Joel Klatt explains why he doesn't see a College Football Playoff scenario without Texas A&M in it

Mike Elko pushed all the right buttons Saturday as Texas A&M beat LSU and Joel Klatt believes the Aggies are bound for the College Football Playoff at this point.

Based on the schedule, the current record and the aura surrounding the program, Klatt sees this team playing for an SEC title. If that’s the case, Texas A&M is almost assured a playoff spot.

Texas A&M was sparked by Marcel Reed coming in from Conner Weigman at QB. While that worked out Saturday, that’s still the biggest question in terms of the Aggies’ playoff hopes.

“Can Marcel Reed throw the football, you know, well enough to go win an SEC championship. I’m not sure,” Klatt said on his podcast. “But you look up at the standings, and there’s only one loss overall. It was that Notre Dame game to open the season. They’re undefeated in SEC play, and they’re likely to wind up in Atlanta … At that point if they’re in Atlanta, they’re in the College Football Playoff.

“I’m gonna regret saying this. I just don’t see the way they play and the man that is their head coach, I don’t see a scenario where they stub their toe to the point where they miss the College Football Playoff. I just don’t see it. They’re now 5-0 in the SEC, they’ve got at South Carolina, then that, you know, the random SEC-New Mexico State (type of game). Then they’re at Auburn, which is not real good football team, and then they host Texas, which all of a sudden is becoming just a monster game, if it wasn’t a monster game already.” 

Elko took just eight games to recreate buzz at Texas A&M. Following a successful tenure at Duke, he’s 7-1 at his new stop and shows no signs of slowing down.

“So kudos to Texas A&M and and what Mike Elko has done, and to that fan base like you do deserve this,” Klatt said. “You have supported this team at the level of the great programs in the country, and you deserve to have a great team. Aggie fans are really tremendous, they really are.”

Reed’s spark in the second half saw Texas A&M outscore the Tigers 31-6 once he came in.

“Then obviously, you know, unbelievable credit to Marcel Reed,” Elko said. “You know, to be ready to go tonight. We just felt like things weren’t moving the way we wanted to. It certainly wasn’t Conner’s fault, there weren’t a lot of open windows.

“We couldn’t get the passing game unglued at all. We couldn’t call it right, I couldn’t get them to run it right, we couldn’t get open. It was just a litany of problems. Conner didn’t throw it well at times. It was a litany of issues. And we just felt like we needed a spark. And we pulled the trigger and went with Marcel, and what a spark he gave us.”