Texas A&M’s Mike Elko offers ‘utter apology’ to fans after brutal loss to Tennessee

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The Texas A&M Aggies fell to their third straight defeat in an embarrassing 22-7 home loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. It got so bad that Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko benched starting quarterback Marcel Reed for the final drive of the game.

After the game, Elko apologized to the Aggies fans for the team’s abysmal showing. He also pleaded for patience as he tries to turn the team’s fortunes around amid their terrible run.

“An utter apology with everything that I have to everybody that supports this program. Thank you for turning out. You deserve so much better. Give me a chance and we will get this fixed and we put a much better product on the field,” Elko said.

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Texas A&M had actually been leading 7-6 at halftime against Tennessee, which was among the teams affected by the FAA grounding. However, the Vols rallied in the second half as their vaunted defense shut down the Aggies en route to a dominant 16-0 half.

Marcel Reed had a disappointing game as he completed just nine of 22 pass attempts for a season-low 71 yards. He also threw a late interception, which proved to be his last pass of the game as he was pulled in favor of Brady Hart.

After the promise of his junior year, Reed has had a subpar senior season overall. He entered the Tennessee game completing just 57% of his passes for 1,641 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Elko is in his third season at College Station. He had been fairly successful in his first two seasons, and led the Aggies to the College Football Playoff last year. But it remains to be seen whether the school will heed his call to keep him on amid their disastrous end to the season. Much could depend on how they close out the regular season as they take on Oklahoma and Texas.

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