Whatever albatross Texas A&M football has had around their neck, Mike Elko is removing it one game at a time
For the entire span of their membership in the SEC so far, Texas A&M football has had one recurrent issue or another. A&M's struggles felt to fans as though they were far too predictable—the trouble spots always seemed to be the same.
For a while, the Aggies were unable to win big games at home under Sumlin. While that trend was reversed under Jimbo, several others were not—in fact, they got worse and worse.
We've spent this week discussing one in particular ad nauseaum—the Aggies' struggles in Starkville. Leading up to this game, the Ags had an ignominious 2-4 record when playing in Davis Wade Stadium, including some absolute blitzkriegs in 2014 and 2018 and a completely unforeseen upset in 2016.
One recently-developed trend that was hanging over Aggie heads was the record on the road overall. Before the win in the Swamp earlier this year, the Ags had not won a true road game in over two years. Now, of course, A&M is 2-0 in such games in 2024.
One final area that was a perennial concern for Texas A&M football fans was games coming out of a bye week. The Aggies always seemed to look lackadaisical in those games, sometimes starting slow and paying the price for it—2022 South Carolina is one that jumps immediately to mind.
Mike Elko just conquered all three of those in one fell swoop.
Now, I'm not trying to say that all of these recurring issues have fully and finally been put to bed. Nor am I trying to say that Elko will not have any particular issues of his own.
But Elko clearly came into this job knowing the bugaboos this team and program have had, historically—and he came to remedy them.
There's still work to do. But he's well on his way.