Texas A&M coach Mike Elko has led the Aggies to a flawless start to the season (8-0). The Aggies’ performances have led to them snagging the No. 3 spot in the first College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday.
Elko’s team will face a tough test in Week 11 when they clash against coach Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri Tigers on the road in a bid to improve to 9-0.
Analyst Issues Warning to Mike Elko’s Texas A&M
During Thursday’s segment of the “Joel Klatt Show,” analyst Joel Klatt issued a warning to Elko’s team about being complacent during the most crucial part of the season and further pointed out the Aggies’ weaknesses that could be exploited by Missouri.
“A&M is favored by -7.5 in this one. I don’t have many questions about A&M,” Klatt said. “My biggest question would be handling success, complacency, and rat poison. All of the things that we always talk about. Can this team handle success? Being ranked No. 3, coming off of a bye, were they able to maintain their edge during the bye?
“This Missouri team, they’re strong enough in certain areas that I think are gonna cause A&M some problems. The key for Missouri is getting back to the success they were having earlier in the year on the ground. Ahmad Hardy has to get back to that September form, when he was at one point the nation’s leading rusher. If they can do that, they can attack what I think is one of the few areas of weakness that A&M has.”
The Tigers have a 6-2 record this season, which includes a narrow 27-24 loss to the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide at home.
Mike Elko Has Learned Lessons From Last Year’s Collapse
Last season, after Texas A&M’s season-opening loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Aggies went on a seven-game winning run and arrived in November with a 7-1 record and a chance to reach the SEC championship game and clinch a playoff berth.
In November, the Aggies lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Auburn Tigers to effectively end their championship game hopes, and the blowout capitulation to the Texas Longhorns ended their College Football Playoff dreams.
During his weekly news conference ahead of the game against Missouri, Elko echoed last year’s capitulation and stated that his team had learned its lessons.
“We were literally in this position 12 months ago,” Elko said. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons. We were in the limelight, but it was new, and I don’t know if we handled it the right way. We were still building. A year later, we can do it the right way.”
After the Missouri test, the Aggies still have a few potential banana skins, with the South Carolina Gamecocks in College Station and a trip to Austin to face off against rivals, the Texas Longhorns, still on their schedule.
