Mike Elko preaches message he and the Texas A&M staff are sending to Marcel Reed to ensure a better ending to 2026
A simple message for Marcel Reed.
The Texas A&M Aggies had a tremendous 2025 season that crashed at the end with two straight losses in brutal fashion that cost them a shot at both a SEC championship and a national championship.
Part and parcel with those losses was the performance of quarterback Marcel Reed. For most of the season, Reed sliced and diced just about every defense he faced and was well on his way to being a Heisman finalist, until he ran into the Texas Longhorns in the final game of the regular season. He followed that up with another clunker in the College Football Playoff that ended with an endzone interception that buried any chance the Aggies had at winning.
Now, heading into one final season with Texas A&M, Marcel Reed has had a simple message relayed to him by Mike Elko and the rest of the Aggies’ coaching staff.
Mike Elko on the message to Marcel Reed
“Our highs in 2025 were high enough to win the national championship. At our best, we had the ability to beat anyone in the country…We had not the ability to be there all the time. That’s just where we came up short. We weren’t able to hit those marks consistently all the time and certainly down the stretch in the last two games when we needed it. Last offseason it was about finishing the right way and this year it’s more about consistency and urgency, and I think that applies to Marcel. There were times where you saw him play at an elite level, and there were times where he didn’t. I think how we get him to be urgent and consistent in his performance week in and week out will be the next step for him.”
Inconsistent is a great choice of words for Reed’s performance in 2025. Even throughout the games Reed dominated in, it would often be in the second half of games when he and the rest of the Aggies would come alive. We all remember the South Carolina game well.
Texas A&M had a lot of turnover around Marcel Reed, but they added Isaiah Horton to a wide receiver room already returning players like Mario Craver and Ashton Bethel-Roman, and should have plenty of talent to compete once more in the SEC.
To get over that next hump, however, Reed will have to play much better than he did in 2025. Everyone in College Station understands that.
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