Elko’s hopes high for DE duo
Spring game offers glimpse at tandem coach says has chance to be school’s best in ‘a long time’
COLLEGE STATION — Mike Elko had one big goal for his first spring game at Texas A&M, outside of the obvious of staying injury-free, and after wiping the sweat from his brow and later the rain from his cheeks, Elko late Saturday afternoon claimed mission accomplished.
“You want the product to look good,” Elko said. “Your fanbase is coming out to support you and watch you, and they take time and effort to come into the stadium. You want to reward them with something they can walk away proud of.”
The Aggies indeed rewarded their fans who braved the rain and wind at the sparsely attended Maroon & White game, as presumed backup quarterbacks Marcel Reed and Jaylen Henderson turned in solid showings and starting quarterback Conner Weigman returned from a broken foot suffered in the fourth game of last season.
“I’m happy that we have three quarterbacks, there aren’t a lot of programs across the country that have three kids who can go out there and operate an offense effectively right now, with the way people are shifting and moving and going all over the place,” Elko said. “It’s a luxury to have three kids who have had very productive college football games on your roster.”
Weigman finished 5-of-14 passing for 47 yards and was “sacked” on three occasions — although defenders couldn’t actually hit the quarterbacks — while an efficient Reed shined by completing 10-of-14 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown pass. Henderson added a touchdown pass of his own in completing 8of-13 passes for 100 yards.
For the record, Reed and Henderson’s maroon squad defeated Weigman’s white team 24-10. Noah Thomas of the maroon side led all receivers with seven catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns, while Louisiana Tech transfer Cyrus Allen of the white team added six catches for 45 yards.
A couple of hours before the spring game kicked off, too, a player who’s not yet part of the program let the Aggies know he’s ready to help at a position of need this season.
Center Koli Faaiu announced he is transferring to A&M from Utah, and he should provide immediate competition for incumbent starter Bryce Foster and valuable utilityman Mark Nabou. Foster is throwing shot put for the A&M track and field team and did not take part in football spring drills for a third consecutive year.
Defensive line continues to be a strength for the Aggies, as it has been the past few years, and the addition of Purdue transfer Nic Scourton has bolstered an already sturdy line. The former Bryan High star led the Big Ten last season with 10 sacks, and his high-revving motor was noticeable during the spring game.
“When you line up Nic Scourton on one side and Shemar Stewart on the other, I think we have the best defensive end combo we’ve had here in a long time,” Elko said.
Scourton finished the afternoon with 2 1⁄2 sacks among his five total tackles, and the veteran Stewart collected a sack as one of his seven tackles.
“The sky is the limit for our pass-rush packages,” Scourton said.
Weigman will continue using the next four months to try to get back to 100% from the injury to his foot, and Elko has applauded the former Bridgeland High standout for taking part in spring drills while fighting through any discomfort from the broken bone (trainers cleared Weigman to practice and limit his scrambling).
Starting running back Amari Daniels was slowed late in the spring with a shoulder injury, and fellow backs Rueben Owens (four carries for 77 yards) and Le’Veon Moss (13 carries for 69 yards) had strong showings Saturday on a slick field.
“Those three kids are talented SEC backs, and they all bring something a little bit different to the table,” Elko said.
A&M fired coach Jimbo Fisher in mid-November for failing to compete for SEC titles over six seasons. The Aggies replaced him with Elko, who was 16-9 over the past two seasons as Duke’s head coach after serving as Fisher’s defensive coordinator at A&M from 2018-2021.
The Aggies will reconvene in early August for training camp and open their season on Aug. 31 against Notre Dame at Kyle Field in Elko’s true debut.
“It was a good day, and it was good to see our guys go out there, get on that field and compete,” Elko said of Saturday’s dress rehearsal for the season. “We made some plays, and we didn’t make some plays, and a lot of it is mixing and matching two units together. It’s hard to make a lot of judgments on what happened out there, but it’s good to see the guys have some fun and compete and play with good energy.
“The spirits were really high on the sideline. There are a lot of good, positive things around our program right now.”