Texas A&M football is completely without answers on the offensive side of the ball right now, as Marcel Reed regressed to early-season form tonight against the Tennessee Volunteers. It looked like A&M had found some things through the run game in the second quarter against the Vols, but it quickly became evident that they didn’t have a lot in their bag of tricks once Tennessee started adjusting.
Fans have been begging for firings to be made this season after how bad things have been on that side of the ball, but so far, Elko has held fast with the staff that he assembled this offseason. In the presser after the game, though, Elko sounded as animated and as fiery as he ever has in discussing the offensive performance.
It’s obvious to anyone watching that there are some really broken things right now with this team’s offense. It’s been obvious for some time, even though there are some things that have felt like rays of hope throughout the year. But this is the first time we’ve really heard Elko go in like this, and it’s more than deserved.
Mike Elko excoriates offensive performance but takes responsibility
The answer came in response to a question about the quarterback position, as Elko pointed out that the problem goes far deeper than just the signal-caller spot. Here’s a full video of what he had to say.
Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko with a fiery response after being asked if the QB position is open now.
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) November 14, 2026
“Our offense inept. I don’t know how you can put this on one kid. This is not on one kid. The narrative that this is just on Marcel — anybody who watched that game and… pic.twitter.com/IFn8CnowDB
You can’t ask much more in the way of responsibility. He’s not trying to evade any heat here— he’s giving it himself and putting himself right in the line of fire.
The real problem is this: the issues go far deeper than just one spot on the field, and just one coach on the staff. That’s why there’s not been much momentum within the building so far to remove any one coach— who are you going to replace the offensive coordinator with if the problem goes this much deeper?
The real issues came from the offseason decisions on the coaching staff. Mike Elko went all-in on his internal hires, going for consistency as much as he could. It became clear earlier on this season that that was a miscalculation— the issue, though, is that the problem then cannot be fixed until the next offseason.
There are maybe two coaches on offense that should survive the upcoming cuts: Adam Cushing and Trooper Taylor are the only ones you’d consider keeping. If neither of them are going to be calling plays, then you don’t put them in an interim OC spot. Mike Elko no doubt has already been contacting coaches who he’s vetting to take over at OC, so you don’t want to give a coach false hope that you want to keep on the staff.
Until then, though, until the sweeping changes that are needed can be made, the frustration will only continue. It’s better to be frustrated, though, than to be apathetic— it’s sort of a bummer every time the team gets close because you begin to hope, but it’s better to have any hope than to have none at all.
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