Mike Elko raves about toughness Rueben Owens brings, mindset since injury

The Texas A&M Aggies lost star running back Rueben Owens to an injury before the season even began last year. Described as a lower-body injury, it was one that Owens worked hard to fight back from. Now, head coach Mike Elko believes he can use it to springboard his success moving forward.

In the end, Owens would battle back to get on the field for the final two games of the year. That, in and of itself, was a testament to his toughness. Now fully healthy, Elko believes his mindset through the difficult process has been vital.

“It’s the hardest thing for a kid who has high hopes and expectations for what a season is going to be like to get the season taken away from him,” Mike Elko said. “To his credit, again, I’ve said this on multiple occasions and will continue to, for him to come back the way he did, knowing how skilled and talented he is when he’s 100 percent, [and] knowing he wasn’t anywhere near that, but still going out to give us anything he could for the last game of the year and to go out into the bowl game and try to shake some of the rust off and get some competitive reps. That’s a real credit to who he is as a kid, how he was raised, and how competitive he is.”

Rueben Owens initially went down with his injury in Fall Camp last year. He’d have to undergo an MRI at the time. All Mike Elko shared personally about it was that he had suffered some kind of foot injury. At the time, it looked like it would likely end his season. However, he made it back for the finale against Texas and the bowl. In that limited playing time, he had 16 carries for 66 yards.

“I think the other thing that happens,” Elko said. “And this is the end process of it all, is then you go through the whole rehab, you get back, you get healthy, you get comfortable, and then you get out there and you realize how much you missed it. Maybe there’s a little bit of an elevation of urgency because you don’t just expect that everything’s going to always be there for you. Maybe you’ve seen that a little bit from him through five practices that he understands how much he loves this game, and he loves getting to do it. His urgency to do it at a really, really high level, every rep has probably stepped up. One, because [he’s] a year older, but probably because that’s what happens sometimes when it gets taken away from you like it did.”

The injury, unfortunately, stunted what could have been a special season for Rueben Owens. He had been coming off a year where he was an SEC All-Freshman Team selection. Owens also rushed for 385 yards and three touchdowns. On top of that, his 743 all-purpose yards led all true freshmen in the SEC in 2023. It’s an extra year removed from that now, but Owens will look to regain that form in 2025.

Texas A&M is set to return to the field on August 30th against UTSA. That’s a game in which Mike Elko and the Aggies are hoping to see a healthy Rueben Owens play. He’s, in turn, hoping to thrive in his return to the field completely healthy.