Texas A&M enters Week 6 of the 2025 season with plenty of momentum, especially on defense, after shutting down the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, winning 16-10 while limiting the visitors to just 177 yards, including just 52 rushing yards. A&M’s offense produced 414 yards, but due to 13 penalties and two missed field goals, the Aggies could muster only 16 points.
Outside of Texas A&M’s opening drive, which resulted in the Aggies’ first opening game touchdown of the season, the offense didn’t stall, but the penalties, including two personal fouls by defensive tackle Albert Regis and left guard Chase Bisontis, continued to place the offense behind the sticks, resulting in a performance that the stats do not explain.
After the win, coach Mike Elko didn’t go into great detail regarding the penalty issues, except to tell those of us in the media to avoid the “doom and gloom” questions after a victory. While he could have been joking, Monday’s presser saw the second-year head coach discuss the penalty issues at length.
“We just had too many penalties, and penalties kill drive.”
“It’s a problem. It’s something we have to get fixed and addressed. It was a very strong point of our meetings this morning, and we won’t continue to win games if we don’t improve.”
This is why Mike Elko is considered one of the best coaches in the country when it comes to situational football and “fixing the fixable,” as the penalty issues are likely based on a lack of focus, especially holding calls.
This point doesn’t matter, given that the Aggies won the game. Still, after starting quarterback Marcel Reed’s perfect end-zone pass to wide receiver Mario Craver was called back due to a questionable penalty, it led to Reed’s almost game-changing interception, resulting in Auburn‘s only touchdown.
“The pre-snap and post-play ones drive you crazy as a coach. … We should never have false starts or anything after the whistle.”
“In-action penalties, there are times where those are going to come up. There are so many 50-50 situations that kids get into.”
Again, these problems are all fixable, starting with a great week of practice before facing Mississippi State in the first blackout game of the year, and knowing that the Bulldogs bring in one of the more balanced offensive attacks in the SEC, if Texas A&M’s defense doesn’t dominate, this game could turn into a shootout.
Either way, you can’t say Mike Elko doesn’t have a sense of humor, stating during the press conference that for every penalty one of his players commits going forward, they’ll have to contribute to the “Coaches Cabo Fund.”
“Today, what we started was the Texas A&M Football Coaches Cabo Fund, so what’s going to happen now is every time our players get a penalty, they’re going to contribute to our Cabo Fund. We’ll see if that works.”
Time will tell if these problems are fixed, starting with Saturday’s primetime matchup vs. Mississippi State.
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This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M HC Mike Elko has shifted focus to fixing the penalty issues