Press Conference: Elko, Aggies begin fall camp on Wednesday

The first fall practice for Mike Elko and the Fightin' Texas Aggies will be held on Wednesday night as the Maroon & White gear up for the 2024 campaign. On Tuesday, Elko, Conner Weigman, Noah Thomas and Bryce Anderson addressed the media.

The following are live, paraphrased notes from the Tuesday afternoon media availability:

• It's here, finally. In some ways, it feels like I got here two days ago, and in some ways, it also feels like I got here five years ago. It's an exciting time. We are going in at a good place. We are very healthy. We are excited about where we are.
   
• Enai White is still banged up. We expect to have him by the opener. Jabre Barber is on a crash course to getting back. Outside of that, we are a healthy group.
   
• We say, “We feel like this guy can be a starter.” Taurean York, for example. There are guys who have entrenched themselves in the program to be with the ones. Those things will play out throughout fall camp.
   
• Chase Bisontis has been a guard all the way and never left. We feel good about where he is at. He has gotten strong, as seen on social media.
   
• In this day and age, you don't go into it saying, “You have to be strong here, or you don't have a chance.” You evaluate where your defenses are and build around that. We are strong in the defensive line, similar to when I was at A&M last time. You look at who you are and say, “This is how we build this unit this week.”
   
• I feel better today than I did going into the summer. Each of those kids has bought into what we are trying to do. Noah Thomas, Moose Muhammad, Jabre Barber and Cyrus Allen have had a good summer. Jacob Bostick and Ashton Bethel-Roman. Izaiah Williams is another semester in. He has flashed.
   
• It’s a wide-open competition with tackle and center. There is a battle at the center between three guys. Whoever loses that battle can flip out to another position. There are a lot of ways we have to look at it. We want to have the best five on the field, but we have the flexibility to play seven or eight guys. That will continue to rotate throughout fall camp.
   
• Defensively, there was a little bit of carryover. Offensively, it completely shifted gears. There was a steep learning curve in the spring.
   
• Conner Weigman has had a really, really good summer. He was learning a new system and coming back from injury. He was throwing, and he couldn't put pressure on his left foot. He is coming out of that now as healthy and more comfortable in the system. It's been a cool summer to see it come together and see the excitement. He is a lot more comfortable today than he was in the spring game.
   
• Donovan Green, it will take time for him. Coming back from an ACL is not easy. That will be an ongoing fall camp process. Tre Watson is back in healthy. Theo Melin Öhrström has a really good summer.
   
• There were games at Duke where we felt like we had to play up-tempo to throw off the defense. Sometimes, we didn't. A lot of that is game-to-game. We can go in a huddle or fast pace off of one word. We are creating a bank to play at whatever speed we want to. 
   
• There is still so much uncertainty. The 105 roster number has yet to be finalized, so it's hard to come up with a plan for what it will look like. 
   
• What we are trying to do in camp is establish what winning football looks like. In camp, you can get jaded. You can get a sack because the offense is tired. We have a formula for what winning football looks like, and we are trying to hit those marks. With the time we have, we expect tomorrow night, we will be operating at full speed, and there will be no build-up. 
   
• Noah Thomas, from a big-picture standpoint, is committed to the weight room. That commitment helps with injury prevention. He is a 6-foot-4 kid with a huge catch radius. I think there is a huge upside for him, and I hope it comes to fruition. 
   
• We have more versatility and pieces in the secondary room than at any point in the last six years. We have a lot of options, depth and competition. That’s probably what I am most excited about.
   
• It's been well documented that coach Tommy Moffitt has done a lot to change the weight room from a cultural standpoint. We have put on strength and mass but created toughness and grit. I don't think we had a single kid miss a lift this summer. When you see these guys, a lot of their bodies look different.
   
• Koli Faaiu, Mark Nabou and Kam Dewberry are competing at the center position. 
   
• Le’Veon Moss and Rueben Owens had a great summer. Amari Daniels looks a lot different. EJ Smith is now primed. He is healthy. Collin Klein will bring that excitement to the offense that a lot of Aggie fans have been looking for.