Despite tough sledding at the start of its Southeastern Conference journey, Texas A&M football was not long ago stuck in a cycle of road losses and ranked defeats. Before the arrival of head coach Mike Elko, former boss Jimbo Fisher had the Maroon and White faithful believing a win on the road was impossible, having lost 10 straight true road games to end his time in College Station.
Tougher still, the Aggies had just an 8-15 record against AP top-25 opponents, with most big-time victories merely sugar highs en route to a disappointing, if not very average season. Now under Elko, the Aggies have begun with a 5-5 record against ranked opponents, and given the circumstances of his first few years, are off to a good start in his own tenure. But sometimes, good is not good enough.
However, with the ups and downs that A&M fans have endured with the recent NIL era and all the way back to the Wrecking Crew days of the 1980s and 1990s, there's a strong case that they have waited long enough to see the consistency against conference opponents that characterizes the top programs in the country.
Winning Tradition
Tradition is and always has been at the root of A&M, and football is where many of those traditions were born. From legendary coaches like Bear Bryant to Heisman winners John David Crow and Johnny Manziel, the Aggies have produced household names for generations, but some of their very best players are just coming around in modern times.
NFL stars like Von Miller, Mike Evans, Jake Matthews and Myles Garrett have come into the big leagues in the last 20 years, and Pro Bowls have been plentiful while records have been set thanks in part to their time in College Station. But that's even more a reason for the A&M fans to get something more out of their season than just one big win or a smaller bowl victory.
A&M has had just one losing record in the last 15 years, but there's been something missing, and that has been conference championships. The Aggies have yet to earn a championship berth since their last Big 12 title in 1998, and have now found themselves on a gold mine of resources since the inception of the NIL era.
Fisher was brought in to change that luck, but even with the highest-rated recruiting class in history back in 2022, character issues and poor fits sent most of that class packing to other schools around the country. But that is exactly why Elko was brought in to replace Fisher.
In his second year with the program, Elko helped author one of the greatest seasons in recent A&M history, and set a lofty precedent that many fans thought would translate into 2026, but thanks to subpar play by quarterback Marcel Reed among others, the promised land seems out of reach now halfway through the year.
But it's not a dead dream yet, as the Aggies take on the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2022, and Elko is anticipating a strong fight out of his crew. So it's no wonder an almost palpable feeling has surronded the matchup against Alabama, and fans are ready for there to finally be a true breakthrough.
After all, even with just a 4-3 record, each home contest has brought over 100,000 yelling Aggies back home to Kyle Field expecting a page to be turned.
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