Texas A&M Aggies coach Mike Elko weighs in on the fake injury debate: ‘It’s a problem on both sides’

Faking injuries has been a big topic of discussion in college football in recent weeks.

This debate has been most discussed as it relates to the Ole Miss Rebels, who faced significant backlash for their prodigious use of this drill in the first half of the season.

In fact, it was so bad that the rebels eventually released a statement on the issue, assuring that in the future they would “conduct themselves properly and be compliant in this matter.”

However, the Rebels are not the only team that has exploited the rules in this way. In fact, in 2022, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was extremely unhappy with Texas A&M doing the exact same thing.

Texas A&M Aggies coach Mike Elko was asked Monday about the increasingly common problem in college football and didn’t mince his words. He pointed out that sometimes there is no other option, especially for defense.

“Can I be defensive coordinator for a minute? Something has to be the other way around,” Elko told the media on Monday. “The speed at which we play the game in college leaves a kid’s shoelaces unraveled and no one saves him. And so he’s out there, the offense is sprinting to the line, they’re about to snap the ball. What should the child do?”

That’s not to say Elko is advocating for fake injuries to come into play.

Instead, his argument is that in college football the offense has a clear advantage over the defense in terms of pace of play and he simply wants more rules to ensure more consistency on the field.

“The way we allow offenses to just happen without the defense even getting a break is putting kids on defense at risk,” Elko said. “Do we tolerate fake injuries? No. But I can look back at the time I was here as defensive coordinator, and at certain programs it felt like we did that at times. It was a kid who had to stop the game because there was no other way to stop the game. Not necessarily because we used it as our advantage for the third period or to get a group on the field, but because at the next stop he couldn’t play and no one would help him.

So what is the solution? Elko hasn’t offered one, and to be fair, there may not be an easy solution to the problem.

Part of what the NFL is doing to prevent fake injuries appears to be working when it comes to on-field discipline and suspensions. And those are things the college game could implement.

The other part, which includes fines of up to $350,000 for the team, $100,000 for the head coach, $50,000 for assistant coaches and $50,000 for players, is a little more difficult.

However, if you ask Elko, he believes that rules should be implemented on both sides of the ball that both prevent fake injuries on defense and limit the pace of play on offense.

“I think it’s a two-way issue,” Elko said. “I think it looks bad for the game when you see defensive players all over the place faking injuries. I think it looks bad for the game if we allow the offenses to play at the speed and tempo they want. I think it’s certainly something that probably needs to be addressed in some way on both sides.”

Either way, it will be some time – probably at least until the offseason – before we see a new rule actually implemented in college games to address these issues in any way.

Until then, the issue will likely remain unchecked.