All things considered, Mike Elko had a great inaugural season at Texas A&M. The Aggies went into the final week of the season with a chance to play in the SEC title game despite four changes at the quarterback position, a season-long injury to one of its best offensive playmakers, having one of the least productive receiving rooms in the nation and the third -worst sack rate in their conference. While the end goal was eventually not met, it's hard to be upset with the foundation built in College Station.
But with a sturdy foundation comes heightened expectations: the Aggies return to camp this week with a raised bar and a strong understanding around the conference that they will not be pushed around the way they were the previous three years. Because of that, growth will be paramount.
Thankfully, the proverbial year-two bump will also be coming to camp: so where can we expect to see the biggest leaps for this program?
The unified approach on offense
Offensive coordinator Collin Klein and starting quarterback Marcel Reed will downplay the chaos that was the 2024 offense, but there's no doubt they enter this new season in a much more comfortable position.
The Aggies were never able to find a groove offensively under Klein in his first season calling plays. The road was paved for Conner Weigman to shine in a more traditional passing offense but his shoulder injury early in the season led to a month of Reed behind center and playing into his dual-threat abilities. Then Weigman returned, reverting the offensive approach, only to be eventually benched — placing Reed in the driver's seat for the final five games of the year. Snip-snap, snip-snap, snip-snap.
With the keys to the car firmly in his grasp, Reed can operate a system that is fully tailored to his strengths. That alone should yield massive growth for both the quarterback and his offense, and even if Reed isn't a top 15-20 thrower in the nation by season's end, the singular focus and identity on offense will have the group producing at a much higher clip in 2025.
Actual threats on the perimeter to balance the offense
Noah Thomas led the Aggies last season with 574 yards; 187 receivers in college football produced more than that in 2024. Jabre Barber, the team's second -leading option with 381 yards, ranked 331st in the nation. Yes, it was that bad.
Those days should be long gone as Texas A&M turns the page to a new season. The transfer portal gods gifted two very talented receivers in KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, and there's hope that the offseason development of rising sophomore Terry Bussey will round out the room in strong fashion.
Elko on KC Concepcion: “What an unbelievable playmaker. When we went up against him as a freshman [at Duke], he was really doing it all… he’s absolutely lived up to [those expectations].”
— Gig Em Gazette (@GigEmGazette) July 29, 2025
Said he’s ready to have “a really big year.”
Concepcion will be the focal point of the passing attack and ready to bounce back from a down sophomore season. After setting the ACC ablaze with 839 yards and 10 touchdowns as a freshman, those numbers were essentially cut in half as a sophomore.
It was tough sledding at NC State, with starter Grayson McCall needing to retire midway through the season with a head injury, so there are more than enough reasons to believe that a fresh start with improved play at the quarterback position will get him back to being one of the better receivers in the entire nation.
But then again, it'd be hard to do worse than what we saw a season ago.
A more disciplined, conditioned defense
Resetting a football culture isn't something that's simply done. In the world of NIL and the transfer portal, new head coaches have to do a lot of hand-holding when taking over a down program in order to maintain at least some presence of a full roster. While important, that hand-holding can lead to some frustrating results.
The Aggies were one of the more undisciplined teams in college football last season — committing nearly eight penalties per game while allowing 60 explosive plays defensively. Missed tackles and mental lapses in zone coverage plagued this team down the stretch, and was one of the biggest contributors to the team's late-season slump.
Elko took action: he spent more time in defensive positional meetings, brought in Lyle Hemphill as the associate head coach for defense to strengthen the secondary's abilities, and believes that a second year under strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt will create significant strides.
Mike Elko on Tommy Moffitt: "I think, just like coaching, there is a foundation of what training looks like. There is a conditing level and a level of which you can push the body."
— TexAgs (@TexAgs) July 29, 2025
"In year two, that strength and condition capacity starts at a higher level."
With the hand-holding portion of his job out of the way and the right adjustments made this offseason, Mike Elko's defense should see the biggest jump across the board on this roster. If the offensive scheme and wide receiving room can join them, the Aggies could be in for an incredible 2025 campaign.