Press Conference: Mike Elko, Aggies face Bowling Green in Week 4

Saturday represents another non-conference opportunity for Texas A&M as Bowling Green comes to Aggieland in Week 4. On Monday afternoon, Mike Elko, EJ Smith, Albert Regis and Cashius Howell spoke to the media as the Aggies prepare for the Falcons.

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

Mike Elko

• Recapping the game is one of the things I want to touch on that I didn’t postgame is that is the way the most effort and strain our team has put on tape. I thought they played harder. 
   
• Penalties popped up out of nowhere, so we have to get them fixed really quickly. Shemar Stewart and Trey Zuhn III were the linemen of the week. Marcel Reed was our offensive player of the week. Cashius Howell was our defensive player of the week. Taurean York was it on special teams.
   
• Bowling Green is dear to me. I was there for five years. My family loved it up there.
   
• Bowling Green has athletic kids up front. They are talented at every level. We to to get ourselves ready to play.
   
• Tyreek Chappell was having a really good year. He will be missed. He was the, if not one of the most talented players back there. Jaydon Hill will play a role back there.
   
• I don't notice the breaks as much. My family said the game took forever. While that is going on, and it's a lull for the viewers. When you are in it, you are just going.
   
• My time at Bowling Green was my first Division I defensive coordinator job. Learned a lot. Left with one of the best defenses in the country. I shaved this package into what it has become. Wake Forest and Bowling Green, I have the most connections. 
   
• Conner Weigman will be listed as “day-to-day” or “week-to-week,” whatever you want to call it. We will continue to manage the quarterback room and see where he’s at. We will play the guy on Saturday we think has the best chance to win.
   
• The secondary was not great. Not bad, but not great. We are still learning how to play the coverage we want to. We executed the plan to create a multitude of looks for them.
   
• I don't think I paid attention to our O-line in 2020 when I was here. We have asked our O-line to be the identity of the program. That we had going in 2020 and 2021. These kids have embraced that for our program.
   
• We feel really comfortable with who Marcel Reed is. We have a lot of confidence in him. We always have. It didn't surprise me. He is young. He will go through the ups and downs of being a quarterback, just like Conner and Jaylen Henderson. We have confidence he can put points on the board when he is our quarterback.
   
• This is Tyreek’s fourth year. This is a redshirt year for him. Whatever he decides to do from an eligibility standpoint, he will have another year of college football to play if he chooses to.
   
• The one thing you take away is the way we overcame adversity. In the first drive, we overcame three penalties. Then, the lighting delay. Then, our first drive wasn't great. It was an environment that was uncomfortable for us, and we overcame that.
   
• Koli Faaiu is still day-to-day. We hope to have Trey Jones. They will be put as ‘Questionable’ if we were to put out an injury report.
   
• The QB decision will probably be another game-time decision. We are going to reimage the injury for Conner. Make sure there is nothing we are not seeing. We will sit down with our medical team and make sure we take care of it the right way.
   
• When asked if both Weigman and Reed are "completely healthy" if there is a competition week-to-week: “Oh, you know I'm not going to answer that."