Mike Elko explains decision to replace Conner Weigman with Marcel Reed in win over LSU

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko made the decision to pull Conner Weigman for backup quarterback Marcel Reed in the second half of the 38-23 win over LSU.

Following another punt down 17-7, LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier threw a pick back to the Aggies and Elko inserted Reed. He ran for an eight yard touchdown to cut the lead 17-14 and the rest was history.

His spark in the second half saw Texas A&M outscore the Tigers 31-6 after the previously mentioned punt.

“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.” 

Reed led Texas A&M on five straight scoring drives (four touchdowns and one field goal) to spark the win over the Tigers.

Marcel Reed leads 2nd half spark for Texas A&M

Reed finished the game just two of two passing for 70 yards but ran nine times for 62 yards and three touchdowns.

“I mean, we came in at halftime and just, you know, they were doing a lot of really good job of mixing up coverage,” Elko said. “It was causing us a lot of issues in terms of getting our route combinations right. We were having a hard time. There (weren’t) a lot of people open. We went through the whole passing game in the first half, and there just weren’t a lot of open windows to throw the ball. Obviously, Conner had a couple misses, for sure. I’m not taking that away from it, but it certainly wasn’t all on Conner. And so then, you know, you come in at halftime, you start trying to figure out, what do we got to do? 

“And we started the second half, and it doesn’t look like it’s going in a better direction. At that point, it was, we just really made a decision that we needed to run the ball. We needed to be able to use Marcel’s legs, we needed to be able to get multi dimensional in the run game. And that was really the gist of it it wasn’t necessarily Marcel throwing it over Conner. We felt like the style of offense that Marcel brings was going to give us a spark, and that’s what we did.”