COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M travels to South Bend, Ind. to face Notre Dame on Saturday in the Aggies’ first road game of 2025.
Coach Mike Elko said A&M is fully healthy after defeating defeating Utah State and is prepared to avenge its loss to Notre Dame last season.
Here are some takeaways from Elko’s weekly press conference on Monday:
Decoding the defense
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A&M struggled against Notre Dame’s defense a season ago, reaching the end zone just once in the 23-13 defeat. Notre Dame returns several key players in the secondary, looking to derail an A&M offense that has steamrolled both its opponents to start this season. Elko discussed how gifted the Fighting Irish secondary is with a duo of sophomore captaining the Notre Dame defense.
“Yeah, it’s one of the most talented groups in the country, for sure,” Elko said. “Leonard Moore is a kid that we were very familiar with. We tried really hard to get him at Duke, and wound up choosing Notre Dame. And obviously had a really, really good true freshman year for them last year. And Christian Gray, the kid on, the other side who we played against last year, is another really, really talented corner.”
The Aggies will be dealing with a new defensive play caller on Saturday with Chris Ash replacing Al Golden at defensive coordinator for the Fighting Irish. Ash previously served as defensive coordinator of Wisconsin, Arkansas, Ohio State and Texas.
Elko spoke about the different challenges to expect facing Notre Dame’s new defensive scheme under Ash.
“I think they’re doing what a smart coordinator would do,” Elko said. “You know there’s a system in place that they’ve played really well and been really successful at, and so you see a large part of that still in place.
“But, Chris has obviously been a very successful defensive coordinator in his own right for a very long time. And so I think you see some of the wrinkles that are his, or maybe more the staples of a Chris Ash defense kind of showing themselves too. And I’m sure they’ll continue to try to find the right blend as they move forward based on what they think they need to do to be successful, to stop people.”
Stopping the run game
The Fighting Irish gashed the Aggie defense for 198 rushing yards in their last meeting, and both running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price return for Notre Dame.
“I think it’s as talented a duo as I’ve played against,” Elko said. “I was actually talking about this, that the only thing that I can remember in the ballpark was when I was actually at Notre Dame and we played Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, and that group was really talented. But these two kids are really, really good. Their athleticism for their size, the way they hit the hole, the power with which they run. They’re both effective pass catchers, these two kids were are really talented football players.”
Love was considered a preseason Heisman trophy contender before only receiving 10 carries for 33 yards in Notre Dame’s Week 1 loss to Miami.
Elko said he expects the St. Louis, Missouri native to be heavily featured in the Notre Dame offense in Week 3.
Winning under the bright lights
A&M has struggled on the road in recent years, especially in big games, something Elko has sought to change.
The Aggies ended a 10-game road losing streak that lasted from 2021-24 with a win over Florida on Sept. 14, 2024.
The second year coach is aware of A&M’s inconsistency away from Kyle Field and spoke about the magnitude of playing in South Bend.
“The thing I’ve always said to people about Notre Dame is you can just feel the history and tradition,” Elko said. “You feel tradition, you feel history. You feel what that program has meant for so long to college football.
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“Obviously for us to take the next step as a program, that’s the next hurdle that we have to get over. You know, we got over the winning on the road last year. Now we got to get over the winning at night on the road against the top 10 team.”
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