Texas A&M’s slide has turned into the kind of mess that starts to feel familiar in College Station.
On Saturday, the Aggies took another hit in SEC play, falling 27-6 at Missouri and absorbing their third double-digit conference loss of the season. It was a rough enough result on its own, but it also pushed Texas A&M deeper into a downward spiral that has taken the program from 2025 national title chatter to being out of the playoff discussion before the 2026 season is even halfway through.
For anyone around the program getting a sense of déjà vu, the resemblance to the Jimbo Fisher era is hard to ignore. After going 9-1 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Texas A&M rewarded Fisher - who was already making $7.5M per year - with a 10-year, $90M extension.
What followed was a sharp collapse: an 8-4 finish in 2021, then 5-7 in 2022. Fisher was fired in November 2023 with two games left in the regular season.
Mike Elko arrived later that same month on a seven-year, $49M deal that ran through the 2029 season. Less than two years into the job, while Texas A&M was in the middle of a CFP push, the school extended him by two years and bumped his base salary by more than $4M annually. ESPN described Elko as “one of the five highest-paid coaches in college football,” and now he’s trying to steady a program that has gone off the rails.
The numbers are ugly. Texas A&M is 3-3 overall and 1-3 in SEC play, already sitting on more losses than it had all of last season.
And the path ahead is brutal, with games still left against No. 6 Alabama, No.
15 Tennessee and No. 1 Texas.
The Aggies may need road wins at South Carolina and Oklahoma just to get to bowl eligibility.
There’s blame beyond the head coach, but the issues keep pointing back to Elko because the quarterback play has fallen apart. Marcel Reed struggled badly against Missouri, finishing 19 of 39 for 187 yards with two interceptions. NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein also noted Reed’s last eight games, including Saturday through three quarters, in which he averaged 5.8 yards per attempt while throwing six touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
That slump raises an obvious question: how much of Reed’s earlier success came from former offensive coordinator Collin Klein? Klein left last offseason to become head coach at Kansas State, and the Wildcats have looked sharp under him.
They are 3-1 and averaging 40.5 points per game, which ranked 19th in FBS entering Week 6. Quarterback Avery Johnson is producing his best season yet, completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 910 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions while also rushing for 291 yards and three scores on 30 carries.
However grim things look right now for Texas A&M, Elko does at least have time to sort through it. Fisher is still owed $7.2M per year through 2031, per The Athletic, which makes any talk of a buyout a nonstarter in College Station.
In Other News...
Collin Kleins Latest Offer Push Shows Kansas States Recruiting Urgency
Kansas States recruiting push has been busy lately, with Collin Klein continuing to fan out offers as the Wildcats try to keep momentum going on the trail. One of the latest to hear from the program was Tucson defensive lineman Lincoln Maggard, part of a broader run of scholarship offers aimed at high school prospects across multiple classes and positions. For a staff still building out its board, the activity is a reminder that Kansas State is not waiting around to make its presence felt.
The pace also underscores how wide the competition has become, with several of the same recruits drawing attention from other programs as well. For the Wildcats, these early moves matter because they help establish relationships and keep Kansas State in the conversation before visits, evaluations and commitments start narrowing the field. Kleins latest wave of offers suggests the staff is moving with a clear sense of urgency, even if the full picture on this group is still coming into focus. [Read more 🡒]
Collin Klein Still Carries One Sunflower Showdown Memory Into Kansas Week
The Sunflower Showdown has looked a lot different for Kansas State ever since the Wildcats turned the series in 2009, when a 17-10 win started a run that still holds today. For Collin Klein, now leading the program as head coach, that stretch carries a personal edge. He was part of the team that helped launch it, and he remembers the sting of Kansas 2008 win as something that sharpened the edge inside the building.
What followed became more than just a streak. That first breakthrough marked a clear turning point for Kansas State football, and the Wildcats used it to stack up several dominant wins in the seasons that came after. As Kansas week arrives again, Klein still has that earlier memory in mind, a reminder of how quickly the rivalry changed and how much the outcome can still mean on both sides. [Read more 🡒]
Collin Klein Sends Kansas State A Clear Rivalry Warning
Kansas States grip on the Sunflower Showdown has lasted so long that it is easy to forget how it started. The Wildcats have beaten Kansas 17 straight times since 2008, and Collin Klein still pointed back to that year as the reminder that rivalry games can flip fast when a team gets comfortable.
Both programs head into the next matchup carrying losing streaks, which only adds a little more tension to a series Kansas State has controlled for more than a decade. For Klein, the message is less about the past dominance and more about staying sharp, because in a rivalry like this, history can disappear quickly if a team lets its guard down. [Read more 🡒]