Texas A&M Aggies and Mike Elko need to unlock key strength of Marcel Reed against Utah State so he’s ready to face SEC defenses
Marcel Reed and Texas A&M largely manhandled UTSA in their 42-24 victory to kick off the 2025 college football season. Yes, the defense could have been better. The run game could have been a bit more dominant. Still, the Aggies and Marcel Reed showed great signs of taking big steps forward on offense.That said, if […]
Marcel Reed and Texas A&M largely manhandled UTSA in their 42-24 victory to kick off the 2025 college football season. Yes, the defense could have been better. The run game could have been a bit more dominant. Still, the Aggies and Marcel Reed showed great signs of taking big steps forward on offense.
That said, if Mike Elko can truly unlock the arm strength and talent of Marcel Reed in the deep passing game before Texas A&M gets to the tough part of their SEC schedule that could be exactly what leads to a hugely successful season for the Aggies.
Marcel Reed needs to unlock his deep passing game against Utah State ahead of Texas A&M’s SEC schedule
Marcel Reed impressed as a passer against UTSA, despite some of the doubts from media members around the country heading into the season. His 289 yards and four touchdowns silenced any doubters rather quickly last week.
However, most of Reed’s production still came on short and intermediate passes. 16 of Reed’s 22 completions came on targets less than 10 yards down the field. Eight of them were on passes behind the line of scrimmage as the the team took advantage of their speed edge in space on several screens and quick hits.
Mike Elko should let his offense completely open up in Week 2 against Utah State. Marcel Reed has the arm strength and talent. He just hasn’t been given a large sample opportunity to showcase it just yet.
Last season, when Reed took over as the full time starter, Texas A&M was already in the thick of their SEC schedule and the team wasn’t ready to unleash his arm. Reed ended up throwing just 36 passes more than 20 yards down field on the entire season. It’s time to change that.
Against UTSA, Reed already threw six balls deep down field, connecting on three of those targets for 73 yards, but he was extremely close to having a much bigger day. He just missed his target on two other deep shots, including the one to KC Concepcion (as you can see at the 28-second mark in the post below) that would have been a 48-yard touchdown.
If Reed can simply find a bit more chemistry with his new receiving weapons this week that might be the trick to fully unlocking his deep game potential. Both his top wide receiver targets in Concepcion and Mario Craver (last week’s star), plus his tight end Amari Niblack, are all brand new weapons for him this season.
The first game was clearly all about building confidence and overall passing success. This week should be about taking the entire A&M passing attack to a new level. He already averaged targeting Concepcion and Niblack more than 20 yards down field last week. If he does that a bit more across the board Aggies fans might really have something to get excited about here soon.
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Texas A&M Aggies News
Marcel Reed silences doubters as he leads Texas A&M to blowout victory over UTSA in surprising fashion
Aggies critics had questions on Marcel Reed’s passing ability, but perhaps no more
