COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Aggie football team returned victorious Saturday night after beating Arkansas in the final Southwest Classic at AT&T Stadium 21-17. Now their focus shifts to 9th ranked Missouri as the Maroon & White look to win their fifth straight at Kyle Field Saturday morning.
The A&M defense continues to find their form each week while still adjusting to a new staff and new scheme. After a strong performance against the Razorback offense, they'll face another big test in Missouri quarterback Brady Cook and his multiple weapons at wide receiver who ranked 7th in the country in third down conversions.
“I’m not suggesting we have to wait a whole year to get where we want to go,” Aggie head coach Mike Elko said. “But sometimes it just takes time to get all of the opportunities in the system to communicate the way you want and I think we're getting better. I think we're getting more comfortable. I thought we were much better across the board. Still some areas we got to fix and clean up.”
On the flip side, Aggie running back Le’Veon Moss continues to shine in the backfield and Saturday afternoon, he eclipsed 1,000 career rushing yards, cracking the A&M top 50 all-time rushers.
“It's amazing watching him run. He does a lot of great things,” Aggie quarterback Marcel Reed said. “I mean, it's hard for people to tackle that guy. I don’t want to be one of the people in front of him when he's running 20 miles per hour. It’s great watching that guy do what he does and like he said in his interview, he just balls. I mean, that's what he is. He's a baller.”
“He's been one of our hardest workers since the day I got here, hasn't missed a workout,” Elko said. “I think he's really changed his body. I think he would tell you he feels much better from a physical stature, strength, stamina standpoint than he ever has. I think that's allowed him to go out there and practice a lot more consistently.”
As for the quarterback situation for the Maroon & White, Conner Weigman is still week to week as he deals with a shoulder injury. Marcel Reed has now started the last three games for the Aggies and continues to get comfortable leading the charge. While he doesn't know whether or not he'll get the nod this Saturday, he's always prepared.
“If my name is called, I'm going to be ready to go,” Reed said. “If it's Conner, then he's going to be ready to go and I say that for the entire room. We practice hard and we meet very well, go over stuff that we need to go over, and it's all important to us. We all know what may happen, what could happen so everybody's going to be ready. But me in particularly, I'm always ready when my name's called and it's been called these last three weeks so I've played.”
The No. 25 Aggies will be back at Kyle Field Saturday morning to host the 9th ranked Tigers. Kickoff is set for 11a.m.
