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Mike Elko explodes after hearing Texas celebrations during press conference

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz11 hours agoNickSchultz_7

As Mike Elko met with reporters for his postgame press conference following Friday’s Lone Star Showdown, the door was open. That meant the loud Texas celebrations came through clearly, and he expressed his frustration as they did.

Elko stopped mid-answer to ask someone to close the door to muffle the noise a bit. It came after his Texas A&M team lost its first game of the season, which also kept the Aggies out of the SEC Championship, based on the tiebreakers.

“Could we close the door and run a professional press conference please?” Elko said while answering a question. “My gosh.”

Texas A&M took the lead into halftime and Texas appeared to flip the script after the break, taking a 10-point lead on the first play of the fourth quarter. Although Texas A&M mounted a charge, it wasn’t enough as the Longhorns handed the Aggies their first loss of the season – and their SEC title hopes.

An Arch Manning touchdown run, followed by two interceptions from Marcel Reed, helped Texas seal the victory over Texas A&M. The Aggies will now miss the SEC Championship while Georgia secured a spot in the title game as a result of the tiebreaker. Every team in the SEC has at least one loss.

The Texas offense broke out in a big way in the third quarter of Friday’s game, totaling 189 yards in the frame, led by 106 passing yards from Manning. That helped the Longhorns eventually take a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter, although Texas A&M was able to cut into it quickly.

The Aggies faced a three-and-out when Reed tried to scramble on 3rd and 21. He came up short, but a facemask penalty on Jelani McDonald extended the drive. Three plays later, Texas A&M found the end zone on an EJ Smith touchdown to cut the lead to 20-17 with less than 10 minutes to go.

But Manning took matters into his own hands from there. After a penalty made it 3rd and 3, he took a designed run 35 yards for a touchdown, putting Texas back up by 10 points with just over seven minutes to go in the game. It made it a two-score ballgame once again.

Mike Elko’s group marched down the field, hoping to get back within a score, but Reed’s pass in the red zone got picked off. That gave the Longhorns the ball back with 3:41 to go and a chance to get the Aggies to use all their timeouts. After getting one more shot, Reed threw his second straight interception – meaning Texas could seal the victory and, officially, play spoiler.