Mike Elko walked into Texas A&M’s fall camp on Tuesday with the kind of expectations that don’t leave much room for a slow start.
The US LBM Coaches Poll slotted the Aggies at No. 8, a ranking that carries an obvious message for year three in College Station: a return to the CFP is the baseline. That’s the weight sitting on Texas A&M before a single snap of the 2026 season.
Elko hasn’t tried to hide where things stand. He’s made it clear he knows the program hasn’t stacked up much in his first two years, and he’s pointed to the empty trophy case as fuel heading into this season. The urgency is built in now, whether the Aggies want it or not.
The ranking puts Texas A&M behind only Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas, Notre Dame, defending champion Indiana, and Miami, the team that knocked the Aggies out of the 2025/2026 CFP.
That kind of pressure usually comes with a search for answers, and Elko is already pushing one area hard in camp: takeaways. Texas A&M played with discipline last season, but the defense forced just 10 turnovers all year, including only three interceptions. That has to change if the Aggies are going to survive the tight margins that come with playing at the top of the sport.
The challenge gets even sharper with the offenses Texas A&M could see on the schedule. Arch Manning’s Texas Longhorns, John Mateer’s Oklahoma Sooners, and LaNorris Sellers’ South Carolina Gamecocks all loom as teams that can turn a game into a shootout. In those matchups, a turnover or two could swing everything.
There’s also a major shift happening on offense. Elko promoted Holmon Wiggins to replace Collin Klein, and that move is set to be one of the biggest storylines of camp.
Wiggins’ system is expected to keep some of the same pro-style structure, but it should feature more four-receiver looks. That should give Marcel Reed more options as he tries to bring his passing along to match the elite rushing ability he shows when he escapes the pocket.
Reed has already said Wiggins has “more love for the receivers,” and that should be welcome news for the quarterback. The bigger question is whether the rebuilt offensive line can give him enough protection to make those extra windows matter. Outside of center Mark Nabou Jr., the front has work to do, and Wiggins will have to build a strong working relationship with OL coach Adam Cushing even though he’s never managed an offensive line before.
So there’s no shortage of moving pieces in College Station. Elko knows it, and he’s acting like it. If the changes stick - on defense, on offense, and up front - the results should follow.
That part is still to be determined. Camp can only reveal so much. Once the games start and the depth chart gets stress-tested, that’s when the offseason work really gets judged.
The question now is simple: did Elko do enough to meet the moment? We’re about to find out.
In Other News...
Mike Elko Just Spotlighted A Crucial Texas A&M Battle
Texas A&M opened its 2026 preseason with Mike Elko meeting the media alongside Micah Riley, Mark Nabou Jr. and Dalton Brooks, and the early camp conversation quickly turned to special teams. With KC Concepcion off to the Cleveland Browns after handling a major share of the return load last season, the Aggies are sorting through a new plan in the punt game while they settle into the new year.
Elko pointed to Mario Craver, Isaiah Horton and Terry Bussey as the top candidates in that role during fall camp, giving Texas A&M an early competition to watch as the roster takes shape. It is the kind of battle that can quietly matter a lot over the course of a season, especially for a team trying to replace one of its more reliable big-play outlets on special teams. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Faces A Running Back Battle With Real Offensive Stakes
Fall camp has Texas A&M sorting through one of the most important questions on offense, and the running back room is at the center of it. Rueben Owens and Jamarion Morrow are the leading candidates to take over, and head coach Mike Elko has made it clear that the staff is still working through competition across the roster as it looks for the best fit.
Morrow has the clearest case to make a leap, coming off a season in which he flashed enough to stay in the conversation for a bigger role. Owens is very much in the mix too, which gives the Aggies options, but it also leaves the position unsettled at a time when the offense would benefit from a clear answer. For now, the job is still there for the taking. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Elko Has Texas A&M Looking Unlike Any Aggies Team In Years
Texas A&M has gone from building around youth and homegrown development to leaning into experience in a way that would have looked unusual around here not all that long ago. The 2016 team was still defined by younger front-line talent and a roster with fewer transfers, while the current group under Mike Elko has been reshaped by veterans arriving from Power 4 programs and an offensive line that brings far more seasoning to the table.
Myles Garrett was the face of that earlier era, a reminder of how much star power the Aggies could generate even before the portal era changed roster construction across the sport. Now names like Isaiah Horton and Anto Saka fit a different blueprint, one that says Texas A&M is willing to buy experience and speed up the transition at spots that used to take longer to fill. The interesting part is less about whether the formula is modern and more about how quickly it can translate when the Aggies start facing the kind of pressure that comes with a roster built this way. [Read more 🡒]