Texas A&M Aggies Coach Mike Elko Shares Strong Opinion On Joint Practices

With a week and a half left in Texas A&M football’s spring football practices, coach Mike Elko spoke to the media on Wednesday about the state of the program.

With programs like Colorado and Syracuse attempting to schedule joint scrimmages and Texas Tech suggesting joint practices with schools in the area, Elko gave his thoughts on the possibility of A&M participating in joint practices.

Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko looks on in the first quarter against the Missouri Tigers at Kyle Field. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

In the NFL, joint practices are an integral part of the preseason practice regimen for most teams. They allow players to see what they have been practicing all offseason against different players and schemes than what they are used to. Players are also encouraged to up the intensity since they do not have to worry about hurting one of their teammates.

“I think it’s extremely challenging in college football to do things like that,” Elko said.

One of the biggest challenges he listed was, at the end of day, the athletes are still students. Taking the players out of class for a week in the offseason is just not feasible. To avoid that, the only opportunity to hold joint would be during spring break.

“I'd have a heck of a time trying to convince my kids to go to Lubbock, or Waco or anywhere during spring break,” Elko said. “So I don't know how fired up they would be about any of those opportunities, and that's no disrespect to those cities, but so that part of it is a challenge.”

Another challenge that arises is finding a coach that is philosophically similar. When scrimmaging, Elko emphasized his want to pair with a program that has similar beliefs when it comes to protecting players and practice structure. He also stressed that joint scrimmages and practices move the focus of spring practice from player development to competition and winning.

“The second we have to play a game, then obviously we have to win,” Elko said. “That means you got to game-plan, and you got to, like, hear, I mean, so you're out of the mode of fundamental development, fundamental improvement because you immediately have to shift gears into game-planning.”

The Aggies will take to Kyle Field on April 19, when they participate in their traditional spring football game, the Maroon and White spring game. The intrasquad scrimmage will begin at 2 p.m. and will be streamed on SEC Network+.