Mike Elko responds to Cayden Green's accusation that Texas A&M was calling out Missouri plays

After opening the season with five consecutive victories, Missouri has dropped three of its last four in SEC play, including Saturday’s 38-17 home drubbing against No. 3 Texas A&M. But Saturday’s loss was particularly jarring as the Tigers’ usually explosive offense was held to a season-low 284 total yards, nearly 200 yards below their season average entering the weekend.

Following the loss, which saw Mizzou (6-3, 2-3 SEC) fall to No. 24 in the latest Coaches Poll and completely out of the AP Top 25, Tigers offensive lineman Cayden Green suggested the Texas A&M defense may have had undue insight into their offensive plays.

During the postgame press conference Saturday night, Green — Mizzou’s 6-foot-5, 324-pound left tackle — claimed much of the Tigers’ offensive issues Saturday could be attributed to the Aggies identifying and even calling out Mizzou’s plays before the snap.

“I feel like they made some good adjustments, you know, they started to kind of key in on what we were doing, calling out plays at the line. So, you know, it is what it is,” Green said postgame, courtesy of Michael Bratton on X/Twitter. “Yeah, a few times I think they were starting to get reads on formations and stuff, maybe stances, I don’t know. Like I said, that’s a really good defense. We’ve just got to be better.”

Mike Elko on if A&M’s defense knew Mizzou’s plays: ‘I don’t know anything about that’

When presented with Green’s claim on Monday, second-year Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko — who was previously the Aggies defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher from 2018-21 — feigned ingnorance.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Elko said during Monday’s press conference before cracking a wry smile as he scanned the room for the next question.

Of course, whether the Aggies ultimately knew Missouri’s offensive plays prior to the snap is not inherently against NCAA rules, especially if A&M defensive players were able to properly identify specific tells or indications coming from how particular Tigers players were lined up. Still, just two years removed from the infamous Michigan sign-stealing scheme that led to significant NCAA sanctions, it undoubtedly raises some concern, especially for those inside Mizzou’s locker room.

This also comes on the heels of claims by Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin that Oklahoma‘s defense — led by head coach Brent Venables — has developed legal ways of identifying opponent plays.

“One, it’s phenomenal prep — a film study of signals,” Kiffin said last month prior to the Rebels’ 34-26 win in Norman. “They do a great job of that. If you study people really well, you have enough confidence as a coach to go after those. That seems what he does and they’ve got a really good beat on the plays that are coming when they’re called and they do a great job of going and taking those away. Look at the Auburn game. I told (now-former Tigers head coach) Hugh (Freeze) after the game, watching it, he might want to switch his signals. Like, it looks like they have the plays. The middle safety’s running down to steal slants, which is very abnormal.”