Tennessee on 12/19/2020.

Losses to 9-4 (5-3 SEC) South Carolina and 13-2 (7-1 SEC) CFP semifinalist Texas were understandable, but a loss at 5-7 (2-6 SEC) Auburn was inexcusable. If we had beaten Auburn, we would have finished 9-3 (6-2 SEC) regular season record and reached the SEC Championship Game for the first time. Yes, Texas would have probably beaten us again, but we would have played in a better bowl game than the Las Vegas Bowl and might have even won it to finish 10-4 (6-2 SEC).

An 8-4 regular season finish with at least one November SEC win and a subsequent bowl win for a 9-4 finish will be a much better finish than ending last season with 4 consecutive losses to Power 4 opponents. This is my minimum expectation for Elko's 2nd year.

A 9-3 finish would probably require a road win at Missouri on 11/8, which would also be our first road win in November or later since 2020.

Sgt. Schultz said:

---

Beware of drinking the kool-aid

---

Hey, if you don't like the kool-aid, just add more sugar.

LB12Diamond said:

---

Justice Beaver said:

---

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

---

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.

---

Probably nobody knows the real story with Bateman but you don't take on someone's responsibilities (if that is true) and keep that person in the job. You fire him.

This where we are with Elko. He had a pretty solid first year considering the turnover on our team. If we win the bowl game or the Auburn game this is a very different thing but considering where we were at the start of the season we did fine. Elko proved he can recruit with anyone this year. Now we see if we can make a big jump in year two. Texas, LSU, Notre Dame and Arky on the road are going to be tough games. Should be fun.