Press Conference: Mike Elko & Co. enter bye week with 7-2 record

With a discouraging performance at South Carolina in the rearview, No. 15 Texas A&M enters its second bye with a 7-2 record. On Monday afternoon, Mike Elko, Collin Klein and Jay Bateman addressed the media with the Aggies facing an open date.

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

Mike Elko

• Not too many ways to sugarcoat it. We played a bad game. We coached a bad game. That starts with me. We had too many perimeter edge issues and too many busts in the fourth quarter. We were awful offensively, and that starts with me. We were awful in short yardage, we botched some handoffs, and we didn’t do what we needed to do. You address it, you own it. Everything we want is still ahead of us. We have to focus on the bye week. I’m pretty confident in how we’ll respond and bounce back down the stretch.
   
• On the injury front, Le’Veon Moss will be out for the year. 
   
• I don’t think you want to put a quarterback who hasn’t started a ton of games down in the fourth quarter on the road against an elite defensive line. We wanted to keep the game in touch. They had three sacks in the fourth quarter. It’s really hard to control an elite defensive line when you’re down on the road and have to throw every down. 
   
• This whole thing is on me. We did a poor job of understanding we’re tackling a tight end and not a quarterback. We were tackling him like he would go down like a quarterback. We tried to emphasize the size, but we didn’t get it done. He had the power and strength to twist and get out of a lot of trouble, and he did that. 
   
• The conversation is you can’t have post-snap 15-yard penalties. I have to find a different way to get that message across because it’s not working. 
   
• We’ll try to look at everything on the table. We’re confident in Amari Daniels, and EJ Smith will be the primary backup. 
   
• The wear and tear is real. Getting our guys back to finish fresh and strong down the stretch is important. We have to stay sharp in the bye week. We didn’t do that last time and we started slow against Mississippi State. I think the kids will be hungry to get back to work and that will help too. 
   
• No change in Rueben Owens’ timeline. I think it’s too early. He’s just now getting to the point where he’s testing it and running on hard ground. It’s too early to see how that will play out. 
   
• Obviously, Terry Bussey is talented. We understand he’s still a freshman and that’s maybe lost on everyone. Every freshman who steps into college football needs development. We’re continuing to grow him as a wide receiver, finding ways to get the ball in his hands and do it without the whole world knowing. We’re trying to expand that role every game the best we can.
   
• I hate losing. I want a program that hates losing and knows how to respond to losing. We’ve got to get to a point around here where we can fix problems through victory. You don’t want to have to lose to identify all your issues. Some of the things we’ve been trying to get corrected bit us. We want to grow to be a program that doesn’t have to lose to learn. 
   
• I would imagine that if we win our next three games, everything will take care of itself. 
   
• It’s disappointing that we played the way we did. I have to own that. That was a team that jumped all over LSU. When we were watching the tape of South Carolina, we knew we had to go in there and take it from them. But it didn’t get done. We’re built to respond to these things because of how we do things and how we talk about things. We’ve got to get back to work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
   
• In general, kids are a lot better than people think at bouncing back. Human nature, when you get embarrassed, is to respond positively. Human nature to success is to relax and coast. Human nature fuels your response to that because nobody in this building is happy with what just happened. Everything we want is still right in front of us.
   
• The three fourth downs we went on were three obvious go’s. The two in our own territory for a fourth and a half a yard or even a quarter. I believe we should be able to do that. You have to make your decisions and trust them and your process so you don’t get gun-shy. You want to play to win. What eats you alive as a coach is always the play call. I still believe we are a program that can get half a yard. We just have to find a better way to do it. 
   
• The same thing that happened with Moss happened with Tyreek Chappell. When you see young people turning the corner and doing things the right way, you hate to see those kids face adversity. They should have a clean path, but it’s part of the life lessons. It’s extremely unfortunate for Le’Veon Moss because he was having such a great year and you hate to see him have to face the adversity he has upcoming. 
   
• We had fewer pre-snap offensive procedure issues than our other road games, which showed some steps forward. It was a difficult place to play, and we knew it would be. 
   
• The decisions are all on me. We always know what the analytics are. We have a book, so I know what the analytics say. We don’t just follow the book, we use some feel to it too. The whole decision came down to where the ball was spotted. I felt like we could get a quarter of a yard. It’s always a combination of feel and analytics. 

Jay Bateman

• The missed tackles will be a huge point of emphasis after watching the tape. 
   
• We’ve had these conversations with Shemar Turner. He’s a tremendous player, but anytime you have a player who plays with an edge, you have to let them know that there’s a time and place for everything. We’ve got to get him moving forward in a better place to handle this. We’ll all get better moving forward. 
   
• The conversations during the game are how to prepare our players on how to handle things. There’s a sense of urgency on how to get it done. We try to find answers and prepare for future problems. 
   
• We spent time in preseason camp talking about how to tackle the quarterback without getting a penalty. These guys want to play in the NFL. The strike zone of where you hit them matters. We talk all the time about stripping and jabbing at the football while tackling, and we’ve been guilty of not doing that. We’re focused on getting better at that. 
   
• I think Dalton Brooks is tremendous. All the NFL scouts always ask me about #25. Anytime you’ve got a defensive guy who can return kicks, it’s special. He’s got great athleticism, and I’ve seen him grow as a leader. 
   
• Taurean York is a great leader. We’ve got a lot of great leaders on this defense and they’ll all work hard over the week to get it fixed. 
   
• Raheim Sanders is a really good player. A lot of it was some mental errors. We had fundamental errors on the quarterback and mental errors on how we fit the run. It was the most missed tackles in a game. 
   
• Your goal as a defensive player is tackling. I don’t think we did a great job early in the LSU game. But I feel it’s been much more consistent than we saw on Saturday, which was the most disappointing piece. 
   
• The minute you say you’re good, that’s when you get embarrassed. We don’t think anything is perfect. The errors are going to get addressed. Our kids see it, too. It’s on us getting back to the basics of playing defensive football, and we’ll get back to that this week. 
   
• The bye weeks are always appreciated at this point for health reasons. We’ve got some guys who are dinged up that could use a break. It’s all about leveraging the football. We’ve got time to improve that during the bye week. 

Collin Klein

• There are definitely certain things we have specifically designed for specific guys. We have great faith in Amari Daniels and EJ Smith to do things at a high level. Credit to South Carolina for taking away our edges and making things difficult. 

• It will be a shared effort throughout the room. There are different ways we can get the ball in everyone’s hands. I have great faith in the guys in the room to step up and make those plays. Guys have stepped up when their number is called. 

• The message to the quarterback room is we’re all in this together, one day at a time. I think Marcel Reed did a great job competing throughout the game, making plays in the passing game and extending with his legs. 

• On fourth down, obviously, the final call comes from coach Elko. The time, score, and yardage can change what you do and how you move forward. It’s a collaborative effort between me and him on what we’re thinking in those scenarios. We just didn’t get it done in those situations. 

• There is some overlap between Marcel Reed and Conner Weigman in what they can do, but they both have unique strengths. If you have a player go down, you always have to adapt that on the fly. You’re always playing the what-if game during the week. The game plan has to be a holistic approach from top to bottom. 

• Right now, there are always things that can be positive and negative, but I thought there were some bright spots in the passing game with guys stepping up and making tough catches. It’s something we have to keep getting better at because I believe in those guys. 

• I thought Jabre Barber did a really nice job in the slot. We’re getting closer to getting a couple of explosive plays down the field. We’ll have to do that to help ourselves. It’s never one thing, it’s on every level fo the offense to come together to get those plays made.

• All those kids in the locker room are competitors. We have great faith in coach Elko and all our guys to put the work in day in and day out that will make a difference. 

• Conner has been an exemplary teammate. Both have been there for each other through the ups and downs. I’m proud of him. 

• Amari has explosive ability. He had a huge touchdown for us in a short-yardage situation. He’s an all-around back, and I have all the faith in him. 

• I think we are still a work in process. We are growing. Credit to all our guys for being able to step up. We’ve established the line of scrimmage. From an identity piece, we’ve done it in a bunch of different ways. Just because the tight ends don’t catch a ton of balls doesn’t mean their impact on the run game isn’t huge for us. I’m proud of how they’ve contributed for us. 

• It all depends on how and what style of defense they run. We wanted to get into more naked and edge game. We ran two of them, and they were tough situations based on how their ends were playing. That was on me. We want to use his athleticism. He was able to use his legs to extend those plays in a scramble and made good decisions. 

• I think both games have been different issues. The biggest one in this game was our inability to stay on the field. We couldn’t manage those third-down conversions. We had some decent early down plays but couldn’t keep ourselves on the field. 

• We’re trying to focus and lock in on those little things in the bye week. I have great faith in our guys in how they’ll respond and get after it this week.

• It’s constant improvement, getting better, and making sure we correct the mistakes that need to be corrected. 

• Jabre Barber has worked really hard in practice. He’s done well with the ball after the catch. His consistency since being healthy has been huge for us. We have to tell that kid to slow down in the walk-through. He’s always chomping at the bit. Proud of him.

• The higher up you get on the mountain, the more your eyes have to stay down. Everything else will take care of itself if we walk the walk one day at a time. The teams who truly do that, it works.