{"id":352586,"date":"2025-09-08T21:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/352586\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T21:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:49:10","slug":"takeaways-from-texas-am-head-coach-mike-elkos-presser-ahead-of-matchup-vs-notre-dame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/352586\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko\u2019s presser ahead of matchup vs. Notre Dame"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 Texas A&M<\/a> travels to South Bend, Ind. to face Notre Dame on Saturday in the Aggies\u2019 first road game of 2025. <\/p>\n

Coach Mike Elko<\/a> said A&M is fully healthy after defeating defeating Utah State and is prepared to avenge its loss to Notre Dame last season.<\/p>\n

Here are some takeaways from Elko\u2019s weekly press conference on Monday:<\/p>\n

Decoding the defense<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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A&M struggled against Notre Dame\u2019s defense a season ago<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s one of the most talented groups in the country, for sure,\u201d Elko said. \u201cLeonard 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Elko spoke about the different challenges to expect facing Notre Dame\u2019s new defensive scheme under Ash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re doing what a smart coordinator would do,\u201d Elko said. \u201cYou know there\u2019s a system in place that they\u2019ve played really well and been really successful at, and so you see a large part of that still in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, 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\u2019m sure they\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stopping the run game<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s as talented a duo as I\u2019ve played against,\u201d Elko said. \u201cI 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\u2019re both effective pass catchers, these two kids were are really talented football players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love was considered a preseason Heisman trophy contender before only receiving 10 carries for 33 yards in Notre Dame\u2019s Week 1 loss to Miami. <\/p>\n

Elko said he expects the St. Louis, Missouri native to be heavily featured in the Notre Dame offense in Week 3.<\/p>\n

Winning under the bright lights<\/p>\n

A&M has struggled on the road in recent years, especially in big games, something Elko has sought to change. <\/p>\n

The Aggies ended a 10-game road losing streak that lasted from 2021-24 with a win over Florida on Sept. 14, 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The second year coach is aware of A&M\u2019s inconsistency away from Kyle Field and spoke about the magnitude of playing in South Bend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I\u2019ve always said to people about Notre Dame is you can just feel the history and tradition,\u201d Elko said. \u201cYou feel tradition, you feel history. You feel what that program has meant for so long to college football.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously for us to take the next step as a program, that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best in Texas (9\/8): Texas, Texas A&M hold steady at the top; Baylor shakes things up<\/a>College football poll (Sept. 7): SMU falls out of AP Top 25 after 2OT loss vs. Baylor<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Texas A&M coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 Texas A&M travels to South Bend, Ind. to face Notre Dame on Saturday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2009,1554,7,49,48,9,7212],"class_list":{"0":"post-352586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-brief","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-texas-am-aggies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115170886559049864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}