Mike Elko Sends Clear Message About Texas A&M's Need for Turnovers

Turnovers have been a significant emphasis for Texas A&M football this upcoming season.

At SEC Media Days this past week, the Aggies' head coach Mike Elko discussed turnovers after being asked by a reporter how to improve in that area and how he approached coaching it to his crew, and this is what he had to say.

“I think turnovers are a skill,” Elko said. “I think your ability to punch and attack at the football and cause turnovers is a skill just like blocking, just like tackling, just like catching. I think we've spent some time in film work trying to show and illustrate where turnovers come from. Showed some opportunities last year where we had opportunities to create them, and we didn't do it properly.”

Elko’s Defense Creating TOs

A year ago, the A&M defense did not have a ton of weaknesses. Upfront, the defensive line is stacked with highly-rated stars that created tons of pressure. There were lots of linebackers able to tackle ball carriers and plenty of options in the secondary to excel in coverage.

One of the departments all of them likely wished that the Aggies could have improved upon was turnovers because the entire defense was only able to register a total of 10 all season.

There were three interceptions recorded and seven fumble recoveries. Being ranked No. 114 in the nation in that category is not ideal for a team out of the SEC. For the turnover margin, it was minus-nine, so the 10 gained versus 19 lost is definitely an area to talk about, and Elko did in Tampa, Florida.

“You try to go out all offseason and drill it to the best you can,” Elko mentioned. “I also think ball skills has been a major emphasis point for us. On defense, 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 is just having better ball skills. So I think we put a lot of the onus on our second and third level to get on the jugs more, catch more footballs to make that a bigger priority in our offseason drill work so we can enhance ball skills across our defense.”

Hammering on those ways to swarm those players with the football and jar the ball loose to get it in the hands of someone in the Maroon and White will be part of the keys to success. Another will be disguising coverages and confusing the quarterback so interceptions can quickly pile up, which will produce more trouble for opposing offenses and aid quarterback Marcel Reed and A&M’s offense.

Time will tell how this defense performs, but expect the turnovers to have an impact during this 2026-27 campaign.

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