Texas A&M is searching for answers after 3-3 start. What changes Mike Elko is considering

Texas A&M didn't expect to be near the bottom of the SEC standings heading into Saturday's non-conference game versus The Citadel.

Entering the year as a top-10 ranked team and coming off their first College Football Playoff bid, the Aggies had high expectations. They haven't come close to meeting them. They are 1-3 in conference and 3-3 overall.

Now with a difficult second half of the season about to start and even making a bowl game in jeopardy, Texas A&M needs to find answers quickly. Its attempts over the last few weeks have mostly not been successful. 

But even as fixes are attempted, not everything is going to change. Here's an overview of some of the changes the Aggies have made, moves they might make in the future and aspects of the team coach Mike Elko seems hesitant to change.

Quarterback

Elko has been adamant throughout the season that Marcel Reed is the quarterback for Texas A&M. That hasn't changed even as the season has drifted off course like a ship in windy waters.

Sophomore Brady Hart, a four-star recruit out of a Florida high school, is the backup to Reed. He has only played in garbage time this season.

Elko was asked directly after the Missouri loss why he hadn't given Hart a chance.

"It just doesn't feel like that's the move that would help us," Elko said. "I will do whatever I believe is the right thing for this team to do. Everything's competitive. We're trying to figure out what the right thing to do is. That just doesn't feel like the right thing at the moment."

Offense

The offense has been trying new things, Elko said. The adjustments aren't working.

"Sometimes when the results are the same, it appears as though the effort and the opportunity and what you're trying to do is the same,"  Elko said. "It's not."

Texas A&M will continue to look at its options and Elko said "everything has to be on the table," from personnel to philosophy to pace.

But Elko has also said he doesn't believe major, wholescale changes would be beneficial for the program for the rest of the season.

"New isn't always better," Elko said after the Missouri loss. "New doesn't get executed at the level it needs to in the SEC to be successful."

Practice

After the Kentucky loss, Texas A&M switched up its practices to have less scout team work and more competitive work.

Elko made the switch as a way to re-energize the team, and he said the practices became more physical and more enjoyable.

"Anytime you're searching for answers, the first place you look is practice: how you practice, what you're doing," Elko said after the Arkansas game. "The kids have really taken to it."

Coming out of halftime

Texas A&M has not been good in the third quarter. Kentucky outscored the Aggies 21-0. LSU outscored them 21-3. Missouri outscored them 10-0. 

"There's been an energy drop coming out of halftime," Elko said. "I don't know if that's related to game score. I don't know if that's related to belief, confidence."

The team has tried to make tweaks to fix the third quarter malaise, Elko said, including coming out onto the field earlier to give the team more time to warm up. He felt his team did better against Missouri but it still wasn't good enough.

Defensive playcalling duties

Elko mentioned after the Missouri game that he had previously given up defensive playcalling duties to take on more of a CEO role. He confirmed Monday that changeover to defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill had been made following the 35-6 loss to LSU.

"That was an important step, just so that I could have the freedom to be involved in everything," Elko said of the move.

Prior to making the decision, Elko said he was trying to do too many things and it had been detrimental to the team.

Coordinators

Texas A&M has all new coordinators this season in Hemphill, Holman and co-defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson, who returned after two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Syracuse.

"We do all of our coaching evaluations internally, and so those are things that we'll just keep internally in our building," Elko said.

Letting younger players play

Sometimes when seasons fall by the wayside, coaches will look to flip the page and start playing younger players to get them more reps and better prepare them for the future.

That's not how Elko is thinking. Younger players will play more because they've earned the opportunity, he said. But his approach is to do what's best for a chance to win on Saturday.

"I don't think you're ever saying I think this older kid gives us the best chance to win Saturday, but I'm not gonna do that because that's not the best thing for the future," Elko said. "That's not a mindset that I think is the right mindset for your program."

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This article originally published at Texas A&M is searching for answers after 3-3 start. What changes Mike Elko is considering.