Everything Texas A&M HC Mike Elko said on Monday ahead of facing Florida
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko spoke to the media on Monday. The Aggies will head to Gainsville on Friday to take on the Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon, looking to finally end what has become a three-year SEC road losing streak.
Two days after blowing out McNeese State 52-10 on Saturday, A&M's season-opening loss to Notre Dame returned to sting the program once more, as the Fighting Irish lost to Northern Illinois at home just hours after the Aggie victory. However, Texas A&M's schedule presents more opportunities in SEC play if the wins pile up, starting with the Gators.
While we didn't learn much about this team after defeating an FCS team, starting quarterback Conner Weigman looked much better and more confident in the pocket, posting the highest PFF grade among every active FBS quarterback over the weekend.
Providing several updates, here is everything Mike Elko had to say during his annual Monday press conference.
Mike Elko on Texas A&M's progress after defeating McNeese State
"Watching the film showed what we discussed. It was a very professional way that we handled that. We started fast. Both sides of the ball did what we expected to do."
Here are the players that earned player of the week
Mike Elko stated that Ar'maj Reed-Adams, Chase Bisontis, Albert Regis, Le'Veon Moss, Rylan Kennedy and the 12th Man Kickoff Team earned "players of the week" honors from the team vs. McNeese State.
Elko on facing Florida in The Swamp
Elko on facing both Florida quarterbacks
"That will be a challenge for us in preparing for both (Graham Mertz & DJ Lagway)."
Elko on preparing for Florida's offense and defense
"Offensively, it's a group that has played a lot of football. Very experienced and talented."
"Defensively, it's an SEC group when you look at them. They're long and tall. ... In SEC play, you get a different level of twitch, and we'll prepare for that accordingly."
Elko on studying the film in order to keep improving
"The film is still the film. You still see footwork. You still see fundamentals." "There is a lot of things and intricacies to the game that you're paying attention to. ... There are a lot of things you can look at and point to and say we got better and point to and say we still have some growing to do."
Elko on Texas A&M's lackluster run defense
"It has been terrible, to be honest."
"Giving up 185 yards per game on the ground is certainly not where we want to be."
Elko on Texas A&M's SEC road struggles
"We won quite a few of them when I was here. We'll try to duplicate that recipe more than the last couple of years." "It's challenging playing on the road in this conference. ... You're going to play in a hostile environment, no matter who, no matter where, no matter when."
Elko on facing Florida freshman QB DJ Lagway
He's an extremely talented kid. … He starting busting on the scene right before I left."
"It's a small sample size in college, so you're still really working off everything you know about him."
Elkon on Florida's QB situation
"You don't really know how they 're going to utilize them both. … To some degree, it's a little bit like an opener."
Elko on running back Amari Daniel's improved play
"Amari (Daniels) has always been a really talented ball carrier. What we've really challenged him with is all of the other things."
"He has really grown at that in the last eight months, which has allowed him to become a much more complete back."
Under Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M used to travel for road game on Thursday
Elko on how the defense will prepare for both Florida QBs
"You come up with a plan on how you want to handle both kids. You have to prepare like both of them are going to play the whole time."
"You can't come up with two different game plans because your kids could get paralyzed by volume."
Elko on reserve OL TJ Shanahan's status
"We handled that internally. He was suspended immediately, and now it's under internal review. We'll kind of go from there."
Elko on the status of WR Jabre Barber
"Still a couple of weeks away. We kind of targeted the Arkansas game as the right timing, and it's probably still that."
Elko on dealing with crowd noise in Gainsville
"One of the things with crowd noise is we started practicing for it in the spring. We're an SEC program. We're going to have to do this to win on the road."
"Some of those different mechanics, we've already been working and practicing. ... Those are all things our kids are comfortable with because we install all of that in the spring."
Elko on prepping for Florida's defense
"They're extremely athletic. Their two corners are really long and athletic. They can cover at an elite clip."
"They roll a lot of different guys up front. They're going to come at us in waves and be really fresh. ... They're a talented SEC football team, and they'll be a big challenge."
Elko on having Jay Bateman and Scooby Williams to help prepare for Florida
"It helps when you have some guys that have some familiarity with the team you're playing against. It provides some insight to personnel and things like that."
Elko on Conner Weigman's improved footwork vs. McNeese
"It has looked much better in a number of his starts. Unfortunately, he had a bad one against Notre Dame."
This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Everything Texas A&M HC Mike Elko said on Monday ahead of facing Florida