There’s a clear reason Mike Elko is refusing to bench Marcel Reed even after LSU debacle

Texas A&M fans are more rabid than ever in their calling for Marcel Reed to be benched following another horrendous performance— this time in Death Valley as opposed to at home in Kyle Field, admittedly, but still a horrendous performance. However, following the game, just like last week, Mike Elko expressed his state of mind as regards the position is still the same: Marcel remains the starter.

There’s a few ways to take this. You could understand this as the same kind of stubbornness that we saw out of Jimbo with regard to his offensive system the final few years that he was in College Station— indeed, some are thinking that’s exactly what it is. That would definitely bode poorly— although it would be understandable, in one way, given how quickly things have shifted: if you go from something working, remain with the same process, and all of a sudden the results look polar opposite, you’d not immediately lose faith in the process.

Another reason could be simply to express support for his quarterback. There’s no harder position in all of sports than this, and the mental issues can play in big time— as a matter of fact, that’s what Elko, at least as of last week, believed was going on with Marcel. He and Reed’s teammates have expressed consistently this week that they are behind him, in that vein.

However, the real reason is very clear. For however badly Marcel has been playing compared to what we know he is capable of, there simply is nobody behind him right now who would stand a chance of being any better at the position.

Mike Elko is sticking with Marcel Reed out of necessity rather than stubbornness

Reed originally got the starting position exactly because Elko refused to be stubborn and keep Conner Weigman in the game when he was clearly mentally spiraling. Reed looks to be spiraling right now, but unlike in 2024, there is no capable backup ready to go in and give this offense a spark.

Fans saw when Brady Hart entered the game and nearly immediately threw an interception that the issues at quarterback go beyond just Marcel. While Hart was a big win over Michigan on the recruiting trail, he’s still quite young: he had a late birthday for his class and ended up reclassifying even one year up, so he’s just now 18 despite having been on campus for a year already.

This is not, however, an excuse. With the departure of Miles O’Neill to UNC via the portal, the Aggies were taking a chance to not bring in a backup signal caller from the transfer ranks and rolling with their QB room. We knew that at the time: Marcel’s body type combined with his dual-threat style means the specter of injury is always looming, so when considering that prospect, there was a worry about the dearth of experience at the position behind him.

Now, though, it’s looking like it was even more debilitating of a decision than it did previously. Marcel’s issues are not the only ones on this team— there are some pretty worrying things going on all over the team, but Reed’s struggles are simply the most visible.

If Elko had a backup he felt better about, he’d be putting him in over Reed. That is true, but it does not absolve the head man of blame in this instance: this is the fruit of the decision he and his staff made earlier in the offseason to not bring in another quarterback. However unforeseen it was that Reed has been just this bad to start the season, it remains true that the Aggies could have gotten another player as insurance— and yet they didn’t.

That in mind, barring injury or a huge jump from Hart or Casuga, Reed is likely going to be the starter for the remainder of the season. Maybe he finds what he had lost and he can turn it on at some point. But right now, if he keeps playing this way, even the prospect of a bowl seems hard to imagine for the Aggies right now.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow