Texas A&M’s bye week arrives with the kind of unease that usually follows a season that has gone off the rails. The Aggies opened the year in the top 10, but eight games in, they sit at 4-4 and far from the national picture they expected to occupy.
There is at least one reason the mood around this team has shifted a little: yesterday’s game showed improvement. That doesn’t erase how poor things looked before it, though. It only stands out because A&M had been so rough for so long that simply looking functional felt like progress.
Even so, this is a program with bigger problems than one encouraging showing can fix, and the offseason will already be a major project for Mike Elko. The bye week, though, brings a more immediate question: does he make a change now, the way Dan Lanning did?
Oregon’s head coach had plenty in common with Elko’s situation this offseason, starting with the decision to lean on internal hires in the name of continuity. Oregon has Dante Moore’s injury as part of the explanation for its offensive struggles, but the Ducks also brought in one of the top portal quarterbacks in former five-star Dylan Raiola.
Still, Lanning moved today to fire offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer with two-thirds of the season gone. Ducks fans had been pushing for it, and it is not hard to see why. Oregon’s expectations were much higher than Texas A&M’s, and the Ducks entered the season as a popular national championship pick before sliding back into the pack alongside the Aggies.
Lanning saw enough to act. The bigger question is whether Elko will do the same.
There are obvious complications. Texas A&M has to decide whether it wants to preserve whatever continuity remains over the final four games, or whether it wants to move fast and start identifying the top candidate on its board right away.
The coordinator spot is only part of the issue, too. QB coach Joey Lynch has been a central figure in the complete regression of Marcel. That raises another question for Elko: if he makes a change, who on the current staff can step into those jobs on an interim basis?
That is part of why a move could wait. And the optics look different now than they would have after the Missouri game.
But whether Elko does it during the bye or not, that side of the ball is going to need a full overhaul. Adam Cushing is the one assistant many fans would most like to keep, though the offensive line has had its share of problems as well.
If the change is inevitable, there is little point in dragging it out. The bye week will reveal plenty about what direction Elko chooses, but if Texas A&M wants to act like a winning program, it has to start behaving like one.
In Other News...
Texas A&M Collapse Turns On One Snap That Shouldn't Have Happened
Texas A&M had Alabama where it wanted heading into the fourth quarter, but the game turned sharply in the final period and the Aggies were left with an 11-point loss. For much of the night, the kind of result that can reshape an SEC race seemed within reach, before one sequence changed the feel of everything.
Mike Elko said afterward the snap on a fourth-and-one should not have happened because no play was called, a breakdown that turned into a turnover and handed momentum to Alabama. For a team that had controlled the game into the fourth quarter, the frustration is obvious, and the bigger question now is how a miscommunication like that surfaced in such a pivotal moment. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Let A Winnable Game Slip When One Matchup Broke Down
Texas A&M had enough going early to make this one feel very much within reach. The Aggies picked off Alabama to open the door, and for much of the night their defense did a good job of taking away the Crimson Tides running game and keeping them out of the end zone.
By the fourth quarter, though, Alabama found a way to change the shape of the game. Different sets and personnel helped the Tide break through twice, and Keelon Russell finished 19 of 30 for three touchdown passes in a 31-20 Alabama win, including a late stretch in which he was perfect on seven throws for 106 yards and two scores. For Texas A&M, it was the kind of loss that stings because the answer was there for a while, until it wasnt. [Read more 🡒]
KJ Edwards Injury Suddenly Looms Large For Texas A&M's Offense
KJ Edwards workload changed sharply in the second half against Alabama, when the Texas A&M running back was limited after taking a deep contusion earlier in the game. Mike Elko confirmed the injury afterward, and while the diagnosis was encouraging in the sense that it was not a break or muscle tear, it still left the Aggies juggling their backfield in a game where Edwards had become a key part of the offense.
Now the focus shifts to the bye week, which gives Edwards a chance to recover before Texas A&M returns to action against South Carolina. For an offense that has leaned on his presence, the extra time matters, but it also leaves one question hanging over the Aggies: how ready will Edwards be when the team comes back from the break? [Read more 🡒]