After 2 seasons of the Elko Era, it's become apparent that as great as he is with in game adjustments (though they felt lacking in our last 2 games), he really struggles with IN SEASON adjustments. For example, we knew our personnel (inferior LB/DB play) and scheme (run blitzing based) was compromised, yet instead of seeing material improvements after bye weeks, it just progressively got worse. As much credit as I will give him for making the necessary offseason adjustments, what do you think he needs to do to improve his in season adjustments? Without any changes, it seems like we'll just continue to tank in November.

I wish we would move to more of a pro style offense like Georgia. I hate the fact that we line up in shot gun and two point stance 100% of the time. You really need a highly efficient qb to run our offense like what Lane Kiffin puts out year after year.

Having a competent offensive playcaller is also on the slate.

Special teams is a glaring issue needing to be a priority

I think we have too little data to say any of this. There's more than one variable here.

Losing moss

Reed being limited.

People make definitive decisions with too little data way too often. We will know more and more after years 3 and especially 4 on what we may have with Elko long term. So far, we have seen him with one qb. Never make too many assumptions when a coach has had basically(I know weigman for a bit) one qb in his tenure to close each season.

TAMUallen said:

---

Special teams is a glaring issue needing to be a priority

---

Kicker

Blockers for kickers/punters.

Kick Returner to replace Concepcion.

JohnClark929 said:

---

1) Lack of running game
2) Unable to stop the running game

tu and Miami stopped our run game with a conservative zone defense; they didn't stack the box or run blitz; didn't need to; we couldn't take advantage. Conversely we couldn't stop their run game without stacking the box and run blitzing, and it eventually burned us.

This is why I feel portal priorities are OL & DL. Other positions like TE, RB, & S are also areas of need but OL & DL are the most urgent.

---

the only thing you left off was turnover margin. but you are right texas and miami didnt have to add numbers to the box to slow down our running game.

Fishwrangler11 said:

---

After 2 seasons of the Elko Era, it's become apparent that as great as he is with in game adjustments (though they felt lacking in our last 2 games), he really struggles with IN SEASON adjustments. For example, we knew our personnel (inferior LB/DB play) and scheme (run blitzing based) was compromised, yet instead of seeing material improvements after bye weeks, it just progressively got worse. As much credit as I will give him for making the necessary offseason adjustments, what do you think he needs to do to improve his in season adjustments? Without any changes, it seems like we'll just continue to tank in November.

---

Not sure how fair or unfair this criticism is…… scheme is, or should always be tied to your personnel. Meaning, the schemes you decide fit you in week 1, probably fit your personnel best later in the season also barring injuries etc. Yes, and offense or defense can evolve over a season, but not stopping the run is a multi-layered problem usually. Many times we play with a light box that gets exposed in the run game. Therefore in my mind, the question isn't why can't we stop the run, but why do we feel like we have to play with a light box until we get inside our own 30? It's usually tied to personnel in the secondary that you believe will struggle to hold up without help in coverage. Scheme is hard to tell just watching the tv copy of the game, so while us slaps on TexAgs come on here and say why can't we stop the run, Elko may view playing a lighter box inside the 30's as a risk he has to take to not give up explosive plays in the pass game! Or maybe it's another reason, but Elko definitely has a plan for what he calls, and I'm not sure he will ever share his thoughts on personnel weaknesses through the media, so we will never know!

At the beginning of the season Elko thought the only issue with our run defense is setting the edge.

And they fixed that one. It's actually an area of run defense that's not that hard to fix and they did it.

But the last three big games showed or made it very clear the overall defense concept needs reviewed bc there are clear flaws in it stopping the run bc running QBs hurt us and also base runs between the tackles.

Some will try and state it's a personnel issue. I don't see it that way. It's a scheme issue and Elko finally stated as such after the Miami game.

This is good that Elko stated it. He will actually make changes to the defensive scheme to try and fix the issues now.

Reed needs to make his progressions or find someone who can. I think half of the problem wasn't the play call it was Reed executing. Maybe happy feet because of O line play, but it was often a thing of beauty when he had time AND made his progressions. Someone was usually open. I think he would often panic and force it to his first or second option or hang on to the ball hoping those options would become open.

I don't know that croticism is fair. If you could choose to slow down high powered offenses to season low scoring but it meant you'd give up a lot of rushing yards, would you do that. We didn't have a true NB or a S that excelled stoping run and pass, we had less interior DL depth than we've had in years, and our LB group had some limitations. But with all of that we held most teams to well under their average in scoring and had a low 3rd down conversion rate. I hated seeing us get caught with a gap seemingly not assigned to anyone as much as everyone did, but overall it was a very successful season on the defensive side of the ball.

Needs on defense IMO: DT depth of high motor big bodies, an elite LB, and a stud SS or NB that can play in the box or man on against WRs, abd at least 1 good CB.

Needs on ofense IMO: OL, OL, OL. A stud RB would be nice as well. Elite speed at that position would change the offense. Another 1 to 2 fast upper classmen yet under the radar WRs to compete there.

TAMUallen said:

---

Special teams is a glaring issue needing to be a priority

---

I trust Elko's vision in a lot of areas. I don't trust it yet with ST. If he truly self evaluates this year he'll see how bad our special teams was and how important this is to get fixed. Hell it kept Saban from 1 or 2 additional national titles too.

TMF said:

---

Reed needs to make his progressions or find someone who can. I think half of the problem wasn't the play call it was Reed executing. Maybe happy feet because of O line play, but it was often a thing of beauty when he had time AND made his progressions. Someone was usually open. I think he would often panic and force it to his first or second option or hang on to the ball hoping those options would become open.

---

It looked like both to me. Reed definitely has some work to do this offseason, he just can't continue to throw into coverage like that. The play calling seemed to take him away from his strengths though and looked like it made the game harder. If the setting up three plays later by running between the tackles and straight dropback passes isn't working, the playcaller needs to adjust. I don't feel like we did that in our last 2 games.

This is spot on. Except for the return game, our special teams was a disaster. We have to figure something else out and likely need a plan A, B, and C in case the forst two go like this year did.

TMF said:

---

Reed needs to make his progressions or find someone who can. I think half of the problem wasn't the play call it was Reed executing. Maybe happy feet because of O line play, but it was often a thing of beauty when he had time AND made his progressions. Someone was usually open. I think he would often panic and force it to his first or second option or hang on to the ball hoping those options would become open.

---

Just because someone is open at some point in a play doesn't mean the qb should have seen it and thrown it. Monday morning quarterbacking is a phrase for a reason.

He definitely missed opportunities here and there this year but there is TONS of tape this season where he is going through 2, 3, and 4 reads and finding guys. Jimbo's offense was predicated on 'knowing' the spot to throw it to pre snap, and Sumlin ran a Leach style spread where it's all super fast throws. I have not seen a qb at A&M actually progress through reads as well as Reed has since Tannehill. Johnny didn't progress through, he just scrambled and played backyard football till a guy sprung open or caught an angle to throw to.

Reed has got to get better on his down field throws, but if you just watched pocket presence and processing of the routes, and take the entire season into account (not just the last 2 and only the misses), you'll see a lot to build on.

Let's all hope he does it.

Reed reminds me of a more explosive Kellen Mond. If he can settle down like Mond did in his later years, it'll be alright.

The biggest issue for our fans is winning literally every game. Hope that helps…

HSEAG13 said:

---

Reed reminds me of a more explosive Kellen Mond. If he can settle down like Mond did in his later years, it'll be alright.

---

Mond was way better. Bigger, faster and more accurate. Mond's problem was when he was asked to process too much (which was kind of the whole issue with Jimbos super complicated O). When we put Mond in 2 minute drill he was awesome.

Reed is small and inaccurate. Complain all you want about the scheme this year but we had wide open guys on almost every play. An accurate QB would have been worth 10-14 more points a game, and we'd still be playing.

I wouldn't say Mond was super accurate. He sailed a lot of throws as well

That's fair, but it doesn't take much to be more accurate than Reed was this year.

Mond's first couple of years he was average. He would get happy feet and miss most of his targets. Just because you remember his senior season after he grew and developed doesn't mean that he was always super accurate. Reed is following that same progression, the problem is everyone wants a Trevor Lawrence who was ready to go as a freshman.

greg.w.h said:

---

The biggest issue for our fans is winning literally every game. Hope that helps…

---

No, the issue is we fans want to win a particular last game.

Or if that's not possible, at least not lose any games in embarrassing fashion.

I mean it's hard to make in season adjustments when the adjustment you need is better players. We knew this d line would be a weakness going into the season and it proved to be true. It's a wonder we were able to play such good defense earlier in the year with a group that got thrown together like they did.

If you thought those last two games were embarrassing you must have been in a coma for the Fran years

It is not that amazing when you look at our SEC schedule. We played the bottom half. We had the advantage of an incredibly generous schedule.

I don't think we have the depth the last two season to make in season changes. Should change in the coming years.

Pretty easy to look back and say this. No one felt our schedule was "easy" going into week one of the season. Most of the country would have had more than one loss with our schedule…..that is a fact most people refuse to admit.

So your argument is that real world results and rankings shouldn't matter and we should only care about difficult a schedule looked before anyone played a single game?

No not all…..my point is the stupid argument that people make our schedule was weak. It's a lazy take by just looking at SEC standings. The conference isn't like the Big Ten or ACC. Teams are loaded with top end NFL talent even with a poor conference record….see USC. Again it's a fact that well over 90 percent of the country would have more than one loss with our schedule.

Coach Elko has a lot to fix..

The following probably wouldn't have worked in Klein's offense, but I think I would have given Brooks a shot at RB and taken him to the outside. Not up the middle, just to the outside. It would have been fun to watch.

Rent better players.