Mike Elko explains the key to success in the red zone for Texas A&M

As Texas A&M has surged in Year 1 under Mike Elko, one of the secret sauces for the Aggies success has been an efficient red zone operation. So far, Texas A&M has scored on 95% of its red zone trips in 2024.

And while it’s been a notable bright spot, Elko also seemingly didn’t want to curse some of the inevitable good luck needed. Before he dove into his explanation of the Aggies’ red zone success, he joked that the assembled reporters were trying to get him to jinx his team.

“You guys are beautiful,” Elko said under his breath, chuckling and knocking on the wooden podium with his fist. “Every week. Sorry I’m not trying to chastise anyone. I think we spend a lot of time on it. I think the importance of what we do down there is critical.”

And with the red zone being such a critical area, Elko shared that the Aggies practice it starting on Mondays.

“So it starts today,” Elko said on Monday. “I think we’re probably one of the few teams in the country that goes into the red zone on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And so there’s a different element that we work down there every day of the week. Today we spent a lot of time on third and goal from different areas, both sides of the ball. Tomorrow’s more normal down stuff. Wednesday becomes kind of a combination of both and then Thursday we clean it up and so, yeah it’s getting down there, it’s kind of making a priority for what we do.”

Elko was quick to praise kicker Randy Bond — 17-of-19 on the year and 9-of-9 on kicks made inside the red zone — but also lauded his team for not needing him inside of 20 yards.

Of the 40 drives to enter the red zone for the Aggies in 2024, 29 have ended in touchdowns, a 72.5% rate. Of those, 20 have been rushing, and Elko nodded to the dual-threat ability of quarterback Marcel Reed, who has played much of the season.

“The running factor of Marcel plays a role,” Elko said. “I think that added element, certainly, in the games that he’s played helps. Having some big, tall receivers down there helps. Winning at the line of scrimmage has been something that we’ve been able to do a good job and then I just think it’s such a huge emphasis in our program to be successful down there.”

And being so efficient in the scoring area, when the field gets compressed and space is at a premium is something Elko knows gives this Texas A&M team an edge.

“I think we look at it more — obviously Randy’s been really good. So that makes you, when you think about red zone rankings, the field goal plays a lot in it,” Elko said. “What I’m really happy about is we’re scoring touchdowns at about a 75% clip and that will win you a lot of football games. So if you look at us on offense, we’re middle of the road yards, but upper echelon points and that’s because of the red zone success that we’re having.”