A

How are we doing? Excited to be back here for my third season at SEC media day. It's crazy how quickly you go from being in your first year as the rookie to being in your third year as one of the more seasoned veterans in the conference. I guess that's the process of being in the sec. Want to follow up a little bit on what Greg said about the family? I had a really big summer this. This summer with my family. I earned a lot of brownie points last year by starting this press conference, by giving a shout out to my wife, Michelle. And so I'm going to do the same again this year. Appreciate everything that she does, all the support that she gives not only to me, but to our program to allow us to do the things to be very successful. I said last year we had a really bad summer. Spent the whole summer moving and so owed her a vacation and so was actually able to deliver that for her. We actually did one of our first adult vacations, going over to Europe and touring across the Mediterranean. So that was really, really exciting. I'm glad. Great. Cleaned up the idea that my daughter does not play football. She actually cheerleads for football. So I want to make sure I put that out there, too, so that she hears that clearly from me. Hopefully all of that leads to some karma. You know, we spoke a lot about family last year at this press conference, and we're able to go out and have a pretty good year. Want to be able to go do the same. We've got some big milestones. Next summer, I'll be turning 50. We'll be celebrating our 25th anniversary, and our last child will be going off to college. And so success this year, while always important in College Station, is probably more important than ever, because success during the fall leads to a very happy off season. It's really cool to be here in Tampa. This is a place that's really special to me over the years. I kind of cut my teeth back in the early 2000s recruiting the i4 corridor from Orlando over to Tampa. And so it's an area I'm very familiar with. I have a lot of family over on the east coast of Florida, stretching from Jacksonville down to Daytona Beach. And four years ago, my mom and dad relocated over into the Daytona beach area. And so I've spent a lot of time down in Florida. It's exciting to be here. It's a really exciting time to be part of the Texas A and M community both on and off the field. I want to start by mentioning our new president, Dr. Susan Balabina. Dr. Dr. Balabina was elected president in May. Really excited to partner with her as we move forward into this next era of Texas A and M University. I think she'll do a phenomenal job providing leadership not only to our athletics department, but also to our university as a whole as we continue to grow the brand of Texas A and M and continue to grow our reach across this great country. We are celebrating as a University our 150th anniversary this year. That celebration kicks off this fall when the student arrives. One of the big events will be our home game this year against Arkansas. And so we're excited to partner with our university to help celebrate 150 years of greatness at Texas A and M. Our athletic department, under the strong leadership of athletic director Trel Alberts, just completed one of its most successful seasons in our history. I want to give a special shout out to our women's volleyball coach, Jamie Morrison. Our women's volleyball team captured their first national championship ever this year. That was a great journey to follow and watch a story of tremendous grit and toughness. Also want to give a shout out to women's tennis coach Mark Weaver, whose team won their second national championship in the last three seasons. Again going on the road into Athens and winning in a very hostile environment to bring home a national championship. I love the culture that we have amongst our head coaches at Texas A and M. I think that's still something that makes college athletics very special, is the community culture that you're able to share and share in the common experiences and success within your campus. And so exciting that they root for us. Exciting to get out and root for them. Exciting anytime we get an opportunity to celebrate Aggie's success in the athletic scope. I also want to acknowledge commissioner Greg Sankey. I think he takes a lot of hits here as the commissioner of our conference. I think he has kind of become the forefront of for college football in a lot of ways. And sometimes everything that's wrong with college football gets pointed at him. But I think he has done a phenomenal job of leading this conference through an era of historic change. I think we are going through an era where the pace of change is unbelievably rapid. The amount of change and how the game is changing is really unlike any other time in our history. And I think the leadership that he shows, the information that he's been able to provide us as coaches and athletic departments to stay on the front end of that change has really, really been helpful and impactful. As our conference continues to have a lot of success. As we start to turn our attention to football, I want to talk about the three players that we brought here with us today. Want to start with quarterback Marcel Reed. Marcel Hale is from Nashville, Tennessee. He returns as our starting quarterback. It's his fourth year in the program at Texas A and M. Really excited for his growth. I think what you saw last year was him really start to scratch the surface of what he's capable of as a starting quarterback. Been really proud of how he's handled this offseason. I think he's remained extremely humble. I think his work ethic has been phenomenal. I think he has put a lot of time in to become the quarterback that he's capable of becoming and I'm really excited for what he's going to do this fall on the field. And I also think he does a phenomenal job representing our university. His role in the Bryan College Station community, what he's done from a community service effort standpoint. Just recently he hosted a football camp for youth in the Bryan College Station area that had between 600 and 700 kids at it. Really excited that we were able to bring him here. He was our leading vote getter as a captain and we like the way he has stepped into that leadership role for this team. As we head into the fall. Linebacker Damian Sanford, another one of our captains, he was our second leading vote getter. Damian's a kiddo I have a ton of history with. I actually reminded him this on the plane coming over here today. He didn't remember this, but as a junior his team captured a Texas 58 high school state title. They actually did it against College, College Station High School, which is where both of my boys were attending at the time. And so they went out and they beat College Station for the state title we offered them at Duke. Shortly after I got the head coaching job there. Actually convinced him to silently commit to us at Duke before really bursting on the scene that spring of his junior year and ultimately settling on an opportunity to go to Texas A and M. He blossomed into one of the best linebackers that I've been able to coach at Texas A and M. Extremely explosive, dynamic blitzer. Really made an impact on games when he became a full time starter for us last year and really, really looking forward to what he can do this year. But I think the story that best sums up what kind of kid he is is this. Many of you are aware that he had a pretty bad injury during the spring game. That injury required surgery. Committed to getting back as quick as he can. The game was on Saturday. He had surgery on Monday. He got released from the hospital on Tuesday. And when I walked into our end of semester meeting Wednesday morning at 10am he was sitting in a front row seat. And that was not because we asked him to be there. That was of his own accord. And so I just think he's a tremendous character kid, a tremendous leader. He will get back healthy this year and really go out and blossom on the field. The third player that we brought with us is safety Marcus Ratcliffe. Marcus hails from San Diego, California. Marcus was one of the first kids who committed to us out of the transfer portal when I got hired at Texas A and M and and so it feels as though he's kind of been with us from day one. He's played an integral part in helping build our culture. He's a tremendous leader. He's a tremendous character kid. He's really become one of the better safeties in the conference. We're excited to see what he's able to do out here this year in the fall. A story on him behind the scenes. He's put together one of the most thoughtful charity initiatives I've ever witnessed as a college football player. He created the Mission 312 program three for his jersey number 12 for the 12th man. It's a mission that helps give money to World War II veterans. And so his organization donates $312 for every turnover that we cause on defense at Texas A and M. And they have raised over $30,000 for army vets from World War II. And so just a really, really cool kid who's really done some amazing things with his platform and his opportunity to represent Texas A and M. As we turn our chapter away towards the 2026 football season, I think it's important to look back on some of the highlights from 2025. Greg mentioned some of these, but just want to put them into a capsule. 11 wins on the field for the first time in a really long time for our program, first playoff appearance ever. Led the NCAA with 13 players represented at the NFL combine. Led the SEC with 10 players drafted. Those are the markers of success that we want our program to become known for year in and year out. We've talked an awful lot about at Texas A and M becoming a program that people talk about the success that we have on and off the field, not what we're capable of being. And I think those are the markers year in and year out that we need to be able to compete to complete in order for us to continue on this journey to success. I'm also equally proud of some of the things that we accomplished off the field. 3.07 yearly GPA, the highest we've had in Texas A and m football history. 69 student athletes, including 58 of our 85 scholarships, over a 3.0 in the spring. Over 500 hours, like Greg said of community service. But that was made by 90% of our roster participating in some type of charitable work. And so we are continuing our mission of developing not just elite football players, but elite men who are going to be ready for the world that comes at them when football is over. Also want to take an opportunity to thank the 12th man for their continued support. As Greg pointed out in his opening presser, the SEC averaged 80,000 people at their home games last year. At Texas A and M, we set an attendance record averaging 106,000 people at our home games. That's 103% capacity in our stadium on average. And so they continue to find ways to come out and support this program at unbelievable levels. And I'm forever thankful and grateful for the support that we have in College Station at Texas A and M as we move into this season. We're excited for year three. We're excited with the roster that we've put together. We're excited with the competition that we're going to have as we head into fall camp. We know we've got a challenging schedule. Everybody in this league does. As we've added the ninth game, we're playing five on the road. That's going to make for big challenges, but those are challenges as a program that we're ready to meet head on. We're excited for the opportunity to go out and compete, to finish at a better clip than we have the last two years and to start bringing trophy and hardware to College Station. And so we're excited for what's ahead. We're excited for the challenges that. Thanks for all that you do covering this sport. Thanks and gig em and we'll open it up for questions from there.

B

All right. Thank you, Coach Elko. If you have a question, Tommy, Jalen or Kylie will get a microphone to you. So we'll start right over there. Straight down the middle,

A

Jerry. Third AO.com coach Mario Craver, he kind of exploded on the scene. What's kind of his ceiling like in this offense this year? Yeah, I think it's really high. I think he's one of the more explosive, dynamic slot receivers I've been able to be around. I think he does a really, really good job of creating separation. He plays bigger than his size. I think he's going to have a really, really big year for us if he can find a way to stay healthy and be consistent week in and week out as we go through this season.

B

Okay, we'll go straight here on this other side of the aisle, just right across.

C

Hey, coach. Travis Brown, kbtx. You mentioned earlier how it's the first time y' all have had a quarterback coach that wasn't the coordinator. What are some of the advantages with that and what is Joey lynch brought so far?

A

Yeah, I think the biggest advantage is, is you have a guy in that building who spends every minute of every day worried about developing our quarterbacks. And that's certainly no disrespect to Coach Klein. Colin did a phenomenal job. But when you're the offensive coordinator as well, you've got a lot of other things to worry about. You got practice planning, you got scripting, you got making sure the meetings run right. You got to focus on the run game. When you have a full time quarterback coach like we do now with Coach lynch, his sole priority every day is to create a plan not only for Marcel, but for each of our quarterbacks to grow and develop every single day. And so I think he's done a phenomenal job of putting a plan together. And then I think each of our quarterbacks has done a really good job of putting in the extra work to come in and execute that plan. And so I just think the dedicated time to the position of enhances the ability for a little bit more detailed growth in that room.

B

We'll go in the section in front of me about midway back.

C

Tony Catalina, 247 sports coach, obviously you talked about Mario Craver, but you guys brought in Isaiah Horton from Alabama, six four guy premium X receiver. Marcel was really excited about his addition. Can you just talk about what the priority was to get him on this program and just what he can do for this offense?

A

Yeah, we've been searching for that size guy really since we've gotten there. And you know, when Noah Thomas left we, he didn't really have that replacement. And I think going out and getting a guy who has the ability to have a big catch radius, who can make the contested catches, who is a difficult cover regardless of how close you are to him, just because he can make contested catches and catch himself open. Been really excited with his development through this off season. I think he's really bought into what we're trying to do and become a really, really good route runner. And so I think when you talk about the combination of Mario Isaiah along with Ashton Bethel Roman and Terry Bussey, I think we've got a lot of depth in that wide receiver room to be really, really explosive.

B

Coach, we'll go over here on our middle aisle, right in front.

C

Hey, Coach Nick Lazer from WOG in Athens, can you give us some insight on the decision making to promote Holman Wiggins from within to offensive coordinator than looking elsewhere?

A

Yeah, I think we did both. I think we ran a national search. I think we interviewed and talked to a lot of guys. But. But I think one of the things, one of the mistakes sometimes we make is we assume different is always better. And I think in my experiences that's not always the case. And so I knew who Holman was. He's an extremely intelligent football coach. He's got a lot of experience, not only at Texas A and M, but also in this conference. I think has a resume of unbelievable offensive success, has done a phenomenal job of enhancing our wide receiver room and so just have a ton of confidence in who he is as a football coach and what he's capable of doing as he moves into that role. And so obviously he'll have to take the step of calling plays, but I think everything else he has already accomplished at an elite level in college football and somebody had to give him an opportunity and I didn't want it to be another program. And so we decided to make the move ourselves.

B

We'll stay in the center aisle over here on the left.

C

Hey, Coach Cord Samuels of Inside Texas,

A

I just want to see if you

C

can comment on the differences, maybe game planning and scheming from when you entered the conference up to now, considering the game has evolved so much.

A

Yeah, I think probably one of the biggest things that has happened is the game has slowed down. I think I just talked about this on Digital Row a little bit. I think, you know, with the, with the way we can talk to the linebackers now, the way the offensive coaches can talk to the quarterbacks, I think the need to communicate has become more of a premium and I think that has changed the game a lot in terms of what people are doing at the line of scrimmage, how people are operating at the line of scrimmage. I also think that the transfer portal has impacted depth among rosters a lot. And so you've kind of moved away a little bit from these uber high paced, fast paced offenses because I don't think they have the ability to sustain that anymore. Or over the course of an entire season. And so I just think there's always evolution in the game and I think it shifted more to an at the line of scrimmage, put some emphasis on the quarterback because the head offensive coordinator can talk directly to him at the line of scrimmage. And then I think defenses have had to be able to use the communication with the linebackers to be able to evolve and stay up with that.

B

Okay, we'll go over to our right hand side.

C

Hey, Coach Bruce Marshall from WHBQ in Memphis. I apologize for wearing the Texas shirt. I got confused looking at the schedule. I promise tomorrow to wear my A and M shirt when Coach Sarkeesian talks.

A

Perfect.

C

Anyway, just to get that out of the way, real quick question about the nil. Just trying to wrap my head around it a little bit and maybe this is something Derek Miller would be. I should ask him. But A and M has quite a nice NIL operation going. But institutionally, across all the sports, is NIL money earmarked for specific sports or is it general across the whole athletic department? And does basketball and women's sports, do they have their own Derek Millers who kind of solicit for those sports?

A

That's a deep question. First, when you said nil, I thought we were talking about soccer for a second. Yeah, I think we have tried to do and be a very strategic program and athletic department in the NIL era. I think as we move forward, it's not lost the impact that NIL has in acquiring talent. And not that you want to be in the world of being at the highest end or buying people, so to speak, but the value that you're able to provide your student athletes, it enables you to retain and attract some of the best talent. And so it's not lost the impact that NIL has. And so I think we've just tried to be extremely strategic, not only as a football program, but as an athletic department in how to navigate that space as we move forward. Related to other programs within our university. I wouldn't want to comment on how they run their program. Certainly Derek Miller for us does a really, really good job of partnering with our athletic department to make sure that we're funding things at the level we need to to be able to compete and be successful.

B

Coach will go in the middle and the section right in front of me.

C

Hey, Mike. Alex Miller with the Bryan College Station Eagle. You and some of your players have really mentioned the need or the desire to create more turnovers this coming season. I'm Just curious how you go about, you know, coaching, teaching your guys to tangibly do that and improving that area.

A

Yeah, I think turnovers is a skill. I think your ability to punch an attack at the football and cause turnovers is skill. Just like blocking, just like tackling, just like catching. And so I think we've spent some time in film work trying to show and illustrate where turnovers come from, show some opportunities last year where we had opportunities to create them and we didn't do it properly. Then you try to go out all offseason and drill it to the best of you can. I also think ball skills has been a major emphasis point for us on defense. Obviously we did not have a lot of or enough interceptions last year. And so some of that is maybe being a little bit more zone coverage driven and wanting to give ourselves an opportunity to do that. But another big piece of it is just having better ball skills. And so I think we put a lot of onus on our second and third level to get on the jugs more to catch more footballs to make that a bigger priority in our off season. Drill work just so that we can enhance ball skills across our defense.

B

We're going to stay in that same section a couple rows back.

C

Carter, Carl's on three. Mike, you and Marcel had mentioned going into last season and in retrospect that maybe the criticism around him not being a passer was a bit unfair. I'm curious if you feel like maybe people still doubt him and what maybe people get wrong about him still.

A

Yeah, no, I think the narrative around Marcel has been pretty fair. I think he, he's evolved into a dual threat quarterback. I think a lot of people recognize that. I think at his highs, he's an elite quarterback. I think he knows he's got to play at that consistent level. And that's not just him. That's us as an offense. That's blocking, that's running, that's catching, that's everything. And I think we know if we can play at his best consistently, he has an opportunity to hit a really, really high ceiling. And so I think last year there was a narrative that he couldn't throw, throw. I thought that was a little bit unjust. I think this year I think people have recognized what he's capable of.

B

Now, which we're going to go to the back right hand side of the room, all the way near the back of the room.

A

Hi, coach.

C

Jacob Worland, KRUI Sports after last year's playoff run, how do you keep this

A

team from becoming satisfied I show them our trophy case and it's empty. And I think they're all very aware of that. And so, you know, I think, you know, listen, we live in a lot of worlds, and so we're obviously happy with the things that we accomplished. We're happy with the direction of our program, but it's also not lost on us that we haven't won the hardware that we're searching for. And so, you know, that gets us into a mindset of growth and getting back to work to go finish this thing a little bit better than we did last year and put ourself in a better position maybe to compete for some trophies.

B

Okay, we're going to go straight in front of me, second row. Kirk.

C

Yeah, Kirk Bolson. He's the Chronicle. Mike, I've known Texas and Oklahoma coaches that have told me they prepare a little bit every week of the year for that other rival. Robert, do you subscribe to that kind of thinking, or you wait till Thanksgiving week? And I'm curious if a day goes by without you being reminded of the Texas game by Aggie fans.

A

No, I don't probably have a day go by without being reminded how important that game is to me, but that's okay. I think that's what's. What's great about college rivalries is the passion that our fan base has for that game and certainly is matched by their fan base for that game as well. I think, not only because of the rivalry, but also because of the status of both programs. I think it would be naive to not say that we put a little bit of extra work into preparation for that game, because, you know, that game inevitably is going to mean an awful lot. It has for the last two seasons, not just because of the proximity and the rivalry, but because it seems to have playoff and SEC championship implications as well. And so when you put all of that into that game, it certainly makes a little bit of sense to give it some extra preparation.

B

We're going to go down the center aisle, all the way towards the back of the room.

C

Coach Raymond Parch with ESPN 1037, Lafayette. You bring back a ton of skill position guys. You bring back a ton of guys on the back end as well. On your defense, the line of scrimmage, you're having to break in a lot of new guys on both sides of the football. My question to you is, how much confidence do you have that you and your staff are going to get them ready for such a tough schedule?

A

I got to have confidence because the schedule is coming and we Got to be ready. We don't have much of a choice. No, I think two things. I think one, we've had more defensive linemen drafted than any program in the country since I got to Texas A and M in 2018. And so we have gotten into a rhythm of replacing D linemen that have been drafted. I think last year at this time, there was a very similar conversation. We had just had three draft picks, one first rounder, two second rounders. We were talking about how we were going to be able to replace that talent. And we did it with, you know, a second rounder and two third rounders. And so I think we were able to replace it at a really high level. We've got to be able to go do it again. Now we can't just talk about it. We got to go do it. And so we've got to elevate the players that we have in the program and get them into a position where they can go out and they can compete at the level that has become the standard of our defensive line. On the other side of the ball. I think we've done everything that we possibly can to create an environment for us to be successful. You know, we went out and we added four transfer portal guys who had starting experience in the sec. We've recruited at a really high level. We have some extremely talented young players who are chomping at the bit for their opportunity. And so what that has created is a ton of competition for those spots. And so I think competition always elevates. And so our goal is to make sure coming out of fall camp, we have an offensive line that is ready to cohesively function together and play at the level we need them to play to go be successful. And, you know, whether we get that done week one, two, three, that's got to happen as quick as it possibly can.

B

We'll take one final question about midway back on our right and center up

C

Coach Ryan Shapiro, Columbia, Missouri. In your time at Texas A and M, you've had a lot of success on the road. What do you credit to your success on the road, especially in a conference like the SEC where winning on the road is such a big deal?

A

Yeah, I think it was such a big emphasis point for me when we took over because we had had such struggles. I think when I took over had been since 2021 actually at Columbia. Missouri was the last road game we had won in the conference. And so we knew in order to take the next step and the next hurdle that we wanted to take, winning on the road was going to be a big part of it. As you looked at our schedule last year, some of the daunting road trips that we had on the schedule, winning on the road was going to be a big part of it. And I just think when you play in this conference, you have to dedicate a lot of time to playing in environments that are going to be really, really uncomfortable, because that's where success is going to get defined. And certainly this year is no different. We've got some daunting road trips, again, that we're going to have to take this year. And so it's just something we spent a lot of time on. We started installing our cadences in spring ball. It's become part of our base operation, how we're going to function in those environments. We start really drilling down on in fall camp. And I just think it's as big a part of how you play offense nowadays as anything you do, because, you know, success is going to become such a big part of what happens in those games.

B

Coach Elko, thank you for your time this afternoon.

A

Awesome. Thank you, guys for all that you do for SEC football.