COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — Texas A&M is preparing for its toughest non-conference matchup of the season as the Aggies get ready to host the Arizona State Sun Devils at Kyle Field in College Station.
Head coach Mike Elko spoke highly of Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham ahead of Saturday's game.
"I think he's a really bright football guy. I think he's got a great football mind. I think he's got a really charismatic personality. I think people gravitate to him — you could see it in how they play. I think one of the things that just jumps out on tape is how hard those kids play. That's usually a really good sign of culture and leadership and what he demands and the standard that he demands. For him to have the success that he's had so quickly at Arizona State, which was not a place that had been winning a lot of football games before he got there — I think that's always a testament to a guy as a coach, is when he's outdoing the standard at a program. I think those guys to me are always a lot more impressive," Elko said.
The Sun Devils are coming off a 70-7 win over Morgan State, including shortening the game in the fourth quarter. Despite some fans already looking ahead to conference play, Elko says the team's focus is squarely on Saturday.
"I think games like this are important. I think they matter. I think they matter to our fan base. It's gonna be a huge challenge for us. This is a really, really talented team, and I know a lot of people like to look at logos and think logos mean things. They really don't. This is a really talented team that's been producing a lot of NFL players, has a bunch of them on the field this weekend, and this will be a really big challenge for us," Elko said.
The Aggies will look to get off to a faster start this week after improving from 3.5 yards per carry in the first half to 6.4 in the second half of their week 1 game. Left tackle Tyree Adams said a mindset shift helped drive that improvement.
"It was just like we kind of just came out there soft and lackadaisical expecting to beat them, so we didn't really put our best foot forward and honestly that kind of hurt us in the first half, but then kind of when we put that aside and really know who Texas A&M is, we came on the second half and I actually dominated," Adams said.
After watching his players compete under the lights, Elko said the experience gave him a clearer picture of where the team stands.
"It's probably why I was very anxious in the lead-in to get out there and do it, because as you go through this thing you realize that there's always a jump when you go from kids who haven't played together in real games — it's always a little bit different the first time they do it. And so we needed to figure out where the bar was, we need to figure out what people were really capable of doing on the big stage with the big lights, and then we needed them to get out there and grow through some of those growing pains that I knew were going to exist. And so, yeah, I think we learned a lot about where we are and then what we need to do to get where we wanna go," Elko said.
Texas A&M kicks off against Arizona State on Saturday at 11 a.m. on ABC.
