Mike Elko didn’t wait long to see his quarterback dilemma come into focus in Tuscaloosa.
With Brady Hart loosening up on the Texas A&M sideline, the Aggies’ sideline was already in emergency mode after Marcel Reed threw two interceptions in quick succession against No. 13 Alabama, including one that was taken back 39 yards for a touchdown. Before the game had even settled in, Texas A&M was staring at the kind of offensive mess it was trying to avoid.
After Alabama’s 31-20 win, Elko made it clear that a change was on the table after Reed’s second interception.
"Yeah, absolutely. There was for sure a thought," Elko said. "Obviously, it couldn't continue to go that way, and so we were ready to do that."
That kind of preparation says plenty about where things stood. Reed wasn’t just dealing with a rough start; he was approaching the point where the staff had to be ready to pull him, even with the veteran quarterback having helped lead Texas A&M to the College Football Playoff last season.
Hart never actually took a snap. Reed stayed in, and for a stretch, the decision looked like the right one.
He helped put together back-to-back touchdown drives, hitting Mario Craver on a 9-yard touchdown pass before punching in a 4-yard run of his own. For a Texas A&M offense that had been struggling to finish drives on the road for weeks, the Aggies suddenly had a 14-10 lead.
Elko said Reed "played probably his best football for the rest of the first half," which would have sounded impossible not long before that. The offense settled down, and Reed’s response after such a rough beginning gave Texas A&M something it had not had much of on Saturday: stability.
But the bounce-back didn’t last. Reed went 14 of 21 for 163 yards with one passing touchdown and two interceptions, and Texas A&M managed only 15 yards in the fourth quarter as Alabama pulled away. What had briefly looked like a rescue job ended as another loss, dropping the Aggies to 4-4.
Even so, the episode made Elko’s thinking plain. A quarterback change is not imminent, but it was close enough to be a serious conversation.
Reed got another chance against Alabama. Whether he keeps it will depend on more than one decent half.
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