On Monday, with only less than a week left for its season opener, Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko along with junior left tackle Trey Zuhn III and sophomore linebacker Taurean York stood on stage and talked about the upcoming A&M football season. 

Elko’s first season will see many new events, such as ESPN’s College GameDay coming into town for the Notre Dame game and the return of the A&M versus. Texas rivalry game. Elko said with GameDay coming into town there will be a significant amount of eyes on Kyle Field for the first weekend of college football. 

“I think it’s tremendous excitement because we’re playing a national brand who’s ranked seventh in the country in our home opener with a lot of eyes on the game,” Elko said. 

Elko said for Notre Dame, the offensive line has been the blood of the Fighting Irish’s game. Since Notre Dame was a top-10 defense last year, Elko recognizes it as a challenge and is ready and excited for the season to kick off. His players have been attentive for the last eight months and the sense of urgency in training camp was aided by the opening game. The opener is going to be competitive, and Elko said avoiding penalties and turnovers will be critical from the moment the Aggies walk out of the tunnel on opening night. 

Elko said if the Aggies can control the line of scrimmage, create clean pockets for sophomore quarterback Conner Weigman and create running lanes for the backs, it will make the game flow easy.

“We’ve got to be a team that establishes the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and I think in this one, certainly, that will play a huge role in dictating the outcome of the game,” Elko said.

To better prepare for this season, the team has been watching extra film from teams such as Duke, Clemson and LSU. The team has been hanging out together and having extra meetings outside of football to have that special bond on and off the field. 

Zuhn said the players have been getting together more as an offensive line and they have been taking in a lot of reps with different combinations of people so they can play next to anybody. 

“Having Notre Dame, definitely a big name, really good team, has kept people sharp,” Zuhn said. “Knowing you have that great team that’s coming in here [for the] first game [has] that little extra boost.”

The players said they are appreciative of Elko’s coaching style. York said Elko takes his time very seriously; there is no waste of time during practice, and the transition in between practice is “hustle on the hops.”

“When you’re playing a game like this, the focus has to be on all the little details from today through Saturday that allow us to go out Saturday night and perform like we want to,” Elko said.

Sophomore running back Rueben Owens was the only player out with an injury while the team was at practice on Monday. Elko said the rest of the team is healthy and ready to play this season. 

“Game week is finally upon us, and we are excited for this week,” Elko said. “We’re excited about this opportunity, I think we had a really really good fall camp. Happy with the progress that we made across the board, [we’re also] happy with where our team is from a health standpoint going into this week to get ready for this opener.” 

The No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies will be taking on the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Kyle Field.