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Mike Elko didn’t pretend to have the right words. Not after this. Not after the biggest comeback in school history.
“Thank you for staying with us. Sorry for what the first half looked like,” Elko said to the massive crowd the entire game. “In a lot of ways you propelled us to victory in the second.”
The Aggies were dead statistically. “Down four scores at halftime…I think I read somewhere that SEC teams are 0 and 286 all time in that predicament. So that’s one and 286 now, I guess.”
But the stands never thinned.
“There’s not a lot of places where that stadium is going to look like it looked when we come back out after halftime,” he said. “I noticed it obviously in the fourth quarter when the crowd was really going. And just standing there at the end…just seeing how full the stadium still was…was an impressive showing by the 12th Man.”
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It was the fuel behind a reversal Elko called “championship level football.”
In the locker room at halftime, he saw something even he wasn’t expecting.
“All things considered, the vibes were good. The kids believed we were going to come out and win that game in the second half whether they really did or not. That was the energy in the locker room.”
But he didn’t take credit for motivation.
“Not honestly, not much,” Elko said when asked what he said at halftime. “We have an identity of who we are…we’re a blue collar team…se just weren’t doing any of those things in the first half.”
Marcel Reed’s turnaround, from turnovers to 439 yards, came from breathing room and tempo. “Just told him to relax…the tempo helped a lot…got him loose and free and playing.”
As the rally built, Elko leaned into every aggressive call, including the fourth-and-12 conversion that flipped the game.
“We’re playing to win…punting’s not helping us at that point.”
Then came the moment that left him nearly speechless, a 10 play go ahead drive that started on A&M’s own 1 yard line.
“I’m not lost for words very much, but I was lost for words with the team in the locker room after the game…a whole lot of heart left on the field and a whole lot of support from a great group of fans.”
Asked if he’d ever coached in a game like this, Elko didn’t hesitate. “No. No. That’s a first for me in my career. I don’t even really know what just happened to be honest with you.”
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