Texas A&M regressed to the mean after a hot start in the first year of the Mike Elko tenure. The Aggies won seven straight, punctuated by a comeback victory over LSU under the lights in Kyle Field, following the Week 1 loss to a Notre Dame squad that wound up in the national championship game four months later. They lost the final four against Power Four opponents, including to Texas at home in the return of the rivalry.
“The reality is, we were probably somewhere in the middle and that’s where we finished,” Elko said in the spring. “It sucks, how we got there to some degree, but we put ourselves in position to get on some big stages at the end and we just didn’t handle them well or play our best football. It was the first time these kids have been in a situation where they were playing in those types of meaningful games and that requires a bit of learning curve.”