Why Aggies coach Mike Elko believes Texas A&M could not beat Notre Dame
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko verbally tipped his hat to Notre Dame on Monday. He said there was a clear gap between his Aggies and the Fighting Irish, 23-13 winners at Kyle Field this past Saturday, when it came down to getting the job done in crunch time.
“They made the plays to win it, and we didn’t,” Elko said.
That was after he spent the largest chunk of his opening statement making it very clear there were moments in the game before the Irish’s takeover in the second half of the fourth quarter that his side did not capitalize on.
He started with the quarterback.
“It looked like his feet just never got settled,” Elko said “Maybe some of the past residue kind of showcased itself in his first time back. He had much cleaner pockets than I think he played like. I think his feet just got out of control underneath him a little bit. I think that caused a lot of his inaccuracies. When you watched him settle his feet at different times, which didn’t happen a lot, but when it did happen, he was able to deliver the ball the way he’s capable of.”
Conner Weigman is not alone in looking anything but himself against the Irish. Notre Dame has had a knack for unsettling opposing quarterbacks the last two seasons. Caleb Williams had the worst game of his illustrious college career against the Irish last October. He threw 3 interceptions. He never threw 2 in any other game he played while at USC.
Was Weigman a bit off on his own? Absolutely. Did Notre Dame have at least something to do with it on the plays that weren’t purely a product of a self-induced Weigman error? Without question.
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On the other side of the ball, Elko pinpointed three plays he wished the Texas A&M defense could have back. Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard found Beaux Collins for a gain of 11 on first and 25. Jadarian Price ran 47 yards to the end zone on the next snap to make an offensive pass interference penalty on Jayden Thomas not matter one bit.
“That’s something we’ve got to get better at,” Elko said. “That’s probably the one area we looked at, as coaches, is what we’re doing on second and off schedule. That was probably the one down and distance we really struggled the most defensively.”
The third play was Leonard’s nine-yard connection with Jaden Greathouse on third and 5 from the Notre Dame 20 with five minutes left in the game, which was tied 13-13. If the Irish don’t convert there and Weigman has just one sequence of brilliance we could all very well be talking about an Aggie victory. Instead, Notre Dame gained at least 11 yards on each of its next three plays.
On the fifth, Jeremiyah Love went 21 yards to the house for a score A&M couldn’t answer.
“It felt like maybe we started pressing at that point and really gave up some uncharacteristic runs, all the way down to the final touchdown,” Elko said.
