Texas A&M football returns talent and is adding more for 2026, leading to plenty of projections toward the top of the conference. As Mike Elko looks to lead the Aggies to a national title, he met with the media at 2026 SEC Media Days to field questions.
Elko was asked about the playoff run, his quarterback Marcel Reed and more. Here’s what he said.
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MIKE ELKO: How we doing? Excited to be back here for my third season at SEC Media Days. It’s crazy how quickly you go from being in your first year as the rookie to being in your third year as one of the more seasoned veterans in the conference. I guess that’s the process of being in the SEC.
Want to follow up a little bit on what Greg said about the family. Had a really big summer this summer with my family. I earned a lot of brownie points last year by starting this press conference by giving a shoutout to my wife, Michelle, so I am going to do the same again this year. Appreciate everything that she does, all the support that she gives not only to me, but to our program to allow us to do the things to be very successful.
I said last year we had a really bad summer, spent the whole summer moving, and so owed her a vacation. Was actually able to deliver that for her. We did one of our first adult vacations going over to Europe and touring across the Mediterranean.
So that was really, really exciting.
Glad Greg cleaned up the idea that my daughter does not play football. She actually cheerleads for football. So I want to make sure I put that out there too so she hears it clearly from me.
Hopefully all of that leads to some karma. We spoke a lot about family last year at this press conference and were able to go out and have a pretty good year. Want to be able to go do the same. We’ve got some big milestones next summer. I’ll be turning 50, we’ll be celebrating or 25th anniversary, and our last child will be going off to college.
So success this year, while always important in College Station, is probably more important than ever because success during the fall leads to a very happy offseason.
Really cool to be here in Tampa. This is a place that’s really special to me. Over the years, I kind of cut my teeth back in the early 2000s recruiting the I-4 corridor from Orlando over to Tampa, and so it’s an area I’m very familiar with. I have a lot of family on the east coast of Florida stretching from Jacksonville down to Daytona Beach. Four years ago my mom and dad relocated over into the Daytona Beach area, so I’ve spent a lot of time down in Florida. It’s exciting to be here.
It’s a really exciting time to be part of the Texas A&M community on and off the field. I want to start by mentioning our new president, Dr. Susan Balabina. Dr. Balabina was elected president in May. Really excited to partner with her as we move forward into this next era of Texas A&M University.
I think she’ll do a phenomenal job providing leadership not only to our athletics department, but also to our university as a whole as we continue to grow the brand of Texas A&M and continue to grow our reach across this great country.
We are celebrating as a university our 150th anniversary this year. That celebration kicks off this fall when the students arrive. One of the big events will be our home game this year against Arkansas, so we’re excited to partner with our university to help celebrate 150 years of greatness at Texas A&M.
Our athletic department, under the strong leadership of athletic director Trev Albers just completed one of its most successful seasons in our history. Want to give a special shoutout to our women’s volleyball coach, Jamie Morrison. They captured their first national championship ever this year. That was a great journey to follow and watch, a story of tremendous grit and toughness.
Also want to give a shoutout to women tennis coach Mark Weaver, who’s team won their second national championship in the last three seasons, again, going on the road into Athens and winning in a very hostile environment to bring home a national championship.
I love the culture we have amongst our head coaches at Texas A&M. I think that’s still something that makes college athletics very special, is the community culture that you’re able to share and share in the common experiences and success within your campus.
So exciting that they root for us, exciting to get out and root for them. Exciting any time we get an opportunity celebrate Aggie success in the athletic scope.
Also want to acknowledge Commissioner Greg Sankey. I think he takes a lot of hits here as the commissioner of our conference. I think he has kind of become the forefront for college football in a lot of ways, and sometimes everything that’s wrong with college football gets pointed at him.
But I think he has done a phenomenal job of leading this conference through an era of historic change. We are going through an era where the pace of change is unbelievably rapid. The amount of change and how the game is changing are really unlike any other time in our history.
I think the leadership that he shows, the information that he’s been able to provide us as coaches and athletic departments to stay on the front end of that change has really, really been helpful and impactful as our conference continues to have a lot of success.
As we start to turn our attention to football, I want to talk about the three players that we brought here with us today. Want to start with quarterback Marcel Reed. Marcel hails from Nashville, Tennessee. He returns as our starting quarterback. It’s his fourth year in the program at Texas A&M.
Really excited for his growth. I think what you saw last year was him really start to scratch the surface of what he’s capable of as a starting quarterback. Been really proud of how he’s handled this offseason. I think he’s remained extremely humble and I think the work ethic has been phenomenal. I think he has put a lot of time in to become the quarterback he’s capable of becoming, and I’m really excited for what he’s going to do this fall on the field.
I also think he does a phenomenal job representing recommending our university. His role in the Bryan College Station community, what he’s done from a community service effort standpoint. Just recently he hosted a football camp for youth in the Bryan College Station area that had between 600 and 700 kids at it.
Really excited we were able to get him here. He was our leading vote getter as a captain and we like the way he has stepped into that leadership role for this team as we head into the fall.
Linebacker Daymion Sanford. Another one of our captains. He was our second leading vote getter. Daymion is a kid who I have a ton of history with. I reminded him of this on the plane coming over here today. He didn’t remember this. As a junior his team captured a Texas 5A high school state title. They actually did it against College Station High School, which is where both of my boys were attending at the time.
So they went out and they beat College Station for the state title. We offered them at Duke shorty after I got the head coaching job there. Actually convinced him to silently commit to us at Duke before he really bursting on the scene that spring of his junior year, and ultimately settling on an opportunity to go to Texas A&M.
He has blossomed into one of the best linebackers I’ve been able to coach at Texas A&M. Extremely explosive; dynamic blitzer. Really made an impact on games when he became a full time starter for us last year and really, really looking forward to what he can do this year.
But I think the story that best sums up what kind of kid he is is this: Many of you are aware that he had a pretty bad injury during the spring game. That injury required surgery. We committed to getting back as quick as he can. The game was on Saturday, he had surgery on Monday, he was released from the hospital on Tuesday, and when I walked into our end-of-semester meeting Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m., he was sitting in a front row seat.
That was not because we asked him to be there. That was of his own accord. He’s a tremendous character kid, a tremendous leader. He will get back healthy this year and really go out and blossom on the field.
Third player is safety Marcus Ratcliffe. Marcus hails from San Diego, California. Marcus was one of the first kids who committed to us out of the transfer portal when I got hired at Texas A&M, and so it feels like he’s been with us since day one. He has played an integral part in helping build our culture. He is a tremendous leader, tremendous character kid. He has really become one of the better safeties in the conference.
We are excited to see what he’s able to do out here this year in the fall. Story on him behind the scenes. He’s put together one of the most thoughtful charity initiatives I’ve ever witnessed as a college football player. He created the Mission 312 Program; 3 for his jersey number, 12 for the 12th Man. It’s a mission that helps give money to World War II veterans.
So his organization donates $312 for every turnover we cause on defense at Texas A&M. They have raised over $30,000 for Army vets from World War II, so just a really, really cool kid who has done some amazing things with his platform and his opportunity to represent Texas A&M.
As we turn our chapter towards the 2026 football season, I think it’s important to look back on some of the highlights from 2025. Greg mentioned some of them, but to put them in a capsule, 11 wins on the field for the first time in a really long time for our program. First playoff appearance ever. Led the NCAA with 13 players represented at the NFL combine. Led the SEC with ten players drafted.
Those are the markers of success we want our program to become known for year in and year out. We talked a lot about Texas A&M becoming a program that people talk about the success that we have on and off the field, not what we’re capable of being.
I think those are the markers year in and year out that we need to be able to complete in order for us to continue on this journey to success.
I am also equally proud of some of the things we accomplished off the field. 3.07 yearly GPA; the highest we’ve had in Texas A&M football history. 69 student-athletes, including 58 of our 85 scholarships over a 3.0 in the spring.
Over 500 hours, like Greg said, of community service, but that was made by 90% of our roster participating in some type of charitable work.
So we are continuing in our mission of developing not just elite football players, but elite men who will be ready for the world that comes at them when football is over.
Also want to take an opportunity to thank the 12th Man for their continued support. As Greg pointed out in his opening presser, the SEC averaged 80,000 people at their home games last year. At Texas A&M we set an attendance record averaging 106,000 people at our home games; that is 103 percent capacity in our stadium on average.
So they continue to find ways to come out and support this program at unbelievable levels, and am forever thankful and grateful for the support that we have in College Station at Texas A&M.
As we move into this season, we’re excited for year three. We are excited with the roster that we put together. We are excited with the competition that we’re going to have as we head into fall camp. We know we’ve got a challenging schedule; everybody in this league does.
As we’ve add the ninth game, we’re playing five on the road. That will make for big challenges, but those are challenges as a program we’re ready to meet head on. We’re excited for the opportunity to go out and compete, to finish at a better clip than we have the last two years, and to start bringing trophy and hardware to College Station.
So we’re excited for what’s ahead. We are excited for the challenges. Thanks for all that you do covering this sport. We’ll open up it for questions from there.
Q. Coach, Mario Craver exploded on the scene. What is his ceiling like in this offense this year?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think it’s really high. He’s one of the more explosive, dynamic slot receivers I’ve been able to be around. I think he does a really, really good job of creating separation. He plays bigger than his size. I think he’ll have a really, really big year for us if he can find a way to stay healthy and be consistent week in and week out as we go through the season.
Q. You mentioned earlier how it’s the first time ya’ll have had a quarterback coach that wasn’t the coordinator. What are some of the advantages with that and what has Joey Lynch brought so far?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think the biggest advantage is you have a guy in that building that spends every minute of every day worried about developing our quarterbacks. That certainly is no disrespect to Coach Klein. Collin did a phenomenal job, but when you’re the offensive coordinator as well you got a lot of other things to worry about. You got practice planning, scripting, making sure the meetings run right. You got to focus on the run game.
When you have a full time quarterback coach like we do now with Coach Lynch, his sole priority every day is to create a plan not only for Marcel, but for each of our quarterbacks to grow and develop every single day.
I think he’s done a phenomenal job putting a plan together, and then I think each of our quarterbacks has done a really good job putting in the extra work to come in and execute that plan.
I just think the dedicated time to the position enhances the ability for a little bit more detailed growth in that room.
Q. Coach, obviously talked about Mario Craver. You guys brought in Isaiah Horton from Alabama. 6’4″ guy. Premium receiver. Marcel was really excited about his addition. Can you just talk about the priority was to get him on this program and what he can do for this offense?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, we been searching for that size guy really since the we’ve gotten there. When Noah Thomas left we didn’t really have that replacement. I think going out and getting a guy that has the ability to have a big catch radius, make the contested catches, who is a difficult cover regardless how close you are to him just because he can make contested catches and catch himself open.
Been really excited with his development through this offseason. I think he’s really bought into what we’re trying to do and become a really, really good route runner. I think when you talk about the combination of Mario, Isaiah, along with Ashton Bethel-Roman and Terry Bussey, I think we have a lot of the depth in that wide receiver room to be really, really explosive.
Q. Can you give us some insight on the decision making to promote Holmon Wiggins than looking elsewhere?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think we did both. We ran a national search. We interviewed and talked to a lot of guys. I think one of the things, mistakes sometimes we make is we assume different is always better. I think in my experience that’s not always the case.
I knew who Holmon was. He is an extremely intelligent football coach. He has a lot of experience not only at Texas A&M, but also in this conference. I think has a resume of unbelievable offensive success. Has done a phenomenal job enhancing our wide receiver room.
So just have a ton of confidence who he is as a football coach and what he’s capable of doing as he moves into that role. He’ll have to take the step of calling plays, but I think everything else he has already accomplished at an elite level in college football.
Somebody had to give him an opportunity, and I didn’t want it to be another program and so we decided to make the move ourselves.
Q. I just want to see if you can comment on the differences maybe game planning and scheming from when you entered the conference to now, considering the game has evolved so much.
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think probably one of the biggest things that has happened is the game has slowed down. I think I just talked about this on digital row a little bit. I think with the way we can talk to the linebackers now, the way offensive coaches can talk to the quarterbacks, I think the need to communicate has become more of a premium.
I think that has changed the game a lot in terms of what people are doing at the line of scrimmage, how people are operating at the line of scrimmage. I also think the transfer portal has impacted depth among rosters a lot, and so you kind of moved away a little bit from these uber high-paced, fast-paced offenses, because I don’t think they have the ability to sustain that over the course of an entire season.
I just think there is always evolution in the game. I think it shifted more to the line of scrimmage, put some emphasis on the quarterback because the offensive coordinator can talk directly to him at the line of scrimmage. Then I think defenses have had to be able to use the communication with the linebackers to be able to evolve and stay up with that.
Q. Hey, coach, I apologize for wearing the Texas shirt. I got confused looking at the schedule. I promise tomorrow to wear my A&M shirt when Coach Sark talks. About the NIL, trying to wrap my head around it a little bit. Maybe this is something Derek Miller, I should ask him. A&M has a nice operation going, but institutionally across all the sports, is NIL money earmarked for specific sports or is it general across the whole athletic department, and does basketball and women’s sports, do they have their own Derek Millers who kind of solicit for those sports?
MIKE ELKO: That’s a deep question. First when you said NIL I thought we were talking about soccer. I think we have tried to do and be a very strategic program and athletic department in the NIL era. As we move forward it’s not lost the impact that NIL has in acquiring talent.
Not that you want to be in the world of being at the highest end or buying people so to speak, but the value that you’re able to provide your student-athletes enables you to retain and attract some of the best talent.
It’s not lost the impact that NIL has, so I think we’ve just tried to be extremely strategic not only as a football program, but as an athletic department in how to navigate that space as we move forward.
Related to other programs within our university, I wouldn’t want to comment how they run their programs. Derek Miller for us does a really good job partnering with our athletic department to make sure we’re funding things at the level we need to to be able to compete and be successful.
Q. You and some of your players have really mentioned the need or the desire to create more turnover. Curious how do you go about coaching, teaching your guys to tangibly do that and improve in that area?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think turnovers is a skill. I think your ability to punch and attack at the football and cause turnovers is a skill just like blocking, just like tackling, just like catching.
So I think we’ve spent some time in film work trying to show and illustrate where turnovers come from. Showed some opportunities last year where we had opportunities to create them and we didn’t do it properly.
And then you try to go out all offseason and drill it to the best you can. I also think ball skills has been a major emphasis point for us. On defense we did not have a lot of or enough interceptions last year, and so some of that is maybe being a little bit more zone coverage driven and wanting to give ourselves an opportunity to do that.
But another big piece is just having better ball skills. So I think we put a lot of the onus on our second and third level to get on the jugs more, catch more footballs to make that a bigger priority in our offseason drill work so we can enhance ball skills across our defense.
Q. Mike, you and Marcel had mentioned going into last season and in retrospect maybe the criticism around him not being a passer was a bit unfair. Curious if you feel like maybe people still doubt him and what people get wrong about him still.
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, no, I think the narrative around Marcel has been pretty fair. I think he’s evolved into a dual-threat quarterback. A lot of people recognize that. At his highs he’s an elite quarterback. He knows he has to play at that consistent level. That’s not just him, that’s us as an offense. That is blocking, running, catching, that’s everything.
I think we know if he can play at his best consistently he has an opportunity to hit a really, really high ceiling. So I think last year there was a narrative that he couldn’t throw. I thought that was a little bit unjust. I think this year people have recognized what he’s capable of now.
Q. After last year’s playoff run, how do you keep this team from becoming satisfied?
MIKE ELKO: I show them our trophy case and it’s empty. I think they’re all very aware of that. I think — listen, we live in a lot of worlds, so we’re obviously happy with the things we accomplished, happy with the direction of our program, but it’s also not lost on us that we haven’t won the hardware that we’re searching for.
That gets us into a mindset of growth and getting back to work to go finish this thing a little bit better than we did last year and put ourself in a better position maybe to compete for some trophies.
Q. I’ve known Texas and Oklahoma coaches that have told me they prepare a little bit every week of the year for the other rival. Do you subscribe to that thinking or do you wait until Thanksgiving week? Curious if a day go by without you being reminded of the Texas game by Aggie fans?
MIKE ELKO: No, i don’t probably have a day go by without being reminded how important that game is to me, but that’s okay. I think that’s what’s great about college rivalries, is the passion that our fan base has for that game and certainly is matched by their fan base for that game as well.
I think not only because of the rivalry but also because of the status of both programs, it would be naive to not say that we put a little bit of extra work into preparation for that game because that game inevitably is going to mean an awful lot. It has for the last two seasons, not just because the proximity and the rivalry, but because it has playoff and SEC championship implications as well.
When you put all that into that game, it certainly makes a little bit of sense to give it some extra preparation.
Q. Coach, you bring back a ton of skill position guys. Bring back a ton of guys on the back end as well on your defense. The line of scrimmage, you’re having to break in a lot of new guys on both sides of the football. How much confidence do you have that you and your staff are going to get them ready for such a tough schedule?
MIKE ELKO: I got to have confidence because the schedule is coming and we got to be ready. We don’t have much of a choice.
Two things: One, we’ve had more defensive lineman drafted than any program in the country since I got to Texas A&M in 2018. We have gotten into a rhythm of replacing D-linemen that have been drafted. I think last year at this time there was a very similar conversation. We had just had three draft picks, one first rounder, two second rounders. We were talking about how we were going to be able to replace that talent, and we did it with a second rounder and two third rounders.
I think we were able to replace it at a really high level. We got to be able to go do it again. We can’t just talk about it. We got to go do it. We’ve got elevate the players we have in the program and get them into a position where they can go out and they can compete at the level that has become the standard of our defensive line.
On the other side of the ball I think we’ve done everything we possibly can to create an environment for us to be successful. We went out and we added four transfer portal guys who had starting experience in the SEC. We’ve recruited at a really high level. We have some extremely talented young players who are chomping at the bit for their opportunity.
So what that has created is a ton of competition for those spots, and so I think competition always elevates. So our goal is to make sure coming out of fall camp we have an offensive line that is ready to cohesively function together and play at the level we need them to play to go be successful.
Whether we get that done week one, two, three, that has to happen as quick as it possibly can.
Q. In your time at Texas A&M, you’ve had a lot of success on the road. What do you credit to your success on the road, especially in a conference like the SEC where winning on the road is such a big deal?
MIKE ELKO: Yeah, I think it was such a big emphasis point for me when we took over because we had had such struggles. I think when I took over, had been since 2021 actually at Columbia, Missouri, was the last road game we had won in the conference.
And so we knew in order to take the next step and the next hurdle that we wanted to take, winning on the road was going to be a big part of it. As you looked a little our schedule last year, some of the daunting road trips we had on the schedule winning on the road was going to be a big part of it.
I just think when you play in this conference you have to dedicate a lot of time to playing in environments that will be really, really uncomfortable, because that’s where success will get defined, and certainly this year is no different.
We’ve got some daunting road trips again. It’s something we spend a lot of time on. We start installing our cadences in spring ball. It’s become part of our base operation, how we’re going to function in those environments. We start really drilling down in fall camp.
I just think it’s as big a part of how you play offense nowadays as anything you do, because you know success will become such a big part of what happens in those games.
Thank you guys for all that you guys do for SEC football.
