Mike Elko is ready for Texas A&M football's renewed showdown with Texas
Mike Elko is all in on the renewed rivalry between Texas A&M football and Texas
For far too long, fans of Texas A&M football and the in-state rival Longhorns have only been able to jaw at each other. The currency of the conflict has been relegated to recruiting wins, comparative strengths of schedule, bowl wins, and other accomplishments indirectly related to the other school.
This fall, the game will finally be played once more. No longer will fans have to begrudgingly keep one eye on the scores of the other's games for the full season. At last, the Aggies and Longhorns will finally face off on the gridiron as the culmination of the regular season's games.
In previous years, new coaches at each program would be made to answer one of several questions, all of the same genus, treating the potential of the game coming back. These have been well-documented over the years, as it's always good for a headline when Jimbo Fisher, Charlie Strong, Tom Herman, or whoever else comments on whether or not the Aggies and Longhorns should come back together.
This year, though, with Texas and OU coming into the conference, the Texas A&M football coach is no longer answering hypotheticals. Mike Elko is answering about something that has a firm, set date on the calendar. And he is all in.
Aggie head coach @CoachMikeElko gets it. And is going to have the Aggies ready.
— Billy Liucci (@billyliucci) May 28, 2024
"When you have two programs like that in the same state within two hours of each other those two teams should play. They should play every year. It should mean an awful lot. It does and it will."
Elko knows how much this game means. You can bet he has it circled. For that matter, I would have a tough time believing that Steve Sarkisian doesn't also have this date marked down as a must-win. Rivalries are always this way, no matter if you're talking about Eastern Michigan vs. Western Michigan or the Iron Bowl, but when you renew after so long apart, things are going to be especially weighty with narrative.
I believe Elko has built a good enough squad to make the Longhorns nervous—and, indeed, beat them, maybe beat them soundly. But the projections, the words, the analysis—all of that will be out the window soon enough. On that day, it'll all come down to a three-and-a-half-hour period on Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, in front of a hundred thousand roaring fans.
feed