After Texas A&M routs Missouri, Aggies have stadium to themselves.
Texas A&M underachieved for years. Mike Elko redirected the course.
Aggies aren’t unblemished. Elko calls run defense ‘awful.’
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Rueben Owens II scored his second touchdown late in the fourth quarter, and he looked into the stands expecting to see fans. He saw rows of empty seats.
“I was like, ‘Dang, there ain’t nobody here,” Owens, the Texas A&M running back, said.
That’s the sign of a rout in motion.
Then Owens shifted his gaze toward the southeast corner of Missouri’s Memorial Stadium. He saw packed stands in that nook. That’s where Aggies fans congregated and celebrated as No. 3 Texas A&M pulled away in a 38-17 romp over No. 17 Missouri.
“That just shows a lot of love from the 12th Man,” Owens said.
The wind whipped, and the temperature plummeted after the sun set. That tends to happen on fall nights in the Midwest. Combine the elements with the increasingly lopsided score, and most Missouri fans headed for warmth or to pursue something more pleasurable to the eye.
Those wearing maroon and white in the southeast corner still wouldn’t leave, even after the clock showed 0:00. They cheered and they chanted, and wide receiver KC Concepcion decided he’d join the party. He ascended the steps from the field and gave the fans what they wanted: another reason to chant and cheer.
“KC! KC! KC!” they chanted.
Aggies fans waited too long for a season like this.
It’s not finished yet, but pinch yourself, because it’s the second weekend of November, and Texas A&M hasn’t folded. To the contrary, these Aggies grow stronger. They’re undefeated. They’re on a march toward Atlanta.
Mike Elko reminded of why he took Texas A&M job
This is what’s long been expected of a program steeped in financial resources, blessed with gleaming facilities, backed by loyal fans and rooted in fertile recruiting terrain.
And it became a rite of summer we’d vault the Aggies into some lofty position in preseason polls. And it became a rite of November we’d say another Texas A&M team showed itself to be overhyped.
As one coach after another failed, we kept considering this a top-shelf job. Because, never mind the history, why shouldn’t this program succeed?
That’s what Mike Elko thought when he succeeded Jimbo Fisher.
“From a CEO perspective, obviously I believe this is what this program is capable of,” Elko said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re here because we believe in the ceiling of this program.”
“This is kind of what everyone had been talking about with this program for a long time,” Elko added. “For nine games we’ve lived up to it. Now, we’ve got to go finish.”
Mike Elko is done talking about the past
They’re already finishing better than how they did last season, when a three-loss November spoiled an otherwise solid debut to Elko’s tenure.
Throughout the offseason and into the preseason, one word became a mantra around the program.
Finish.
By now, Elko’s tired of hearing about last season’s collapse. When a reporter referenced the events of last November, Elko waved it aside.
“Is this our weekly last year question?” he said, a tad miffed at the query.
He’s also a tad miffed at his run defense. Missouri’s 207 rushing yards stood out as a blemish on this result. Asked how the Aggies handled the running back tandem of Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts, Elko offered a succinct assessment.
“Awful,” he said.
An unfinished product, these Aggies, but an undefeated one.
‘The culture of this group is really strong,’ Elko said. ‘The work that they put into this thing is really strong. They believe in each other, and they believe in what we’re doing.”
Texas A&M’s vulnerabilities on defense help explain why the College Football Playoff committee ranked it behind Ohio State and Indiana, even though the Aggies own better strength of schedule and strength of record metrics.
That feedback from the committee “motivated us a lot,” linebacker Daymion Sanford said. The Aggies allowed fewer points against Missouri than they did in their past two wins, but an asterisk accompanies that achievement. Missouri started its third-string quarterback, Matt Zollers, and its pass game became a pileup of incompletions.
Why let asterisks and caveats interfere with a celebration in the stands, though? Just as Texas A&M did at LSU, the Aggies kept scoring until the stands cleared, ‘til all who remained supported the road team.
“I love to see that,” Sanford said. “With our fans, it almost feels like it’s a home game for us, every time we clear out the fans.”
That leaves one road game on Texas A&M’s schedule. It will play at rival Texas on Black Friday.
That leaves one to wonder, when Owens looks into the stands in Austin late in the fourth quarter, what will he see?
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.