Elko bristles at past, urges 9-0 Aggies to ‘finish’

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mike Elko doesn’t like talking about the past, so he’s doing everything he can to focus on the present.

This Texas A&M team is not the same one that lost its last four games against Power 4 teams last year after starting 7-1. This Aggies team is ranked No. 3 and 9-0 for the first time since 1992, and just the fifth time in school history, after Saturday night’s 38-17 win over Missouri.

Texas A&M is the only team in the country with three road wins over teams ranked in the Associated Press poll, including a win over now-No. 10 Notre Dame in South Bend. After seeing what it takes to win games like this on the road late in the year after last year’s struggles, Elko struck a familiar refrain.

“Is this our weekly last year question?” he asked. “I don’t know about the past. I know that that’s four road games that this team has gone on the road and won. We’re 4-0 this year on the road and we’ve only got one left, so we’ll finish this year with a winning record if my math is right.”

In Texas A&M’s first year in the SEC, it finished 11-2 as Johnny Manziel won a Heisman Trophy. In every season since then, however, the Aggies have won nine or fewer games, with fans’ least favorite number being eight — with five 8-5 seasons and one at 8-4. In nine of their 13 seasons in the league, they’ve appeared in the AP top 10 but finished the season ranked only four times, including just twice in the top 15.

On Saturday, the Aggies finished off a three-game road trip, surviving a 45-42 shootout with Arkansas, then wearing down both LSU and Mizzou until their stadiums emptied out.

They did it by harassing freshman quarterback Matt Zollers, who finished 7-of-22 for 77 yards and a fumble that led to an A&M touchdown. They chipped away at the Missouri defense, with Marcel Reed throwing for 221 yards and two scores, with only two passes traveling more than 10 yards. Then they just kept wearing the Tigers down.

“I challenged them at halftime,” Elko said, noting he was not pleased that his defense gave up 207 rushing yards. “I challenged both sides of the ball — only one side of the ball responded — that we had to go out and control the line of scrimmage better.”

The Aggies rushed for 220 yards and 9.6 yards per carry in the second half, and Missouri never threatened their 14-0 halftime lead. As a result, Texas A&M’s 6-0 start in the SEC is its best conference run since it started 7-0 in the Big 12 in 1998, its last season to win a conference title.

“From a CEO perspective, obviously I believe this is what this program is capable of,” Elko said. “I think that’s why we’re here. We’re here because we believe the ceiling of this program is really high. It’s why we took the job. It’s why we came here as a family. … This is kind of what everyone has been talking about with this program for a long time. So for nine games we’ve lived up to it and we’ve got to go finish.”

The Aggies return home next Saturday to face 3-6 South Carolina, then host 1-9 Samford before traveling to Austin to face Texas on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Rueben Owens, who ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns against Missouri, including a 57-yarder that was A&M’s longest run of the season, said there’s one word that is the Aggies’ focus from here on out.

“Finish,” he said. “That was the word for spring. For fall camp. Finish. Last year we didn’t finish, so all week it was finish, finish, finish.”