Mike Elko responds to Texas A&M fine for feigning injury, offers defense

The SEC fined Texas A&M $50,000 and issued a public reprimand to coach Mike Elko stemming from an incident in a game against Arkansas on Saturday. The Aggies were accused of feigning an injury, violating league policy.

The league issued a statement outlining the infraction on Tuesday. But Elko was asked about it on Wednesday, and he noted Texas A&M wasn’t afforded an opportunity to defend itself.

“No, I wasn’t given a forum to speak on it at all,” Elko said. He made the comment on an SEC teleconference and would be pressed on the topic again later in the call.

NCAA national coordinator of football officiating Steve Shaw is the one who determined Texas A&M was in violation of the policy. He reviewed video of the alleged fake injury, which the SEC says occurred with less than 13 minutes remaining in Saturday’s 45-42 Aggies win in Fayetteville, after it was submitted by SEC officials.

The league claims Texas A&M cornerback Tyreek Chappell went to the ground after the ball was spotted by officials, “creating the appearance of an injury,” according to the SEC release. But in the video provided by the SEC, an Aggies staff member is seen standing near the 25-yard line “signaling demonstratively” toward the ground while looking in Chappell’s direction.

The SEC also noted Chappell had no contact with another player on the prior play and returned to action one play after exiting the field. Upon review of the SEC’s video, Shaw ruled “the action by the player, especially with the concurrent action by the coach in the team area, is a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game to be awarded an injury timeout,” thus violating the spirit of the injury timeout, according to the SEC release.

Elko offered his defense on Wednesday. He essentially called it a one-off incident.

“Yeah, I’m not going to comment a lot on it,” the Texas A&M coach said. “I just think there’s a massive difference between impacting the integrity of the game and an isolated situation. That’s why I disagree, ultimately, with the decision.

“We respect it. We appreciate the job the SEC office has to do. But I think when you have one situation in 20 games there’s probably a little bit of a bigger picture to it than maybe we were offered the ability to present.”

On3’s Alex Byington also contributed to this report.