LSU vs. Texas A&M: What Mike Elko had to say about facing Brian Kelly, Tigers

When No. 8 LSU travels to College Station this weekend to face No. 14 Texas A&M, the SEC driver’s seat is on the line as the Tigers and Aggies are the only two undefeated teams remaining in SEC play.

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko met with the media Monday to kickoff the week. Here’s everything he had to say about LSU and its head coach Brian Kelly, who hired Elko as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator in 2017.

Opening statement about LSU…

Looking ahead to LSU, it’s going to be a huge challenge, a great environment. It’s going to be an opportunity for us to go out there and show we belong on this stage and that I’ve taken this program to where we all thought we wanted it to go. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a great venue. They’re a great team. We’re a talented team. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Looking forward to Saturday. Looking forward to a great environment at Kyle (Field). I know our people will show out. It will be electric. We’re going to spend the week doing the best we can to go play our best football.

What has LSU done without Harold Perkins…

It’s a hard question to answer. I obviously have a lot of respect for Harold. He’s a great player. I don’t mean this in a bad way but they’ve taken huge strides forward in the last two weeks. I don’t think that’s indicative of him not being in there. I think sometimes when your best player or most talented player goes down, everyone else elevates themselves around it. They’re playing really good football. Whit Weeks has taken on the challenge of stepping into that role. He’s about as productive as a linebacker could be the last two weeks.

What makes Garrett Nussmeier so effective as a thrower especially to Kyren Lacy?

Nussmeier can make every throw. He’s a testament for kind of doing this the right way. What you’re seeing three years into the transfer portal is so many kids are jumping around and when you’re jumping around, you’re not getting better. When you have to relocate, you have to reestablish yourself, you have to learn a new system, learn a new place. It’s hard to improve in an uncomfortable environment.

He has stayed the course. He’s really comfortable in their system. He’s grown and developed. He’s gotten his opportunities over the years when opportunities presented themselves. I think that’s prepared him to come into this stage this year and really be their leader. He can throw the ball all over the field. He has a tremendous arm. He’s got a lot of moxy, you can see that in him. Obviously, raised in a family of quarterbacks. That sticks out on tape.

In terms of Lacy, he’s an electric, dynamic receiver. He can make a ton of plays, but I also think when you look at the group, it’s so talented. They have a clearly established No. 1 but they also have three other people, including a tight end, who can flat out beat you if you don’t pay them the appropriate attention too. It makes the passing game extremely dynamic and productive for them.

What does Brian Kelly do well as a coach and what have you learned from him?

I learned a lot. Brian is a really, really successful head coach. He isn’t really into the self-promotion business. He’s the winningest coach in Notre Dame football history. I don’t know that that’s something that rolls off of everyone’s tongue but he’s been successful everywhere he’s been. My defensive coordinator path kind of mirrored his head coach path. … I have a ton of respect for him and who he is. Certainly appreciate the opportunity he gave me to be the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. He’s a really good coach and does a really good job getting the best out of his team.

Similarities between Texas A&M and LSU this season? And talk about LSU’s growth…

Eerily similar in some ways. Both had a big stage in the opener. Both had a close game that came down to the fourth quarter and didn’t make the plays at the end that they needed to be successful. Probably in some ways, both got written off a little bit and just went to work to get better and improved every week … All of a sudden you pick your head up and here you are. That’s usually where success comes from when you do things like that.

In terms of where they’ve gotten better, I don’t know. Those things are kind of hard to measure because you look at the whole body of work that they have and you see this extremely talented team. I don’t know that I study closely or exactly where they came up short against USC vs. where they didn’t against Ole Miss. I just think they’re extremely talented. They’ve gotten more and more comfortable on defense with the system. I think Blake Baker does a great job. Each week they’re getting more and more comfortable in what he’s asking them to do. They quarterback is certainly getting more comfortable as a starter. This was his first season going into the season as the established starter. It wasn’t his first start but it was his first season as the established starter. Some of the natural progression of growth you’ve seen from them from start to finish.

The pass rush has been a big plus for Texas A&M, what will the position matchup be like against their offensive line?

It’s a great matchup. There’s 10 million dollars cash on the line this weekend, someone’s going to go get it. If you want it, it’s yours. It’ll be a great matchup. It’ll be a lot of fun. That’s what happens in these type of games. You see these high level players on both sides of the ball for both programs. They can a chance to go against each other. That’s certainly one. Our running backs against their linebackers is another. There’s a lot of those type of matchups when you look at the game.

Any similar concepts between Notre Dame and LSU you see?

There’s some similarities. Obviously, Coach Kelly is an offensive guy. It’s his feel on the offense. A large part of that staff remained behind so they have parts of their offense that they still like. They also have their own taste and own spin and adapted it to this group of players and make it as successful as it can be for the talent they have on hand. I don’t know that we can draw a lot from the last game but certainly you have some awareness of how it all looked and how they tried to attack you.