Texas A&M Aggies' Mike Elko Brutally Honest After Loss To USC Trojans: 'We Can't Cover'

The USC Trojans pulled off one of the craziest come-from-behind wins in bowl season this year as they edged out the Texas A&M Aggies 35-31 in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday night.

After the game, Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko was brutally honest about the performance of his defense after USC went on a 21-0 run to take the lead and eventually win the game.

"No, I rushed four every single snap," Elko said. "We can't cover."

Dec 27, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Southern California Trojans wide receiver Makai Lemon (6) carries the ball against Texas A&M Aggies defensive back BJ Mayes (20) in the second half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Elko ripped apart his team's secondary, citing the reason why they couldn't run anything other than man defense was because the Aggies aren't proficient enough in zone coverage to run it in a game.

"We can't play zone coverage. Everytime we play zone coverage, we give up big plays. We have no concept of space, no concept of zone coverage, and we have no concept of what we're doing, so we have to play man-to-man all the time," Elko said. "We don't understand how to play zone coverage, which is mind blowing to me."

The first year Texas A&M coach said that the turnovers made by his freshman quarterback Marcel Reed looked worse on paper than it did in the game.

Reed threw his first interception early in the first half. Five plays into the Aggies' second offensive drive of the game and Reed underthrew his intended target as USC safety Kamari Ramsey made a athletic grab to snag the pick. The second interception came on the very next drive as

"The first one was bad football, it was bad by Marcel and bad by the route. The second one I thought (Marcel) delivered a good football and unfortunately we didn't make the catch," he said.

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Dec 27, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed (10) throws the ball against Southern California Trojans cornerback John Humphrey (19) in the first half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Elko admitted that his young quarterback played admirably, but also showed his age at times throughout the game.

"He probably got a bit too tight when we got the lead. Tried to open it up a little bit, but for whatever reason we got to the run a little bit more," Elko said.

Texas A&M went for it only once on fourth down, despite many opportunities to do so within reasonable field position. Elko said the reason the Aggies went for it on forth down early on was to put the pressure on USC and to try and not settle for a field goal.

"That's what we tried to do, it was third-and-five right on the fringe, at that point in the game, you're up three, the value of a field goal is not very high. You're really trying to put yourself into a position to score a touchdown.

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