Athlon Sports: Reed better than Weigman? Anonymous coaches high on Texas A&M football

Athlon Sports CFB preview: Anonymous coaches bullish on Elko, Texas A&M football; Could Marcel Reed be better than Conner Weigman?

As excitement continues to grow in the college football public about Texas A&M football this upcoming year, it appears that those in the industry are beginning to see the vision as well.

In Athlon Sports' recent CFB preview magazine, there was a survey of anonymous coaches about each of the 16 SEC programs for the upcoming year. On the most recent episode of That SEC Football Podcast, SEC Mike and Athlon Sports' Steven Lassan discussed some of these comments—and Texas A&M football was a program highly spoken of. You can watch at the link above (the A&M section starts around minute 34), but here are some of the relevant comments.

"Mike Elko was a fantastic hire. He has a ton of respect in this league and across the industry. He knows the program firsthand, and he's not going to worry about anything other than finding ways to win. it's going to be a night-and-day culture change at the head coaching position. There's a lot of turnover coming from Jimbo Fisher's NIL-mercenary-type culture to what Mike Elko wants."

This really aligns well with a lot of what we've heard so far about the change in culture from Fisher to Elko. Jimbo was clearly a guy that had his personal beefs with a lot of coaches in the conference—Lane Kiffin in particular—but Elko is respected and highly-thought-of around the league.

These weren't the only comments, though. Apparently, there are some coaches out there in the league extremely impressed by what Marcel Reed did in the bowl game against Oklahoma State.

"Marcel Reed might be a better overall quarterback than Conner Weigman. Don't be shocked if he's the starter at some point this season by beating him out or by injury. They could be really scary on defense. That's not going to be a first-year head coach situation. Mike Elko knows the personnel and they're really talented. The program has a chance to shift its entire identity this season to hard-nosed, defensive-minded, all that stuff, which can really fit that place. They could be a hell of a place to play."

Let's get to the comments about the defense in a second. Marcel Reed could be better than Conner Weigman? Now, I loved what I saw out of Reed against Oklahoma State, but I'm not sure he's going to be able to beat out Weigman for the top position.

To my eye, #15 is the far more polished passer at this point, especially pushing the ball far downfield. Reed has a sky-high ceiling, and I think he has a great chance to move ahead of Jaylen Henderson on the depth chart, but I think Weigman is head and shoulders above everyone else on the roster right now.

Now, to the defense. I think this is spot-on. We've maybe undersold the factor of Elko knowing the personnel on that side of the ball—despite a lot of turnover, Elko has coached or recruited many of the big time contributors on defense: Shemar Turner, Bryce Anderson, Shemar Stewart, Tyreek Chappell, and more.

The Wrecking Crew-type identity that Elko was able to instill in this Aggie program as the DC led to some of the best moments for Aggie fans in recent memory. Building the entire program around that culture will be a boon for Texas A&M football going into this year, and I think it will continue the tradition of Kyle Field being one of the most difficult places in the nation to play as an opposing team.