COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M Aggies coach Mike Elko pushed back this week on the idea that an unranked Arizona State Sun Devils team is a soft nonconference date.
Arizona State reached the College Football Playoff quarterfinals two seasons ago and has had a run of players drafted, including four in the most recent draft.
“Games like this are important. I think they matter. I think they matter to our fan base. It’s gonna be a huge challenge for us. This is a really, really talented team, and I know a lot of people like to look at logos and think logos mean things. They really don’t,” Elko said. “This is a really talented team that’s been producing a lot of NFL players, has a bunch of them on the field this weekend. This will be a really big challenge for us.”
Elko ran through the Arizona State roster when he was asked what the Sun Devils present.
“They’re going to present a lot of challenges,” Elko said. “They’ve got a really talented defensive line, they got two NFL corners, they got two NFL wideouts, they got a quarterback who’s really big and talented and they’re really aggressive on special teams.”
Arizona State opened with a 70-7 win over Morgan State on Sept. 5. Quarterback Cutter Boley completed 21-of-27 passes for 387 yards and 6 touchdowns, and receiver Rodney Harris had 6 catches for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Mike Elko On Kenny Dillingham’s Rebuild At Arizona State
Kenny Dillingham took over at Arizona State in 2023. Elko said what shows up on the Sun Devils’ tape is effort, and that effort is a reading on the program rather than the scheme.
“I think he’s a really bright football guy. I think he’s got a great football mind and I think he’s got a really charismatic personality. I think people would gravitate to him. You can see it in how they play, one of the things that just jumps out on tape is how hard those kids play,” Elko said. “That’s usually a really good sign of culture and leadership and what he demands in the standard that he demands.”
“For him to have the success that he’s had so quickly at Arizona State, which was not a place that had been winning a lot of football games before he got there, I think that’s always a testament to a guy as a coach is when he’s outdoing the standard at a program,” Elko continued. “I think those guys to me are always a lot more impressive.”
Elko coached against Dillingham once before. Neither staff expects that game to carry much.
“I think both of us probably have changed a lot. I certainly remember the game, remember what they did, remember how they tried to attack us. I’m sure he remembers everything we did on defense and why they tried to attack us the way they did,” Elko said. “But I think both of us have grown and evolved schematically quite a bit since then and so I don’t know how much that one is going to be on the radar for this one.”
Dillingham said at his own Monday press conference that the Arizona State staff has been working through film from Elko’s time at Duke, from offensive coordinator Holmon Wiggins at Alabama, and from defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill at James Madison.
Mike Elko On What Week 1 Film Is Worth
Both teams beat an overmatched opponent in the opener. Elko said neither staff can take much from those games and has been building from player tape instead.
“It’s hard for us to look at that film and I’m sure it’s hard for them to look at our film from last week. It’s another one where you’re just relying on player tapes,” Elko said. “You’re watching player tapes that are a little bit of last week, a lot of bit of last year and trying to work your way through personnel, watching a lot of different colleges again, which seems like that’s what you’re doing nowadays for probably the first three or four games of every season.”
“You draw what you can from last week, but we know it’s a really talented team and certainly with this environment, this venue, this stage and this game, I think both teams will be a little bit better on Saturday than they were last week,” Elko added.
Saturday is the second meeting between the programs. Texas A&M beat the 15th-ranked Sun Devils 38-17 at NRG Stadium in Houston on Sept. 5, 2015.
The Aggies are 46-4 in home nonconference games since 2010. Kickoff at Kyle Field is 11 a.m. CT on ABC.
