Texas A&M’s victory over Mississippi State brings the season’s success into greater focus

STARKVILLE, Miss. (KBTX) – A relaxed Mike Elko briefly paused his postgame press conference after Texas A&M defeated Mississippi State 34-24 to acknowledge a small television prominently hanging in the upper corner of the conference room.

Ironically, Saturday’s top matchup between the Texas Longhorns and Georgia Bulldogs on ABC was on the only screen in the room.

“What are we doing up here?” Elko said, delaying the next question and glancing over his shoulder at the television.

It was a moment of levity granted to Elko thanks to Saturday’s win. The Aggies remain atop the Southeastern Conference with a 4-0 record and have secured bowl eligibility by going 6-1 this season. The expectations of a first-year head coach rarely include fighting for a spot in the conference title game, let alone the College Football Playoff, but eight weeks into the season, that’s exactly where the Aggies find themselves.

Without naming any of those endpoints, Elko said A&M’s current situation is worth celebrating.

“Relief is the first feeling,” Elko said of his emotions after Saturday’s win. “We can keep this thing going. Opportunities like this don’t come along often.”

Although Mississippi State came into the game in the basement of the SEC with just one win this season, the Bulldogs went out of their way to undo A&M’s surprisingly successful season. But like both of Aggie running back Le’Veon Moss’ touchdowns, A&M kept their feet moving once they were on the goal line and clawed their way to the promised land.

“When you’re in this conference, nothing is ever going to be easy,” Elko said to open up his availability. “They certainly didn’t make it easy. I gave credit to our guys. I thought we weathered some adversity and some mistakes on both sides.”

Mississippi State, behind freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr., got the Aggie defense on its feet in the opening third of the game. Bulldog head coach Jeff Lebby elected to take the ball first after winning the opening throw, resulting in an early touchdown. Van Buren connected with running back Davon Booth on a checkdown for the easy 14-yard sprinter and scored.

Going into the game, Mississippi State wanted the Aggie offense to beat them through the air in quarterback Conner Weigman’s second game back from a throwing arm injury. Weigman’s job was made a little easier by transfer wide receiver Jabre Barber, who got a little more playing time and a little more space when the Bulldogs passed to Aggie wide receiver Noah Thomas. By halftime, Barber had rushed for 87 of his season-high 92 yards on five catches. That included four catches on third down, all of which moved the chains for the Aggies.

A&M started the game 6 for 6 on third down conversions and finished the contest with 9 of 14 conversions.

“I thought we were very unsettled offensively,” Elko said. “We never really got the running game going like we wanted to. They did a good job of mixing up some looks on us and I thought we struggled pretty uphill in the run game all day. And so we got into a lot of third downs. We didn’t make a lot of explosive plays on first and second down, and I think that put us in a situation where if we hadn’t been as efficient on third down, I think we would have had a lot of problems for ourselves today can create.”

Moss, A&M’s feature back, recorded a season-low 65 rushing yards but made the most of his carries with two touchdowns in the second and third quarters, respectively. Fellow running back Amari Daniels scored himself late in the second quarter, seemingly giving the Aggies a 21-10 lead at halftime.

However, the Bulldogs’ offense powered through the Aggie defense with an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to close out the half, cutting A&M’s lead to 21-17.

“The first one [Bulldog] “The drive of the game was really bad,” Elko said. “The last drive of the first half was really bad. Everything in between, I think we played relatively well defensively.”

A&M’s defense recorded 11 tackles for loss, three sacks and nine pass breakups in the game. Linebacker Taurean York led the Aggies with 12 tackles and Scooby Williams picked up his first career interception in four seasons of college football.

Mississippi State was able to tie the game to one score in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard reception from Kevin Coleman Jr., but Randy Bond’s second field goal of the night midway through the final frame put the game on ice.

Although Weigman completed 60% of his passes for 217 yards and one passing touchdown, he struggled at times, evidenced by two interceptions in the game. In total, he threw four high-turnover passes that could have made the game closer than it ultimately was.

When the Aggies were on the plane back to College Station on Saturday, Texas had lost its contest to Georgia 30-15, suffering its first conference loss of the season. LSU defeated Arkansas 34-10 and joins the Aggies as the only other SEC programs undefeated in conference play. Next Saturday, the Tigers come to Kyle Field at 6:30 p.m. for a kickoff that will most likely have SEC title game implications on the line. Despite the loss, Texas and A&M are headed toward the end of November on a collision course that could impact an SEC championship or a spot in the College Football Playoff.

With each victory, Elko feels a sense of relief. But for all three teams at the top of the SEC, that feeling of relief will come with looking over your shoulder to see what’s going on in Austin and Baton Rogue.

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