Two days after calling the team’s leading fan website a “cesspool,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko walked back his comments on Monday and again accepted responsibility for the Aggies’ 3-3 start to the season.
Following Texas A&M’s 27-6 loss on Saturday at then-No. 14 Missouri, Elko referenced TexAgs, a site co-owned by Billy Liucci.
Elko said at the time, “There’s one group that I really don’t care much about. Billy’s cesspool can go be Billy’s cesspool. Our fanbase: Stay with us, be behind us, we’re going to build something that we told you we were going to build. We’re in a really bad spot right now, but we’ll work our way out of it.”
At his Monday press conference, Elko said, “I think in the heat of the moment, I answered a question in a way I certainly regret. I think everybody knows I appreciate our fanbase and everything that they’re about and everything they mean to Texas A&M. I regret the way it was taken, I regret the way it came out. I regret the way it ran. That certainly was never my intention.
“And certainly, throughout the course of that interview, at no point ever did I lend any blame to anything other than myself. I am the reason why this team is struggling. I have owned that since this has started. I continue to own that. It’s my job to figure out how to get it better.”
Elko added about Liucci, “I think everybody knows I have a tremendous relationship with Billy. I appreciate Billy. I appreciate him being here today.”
Liucci told The Athletic following Elko’s original comments, “It was just (the) wrong time and wrong audience to be saying that to, the way the season is going. … I think Coach Elko understands that. He just had a moment where the frustration came out at the podium. That never goes well.”
According to The Athletic, TexAgs is college sports’ largest independent fan site in terms of paid subscribers.
Texas A&M was ranked No. 9 in the country entering its SEC opener against visiting Kentucky on Sept. 19. The Aggies dropped that contest 31-21, then were routed 35-6 on the road by then-No. 10 LSU the following week.
A 34-7 home rout of Arkansas was followed by the Missouri loss that dropped the Aggies’ conference record to 1-3.
The latest setback prompted Elko to cede the defensive playcalling to defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill.
“That was an important step just so I could have the freedom to be involved in everything,” Elko said Monday. “I just think that was probably to the detriment of us for a couple weeks — LSU, Kentucky — (I was) trying to do too many things and probably not doing any of them well, to be honest.”
