On Tuesday, Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko had quite the slip of a tongue in a press conference. There, he was asked if he and the Aggies (then 8-2 overall and 5-2 in conference, plus No. 15 in the CFP poll and the AP Top 25) were looking past this week’s opponent, the 4-6 Auburn Tigers (1-6 in SEC play), to the subsequent rivalry game with Texas (No. 3 in both polls).
Elko responded with “When you’re in the situation we’re in, it’s easy to focus on the task at hand. …I think our focus is single-handedly on Texas…I meant on Auburn right now.” And that understandably drew a lot of mockery at the time. But it drew even more after the Tigers beat the Aggies 43-41 in quadruple overtime Saturday. And Auburn’s official football X account got in on that with quite the reference to this, including a clip of Elko’s press conference blunder:
Good luck vs. Texas! pic.twitter.com/FNgEw3Ufja
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) November 24, 2024
That’s a great reference to Elko’s mistake. And regardless of how much the Aggies were actually looking past Auburn or not, this road loss is a notable setback for them. They could still get to the SEC title game, but that would take a win against Texas (10-1, 6-1) this coming week. We’ll see if that past “single-handed” focus on the Longhorns pays off for them or not.
[Auburn Football on X]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.