Mike Elko backs Holmon Wiggins, Marcel Reed after A&M loss

The loss in Columbia was a 9-point offense with 9 games of evidence behind it, and Aggie Twitter spent Sunday deciding who to blame.

That one's a joke, but it stings because it hits a real nerve. Elko's offense looked a lot better with Riley Leonard under center at Duke, and right now in College Station it can't score. A&M moved the ball at South Carolina. Marcel Reed threw for a season-high 251 yards on 25-of-43, and Rueben Owens II ran for 137. Then it all died in the red zone, and the Gamecocks scored the last 10 points of the game, LaNorris Sellers putting it away with a 41-yard touchdown run.

Sunday night the fanbase got into it with itself. Some people were swearing off the Aggies altogether, and longtime A&M writers pushed back that you don't trade in your team because it's losing. Others went straight to the roster math, arguing that a program in this spot should put its NIL money into a big portal class, starting at quarterback, and quit paying for high school recruiting rankings.

By Monday's press conference the question everybody was asking was simple: Oregon, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan have all made in-season changes at offensive coordinator, so why hasn't A&M? Elko's answer was a flat no.

Wiggins is in his first year calling the offense. He got the job when Collin Klein left to become head coach at Kansas State, and Elko is clearly not ready to admit the promotion was a mistake. When the same reporter asked whether he has long-term confidence in Wiggins, Elko didn't go the diplomatic route.

That's not a no, but it isn't a yes either. Elko spent the rest of the presser in the same mode. He said the drives were stalling between the 30 and the 20 more than inside the 20, and that the team does more situational work than almost anybody, which makes it worse that it isn't showing up on Saturdays. He pointed out that WRs Ashton Bethel-Roman and Terry Bussey and Craver were all out by the 4th quarter, then said injuries aren't an excuse.

He covered for Reed too. Elko said there were 8 drops in Reed's 25-of-43 day and called it solid quarterback play, not elite. Basically: stop judging the whole game by the last throw. Fair enough. It's also exactly what a coach says when he isn't changing anything at QB or at coordinator.

By Monday night the beat writers had all landed in the same place. Every other program can fire coordinators midseason, but don't expect that in Aggieland.

While all that was going on, the recruiting staff stayed busy. A&M sent offers Monday night to 2 in-state 2027 offensive linemen who are committed elsewhere: Troy's Sonny Mullen, an Oklahoma State commit, and Forney's Mason Joshua, an Arizona commit. Tennessee is next. Elko has staked his week on Wiggins and Reed, so if the red zone goes dry again, all the heat that's been on the coordinator moves up to the head coach.