COLLEGE STATION, Texas — It wasn’t looking good for the Aggies in the first half, Saturday night, against No. 8 LSU. But the return of Marcel Reed under center in the second half gave the Aggies the spark they needed to take down the Tigers 38-23. Texas A&M now stands alone as the only team undefeated in SEC play.
“I think they're learning what it means to be a winner and how you go from being a talented football player to a winner,” Aggie head coach Mike Elko said. “And I think that's the messaging, and I think that's what they're learning how to do. They're doing the things that winners do, right? They're playing extremely hard. They're straining. They're playing together. They're finishing.”
After the Tigers took a 17-7 lead in the first half, the Aggies needed to find a way to get the offense going and early in the third quarter, Elko turned to Reed. On his first play in the game, he found the end zone, and would go on to rush for 2 more touchdowns, scoring 21 unanswered points.
“They were just crashing, crashing at our running backs,” Reed said. “They put me in, gave a spark with my legs a little bit. If they crashed, I pulled the ball and run. You know, you see they did it a lot, and I got a lot of opportunities to get some space and run. And they didn't really make any adjustments, so that's all it was.”
“I think when he goes out there and performs the way he does, that's a testimony to his character,” Elko said. “Obviously, his talent, but a testimony to his character and how he handles this two weeks since Missouri and how he keeps working and preparing to put himself in position to play.”
Ahead of Saturday’s contest we knew the Aggie secondary would be tested with how often the Tigers like to throw the ball and in the second half they answered the call. BJ Mayes came up big with two interceptions and in the fourth quarter Taurean York put the game on ice, picking off Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier for the 3rd time.
“You know, defense did a really good job of just putting the offense in great field position,” Reed said. “He said three unanswered scores. It was really the defense that put us in that place to get in the end zone.”
“It was a major turning point,” Mayes said. “We came out at halftime, we needed a big-time stop. Feel me? Turn the momentum around, changed the momentum of the game. So I feel like the first pick really did that.”
The Aggies have now won 7 straight and the turnaround this program has seen is nothing short of impressive. The culture that Elko is building has had an immediate impact and the results on the field are a testament to that.
“I think it's the way we talk to young people. I think the things we talk about, the messaging, how we bring really good people into the building,” Elko said. “We talk about doing things together, we talk about culture, and everyone talks about it, but then we go out and we live it every day. And I think we back up our actions. We're very honest. We're very open. And this is a real program.”
The Aggies 5-0 start to SEC play is their best since joining the league back in 2012. Elko said the focus immediately shifts to next Saturday because they’ve got a big one in Columbia against South Carolina. Kickoff is set for 6:30 pm and you can watch it here on ABC.
