Quarterback Marcel Reed is a Heisman Trophy contender and the school has rewarded coach Mike Elko with a blockbuster contract extension. The Aggies faithful are hopeful that their program has finally taken a big step forward.
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“It feels amazing,” Reed said. “It feels like I’m giving back to a lot of these fans what they haven’t had.”
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this rise of the Aggies is that they did so so soon after the firing of Jimbo Fisher when he sadly failed to deliver on his promise to deliver their first national championship since 1939.
Elko, who took over at Texas A&M (11-0, 7-0 SEC, No. 3 CFP) after going 16-9 in two years at Duke in what was his first head coaching job, was hired two years ago Thursday. On the day he was introduced at an event that was more pep rally than press conference, he told hundreds of excited fans that the years and years of talking about winning a national title were over.
“We’re not going to talk about it anymore,” he said then. “Let’s do it”.
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So how did he get the Aggies to “take care of it” in such a short amount of time?
“A lot of coaches come and say a lot of things. That doesn’t mean people follow them,” he said. “So, I’ve given a lot of the credit to the players in the locker room because they were the ones who believed in this. They believed in this vision. They believed in what we were preaching. They believed in the culture. Before we had results, they just did the things that we asked them to do to build this. And now, being where we are, I think it’s a reward for everything they put into this a long time ago.”
Texas A&M has come close to reaching the next level many times in the past only to fall short, including last season when it opened the season 7-1 only to lose three of the next four games and fall out of playoff contention.
It’s happened so often that fans of the team have coined, half-jokingly, the term “Battered Aggies Syndrome.” For long-suffering Aggie fans, it means they’ve been let down so many times that they can’t even enjoy Texas A&M’s success anymore.
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It’s an idea Elko and his team don’t have time for. They are focused only on the now, a thought evidenced by the letters GRIND that take up an entire wall in a team meeting room on campus. It is an acronym that stands for Courage, Relentless Effort, Integrity, Now and Reliability.
“Now, he talks about it all the time,” Reed said of Elko. “It’s one of the most important words we talk about in the offseason and this season. So we focus on the now. I wasn’t here years ago when A&M wasn’t necessarily winning all the time. But I’m here now and I’m doing the best I can to make these fans happy and keep the wins on the board.”
And the quarterback has a message for those still suffering from “Battered Aggies Syndrome.”
“If you want to think about the past and go back to ‘battered child syndrome,’ it’s not my fault. It’s yours,” he said. “You can have your own opinions, but… if you focus on the past, you’re not going to get anywhere in life. You’ve got to have hope. You’ve got to have faith. You believe in God, you’ve got to have hope and faith. So, believe in the Aggies for once.”
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The Aggies have won 10 games for the first time since Johnny Manziel helped them go 11-2 in their Heisman-winning season in 2012. It’s the first time they’ve opened a season 11-0 since coach RC Slocum, fueled by his famous Wrecking Crew defense, went 12-0 in 1992. That season they beat archrival Texas 34-13 in Austin on Thanksgiving Day. Thank you for capping your perfect regular season.
This year they will have to beat the 16th-ranked Longhorns (CFP No. 17) on Friday in Austin to remain perfect after losing to them at home last season in their first meeting since 2011. A win will clinch a ticket to the SEC title game on Dec. 6 in Atlanta. They could still get in if they lose, but would require losses from both Alabama and Mississippi.
“I think the beauty of the next one for us is that it comes true,” Elko said. “I think that’s the nice thing about having that rivalry at the end of the season. I’m not sure there’s anything Texas A&M football can look at other than that game on Friday night. We know what that game means. We know what it’s about. We know we didn’t get it done last year. We know how important it is for us to go out and play our best football on Friday night.”
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