Texas A&M’s first fall camp scrimmage gave Mike Elko exactly the kind of early snapshot he wanted: some clean operation, some expected unevenness, and a better sense of where the Aggies stand with less than three weeks left before the 2026 college football season kicks off.
The Maroon and White ran an intersquad scrimmage last Saturday, with one half of the roster facing the other in a setting built to mimic game action. By Tuesday, Elko was ready to break down what he saw, and his read was pretty straightforward. He liked the way the team handled the structure of the day, especially because that pace has been part of camp from the start.
"Yeah, I thought that, you know, it was the typical first scrimmage in fall camp. I thought operationally, we did good," the head coach said to the media. "I think that one of the things about the way that we run camp is that we start operationally from day one, moving at a pace and a speed that is game-like and so hopefully that means there's not a big shock when we get in there for scrimmage one, and there wasn't."
That doesn’t mean everything was crisp. Elko pointed to inconsistency on both sides of the ball, though he made clear that’s part of the normal curve when a team hits its first scrimmage of camp.
"I thought both sides of the ball functioned operationally at a really, really good level," said Elko. "I also thought there was some inconsistency on both sides of the ball. I think that's naturally what happens in a first scrimmage."
With that first full evaluation in hand, Elko framed the next stretch as the critical one. Texas A&M now has two weeks to tighten things up before the season opens.
"So now, you've got a marker of where you are, and now you've got two weeks to really grind through and get everything where you need to be for the season to start."
One of the clearest positives for Elko came on defense, where he said the front seven has kept pushing forward throughout camp. He also praised the level of competition across the group, noting that the battle for roles has been exactly as fierce as the staff wanted.
"We have a lot of bodies that are capable of going out there and helping us," said Elko. "I think the competition has been really, really intense and it's playing out like we hoped that it would, which was we felt like we had to go elevate the whole level of everything."
Elko specifically pointed to Ray Coney, Noah Mikhail and Jordan Lockhart as players who have been in the mix every day, fighting for chances to see the field.
"So, we brought in some guys, and we want to see them compete, so you see Ray Coney and Noah Mikhail and Jordan Lockhart out there competing every day trying to earn opportunities to play this year, and all three of them are elevating every day."
Texas A&M opens its third season under Elko against Missouri State on September 5.
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