Texas A&M Aggies may not have believed Mike Elko, but now they have to

Still, Mike Elko isn’t sure the Texas A&M Aggies believed him.

During the friendly against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, it was clear that his team had to give their best to emerge victorious. It was not allowed to make any mistakes and certainly not to exceed itself too much.

At least that was all clear to him.

“It’s an away win and that’s not easy in this league,” said Elko. “I’ve been saying it all week. I’m not sure everyone in my locker room believed me. But we definitely said it all week and it happened today.”

At halftime, the Aggies held a slim one-point lead. Their offense wasn’t lacking – Conner Weigman’s second appearance of the game provided that – but it only stayed that way in the first half. After reaching the end zone three times in the first 30 minutes, Texas A&M returned only once.

Weigman threw a costly interception late in the third quarter to help the Bulldogs mount a comeback, where Taurean York shined the most.

“I thought Taurean would be extremely active today,” Elko said. “I thought this was by far Taurean’s best game.”

York didn’t have an interception, but he played strong defense throughout the game to keep the Aggies in front despite Michael Van Buren Jr.’s best attempts. And he was determined.

“Any time the offense turns the ball over, we can’t control it,” York said. “But we can control how we respond to it.”

When the game was over, a feeling of relief washed over the Rockers’ guest room.

“Relief is the first feeling,” Elko said. “We can keep this thing going. Opportunities like this don’t come along often.”

With their name atop the SEC standings after seven weeks of college football, the Aggies are in a unique position. Instead of playing from behind and idealizing scenarios where they could win and win a good bowl game or even the conference title game, they are ahead.

Right now, the SEC is the Aggies’ loser.

“When was the last time we were 4-0 (in SEC play)?” Elko said. “When was the last time we won two consecutive away games in real road environments? There’s nothing we can do about that.”

The coach admitted that his team’s victory was not pretty. Things weren’t looking good – at least not by the standard that seemed to have been set since the Week 1 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

In the meantime, they will go back and refine the weaknesses as much as possible, but also focus on the things they have already accomplished. If they want these successes to continue, they have to play nicer football.

That, and believe your coach when he tells you something is going to be difficult.