Mike Elko reveals three notable Texas A&M stars have opted out of Las Vegas Bowl

Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko revealed on Tuesday that three Aggies stars will not play in the Las Vegas Bowl against USC.

Texas A&M will be without defensive end Shemar Stewart, defensive end Nic Scourton and defensive tackle Shemar Turner against the Trojans, Elko told reporters Tuesday, according to Carter Karels.

Those are obviously three big losses as they played a critical role in helping Texas A&M to an 8-4 season in 2024.

Shemar Stewart played in 12 games for the Aggies this season, recording 31 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss 1.5 sacks and 7 quarterback hurries. The junior was an All-SEC Freshman selection in 2022 and was named third-team All-SEC in 2024.

Nic Scourton is a Purdue transfer who recorded 37 tackles, 14 tackles for loss and 5 sacks in his only season with Texas A&M. Scourton finished third in the SEC in tackles for loss. He was named first-team All-SEC.

Turner started all 12 games at defensive tackle this season, finishing the year with 36 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks. He was named to the All-SEC Freshman team in 2021 and earned second-team All-SEC honors in 2023.

Texas A&M had a solid first year under Mike Elko and will look to build on it in 2025. Elko recently joined Andy & Ari On3 and shared his plan for improvement in Year 2 with the Aggies.

“I think and this is what I told our guys, we had to lay such a strong foundation of what college football culture should look like,” Mike Elko said. “What it should look like from an accountability standpoint, from a doing it the right way standpoint, from a commitment to doing things for the team standpoint.”

Going into the final week of the regular season, Texas A&M was in a position where with a win they could be in the SEC Championship Game. However, the Aggies suffered a close loss to rival Texas and fell to 8-4 on the season before their bowl game.

Mike Elko isn’t happy with that result, though, and now he’s looking to get his roster to take the next step in 2025.

“Now, what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to go out and we’ve got to become really good football players. Second year in the system,” Elko said. “Second year in the scheme. Having an opportunity of really going through the details of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it is, I think, going to be really critical. So, we’re excited to move this thing forward and get into year two and kind of finish the deal on what we started this year.”