Texas A&M's game against the Missouri Tigers this weekend is suddenly looking far more decisive for Mike Elko's third season as Aggie head coach than anyone had anticipated coming into the year. The Tigers are riding high right now, coming off of a 28-point win over a top-10 Florida team, and they will be looking to keep that momentum going against the Ags.
If Texas A&M loses this game, though, things all of a sudden look extremely bleak for the Maroon and White. The Aggies will be 3-3 through the first half of the season and 1-3 in conference. You get an easy win against the Citadel the following week, but then you're 4-3 heading into Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide— and if you can't beat Kentucky or Missouri, then it's not likely you can beat Alabama.
Then comes the worst part of the schedule: November. A&M will have to head on the road to play South Carolina and Oklahoma, while hosting Tennessee and Texas at Kyle Field. While SC and OU both look like they are failing to meet expectations in the same way that the Aggies are, those are not going to be easy trips in the slightest.
The implications of Texas A&M's game against Missouri are suddenly massive for Mike Elko
In other words, to get to 8-4 would require a 4-0 November in this scenario— and barring a massive change of fortunes for this team, that seems like it's not even close to being in the cards right now. You buy yourself some optimism with a win against the Tigers, as well as some time— but there are still some huge questions for the Aggies no matter what.
A win would also likely get the Aggies back in the AP Poll, for whatever that is worth to fans. They'd be sitting at 4-2 with a ranked road win over Mizzou, and, in all likelihood, entering Tuscaloosa at 5-2. That feels like a far, far better scenario for A&M than 4-3, even though it's only one win separating those two records.
The reality is that with such long times between games— and so few games overall— the win-loss record at any given point in the season heavily impacts the optics of a particular program. A&M is still attempting to hold together their no. 1-ranked recruiting class at the moment (and even trying to add to it), so keeping those optics in a positive place matters quite a lot.
Up until this season, the narrative for Mike Elko in College Station has been one of rapid ascent, finally using the massive resources at the disposal of Texas A&M to quickly build this program into a contender. The counter-narrative was that last season's success was only due to an easy schedule, and it's that counter-narrative that is being bolstered by those two early losses this year.
That's why the optics would be so damaging if the Aggies end up losing this one, and therefore why there is so much on the line for Mike Elko in this game. Things could get tough pretty quickly for A&M if they don't come out of this one with an upset victory.
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