Texas A&M’s slide in SEC play is starting to look awfully familiar.
On Saturday, the Aggies took another hard hit, falling 27-6 at Missouri and suffering their third double-digit conference loss of the season. For a program that was in the 2025 College Football Playoff mix, the drop-off has been swift and ugly, with Texas A&M now out of the playoff conversation before the 2026 season’s halfway point.
The loss also has fans seeing echoes of the Jimbo Fisher era. After going 9-1 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Texas A&M gave Fisher a 10-year, $90 million extension while he was already making $7.5 million annually.
The program then went backward fast, finishing 8-4 in 2021 and 5-7 in 2022. Fisher was fired in November 2023 with two games left in the regular season.
Mike Elko was hired later that month to replace him on a seven-year, $49 million deal through the 2029 season. Less than two years into that job, and after a CFP run, Texas A&M extended Elko by two more seasons and bumped his base salary by more than $4 million per year, making Elko "one of the five highest-paid coaches in college football," per ESPN.
But the results have turned sharply in the wrong direction. Texas A&M is now 3-3 overall and 1-3 in SEC play, already with more losses than it had all of last season.
The road ahead is brutal, with games still on the schedule against No. 6 Alabama, No.
15 Tennessee and No. 1 Texas.
To get bowl eligible, the Aggies may need to find road wins at South Carolina and Oklahoma.
Quarterback Marcel Reed has been a major part of the problem. Against Missouri, he went 19-of-39 for 187 yards and two interceptions. NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein also pointed to Reed’s broader slump, noting that over his past eight games, including Saturday’s contest through three quarters, he has averaged 5.8 yards per attempt with six touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
That kind of regression raises a fair question about how much of Reed’s earlier success belonged to former offensive coordinator Collin Klein, who left last offseason to become the head coach at Kansas State. Klein’s Wildcats are 3-1 and averaging 40.5 points per game, which ranked 19th in FBS entering Week 6. Quarterback Avery Johnson has also taken a clear step forward, completing a career-best 66.2 percent of his passes for 910 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions while adding 291 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries.
For now, though, Texas A&M’s bigger issue is simple: the losses keep piling up, and Elko has a lot to fix. Still, a quick move off the coach does not appear to be in the cards. Fisher is owed $7.2 million per year through 2031, per The Athletic, so buyout talk in College Station is not exactly realistic.
In Other News...
Mike Elko Just Added To The Heat Around Texas A&Ms 3-3 Start
Texas A&Ms uneven start took another hit Saturday with a 27-6 loss to No. 14 Missouri, leaving the Aggies at 3-3 and adding more tension around a season that has yet to find steady footing. The game itself was another reminder of how quickly things can tighten when the offense stalls against a ranked opponent, and the mood around the program only got sharper in the aftermath.
After the loss, Mike Elko turned some of that frustration toward the TexAgs fan community, calling it Billys cesspool during his post-game press conference. It was the kind of remark that can linger well beyond a single defeat, especially with The Citadel next on the schedule and Texas A&M trying to reset before the noise around the program gets any louder. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Fans Are Turning On Marcel Reed Midgame
Midgame frustration had already started to spill over at halftime of Texas A&Ms matchup with Missouri, as Marcel Reeds uneven first half gave the home crowd plenty to gripe about. The Aggies starting quarterback was 5 of 13 for 47 yards with two interceptions, and both turnovers came off deflections, a rough stretch that quickly became the focal point of the conversation around the offense.
From there, the reaction turned predictably loud, with some fans and commentators pushing for Mike Elko to make a change under center. The debate is less about one bad half than about what comes next for Texas A&M if the rhythm never returns, and whether a switch would actually provide the spark supporters are demanding. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&Ms Offense Has A Much Bigger Problem Than One Bad Game
Texas A&Ms latest road trip offered a familiar kind of frustration on offense, and it went beyond one cold afternoon. Through three quarters, the Aggies could not even crack 100 yards, a jarring sign for a unit that has already been uneven away from home. The problems showed up everywhere at once, from shaky quarterback play and penalties to a ground game that never got going and an offensive line still searching for stability.
Even with the defense holding up for much of the game, the margin for error has become thin for an offense stuck in neutral. The concern now is less about whether Texas A&M can clean up one poor showing and more about how it will navigate what comes next, with a tougher stretch of opponents waiting and few signs yet that the offense has found a reliable identity on the road. [Read more 🡒]