COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M Aggies coach Mike Elko spent part of his game-week press conference arguing that Marcel Reed does not get the credit his record warrants.
Elko said Reed is 12-1 as a regular-season starter over the last two seasons and is moving past quarterbacks already regarded as successes at Texas A&M.
“I’m very supportive of Marcel because I wish people would spend more time studying him and watching him and seeing how good he really is,” Elko said at the Kyle Field Media Center. “As he continues to move up the all-time passing record at Texas A&M and he starts to move past some quarterbacks who are very successful quarterbacks here and were viewed as very successful quarterbacks here. I wish people would start to appreciate who he is, what he does, and how successful he’s been for us as a starter.”
“He’s now 12-1 as a regular season starter over the last two years. I don’t know what his overall record is but it’s really good for a starting quarterback at Texas A&M,” Elko continued. “I bet it ranks very favorably amongst the starting quarterbacks at Texas A&M. I wish people would appreciate who he is a little bit more.”
Asked what specifically he wants recognized, Elko gave a short list.
“How good of a quarterback he is, how much he helps us win football games, how successful he’s been, how many yards he throws for, how many yards he runs for,” Elko said.
Reed completed 21-of-30 passes for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 50-0 win over Missouri State on Sept. 5. He was sacked twice in the first quarter and not again.
Mike Elko On Marcel Reed’s Incompletions Against Missouri State
Two of Reed’s 9 incompletions were dropped, according to Elko, and two more were throwaways he had no problem with.
Elko said the timing and the progressions were where he saw movement.
“There were two drops and a couple of throwaways that I thought were good throwaways. There were a couple of balls that he wished he would have thrown a little bit better I’m sure and a couple of decisions in the pocket where maybe he’d wish the ball would have gotten out a little bit quicker,” Elko said. “There were a couple times where he made things happen when really most quarterbacks would have been sacked.”
“I thought there was a lot of progress in him going through progressions and reads. I thought there was a lot of progress in the timing and how the ball came out of his hands,” Elko added. “Completing a very high percentage of his passes was good and that was a big emphasis for him and for us as we moved into this. I think it was a really good performance for game one.”
Kenny Dillingham And Arizona State Face Marcel Reed On Saturday
Arizona State Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham answered with one word this week when the subject turned to slowing Reed down: “Pray.”
Arizona State is 1-0 after a 70-7 win over Morgan State in Tempe. Quarterback Cutter Boley went 21-of-27 for 387 yards and 6 touchdowns in his first start for the Sun Devils.
Texas A&M held Missouri State to 67 yards of total offense, the fewest the program has allowed since 1978. The Bears managed 37 rushing yards, 30 passing yards, 4 first downs, and 1-of-10 on third down.
Kickoff at Kyle Field is 11 a.m. CT Saturday on ABC. Texas A&M is No. 10 in the AP Top 25 and No. 9 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Arizona State is unranked in both.
