Texas A&M is coming off a second consecutive conference loss that dropped the Aggies out of the AP Top 25 poll.
Mike Elko’s group is eyeing a bounce-back game against Arkansas in Southeastern Conference play Saturday night in College Station, Texas.
After being ranked as high as No. 8, the Aggies (2-2, 0-2) suffered a 31-21 home loss to Kentucky on Sept. 19 before falling 35-6 to then-No. 10 LSU last Saturday.
Against the Tigers, Texas A&M had just 197 total yards.
Plenty of the blame has been placed on Aggies senior quarterback Marcel Reed, who was named to numerous preseason award watch lists. Against LSU, Reed was 10 of 26 for 106 yards, with an interception. His 38.5% completion rate was the lowest single-game showing of his career.
But Elko said the issues run deeper than just one player, and he’s sticking with Reed.
“I think the struggles in the LSU game were really deep,” Elko said Monday. “These are obvious statements, but (Reed) is a part of it, but I don’t think he was the only part of it. I think there were struggles at so many levels in the LSU game that it’s hard to pinpoint one guy and what he did wrong.”
Arkansas (2-2, 0-1) dropped two lopsided games — 43-10 to then-No. 20 Utah and 45-17 to No. 2 Georgia — before toppling Tulsa 34-6 on Saturday.
The Razorbacks put up their most total yards of the season with 441. KJ Jackson had a career-high 309 on 24-of-36 passing. Chris Marshall, who played at Texas A&M his freshman year, also had a career day with highs in catches (nine) and yards (195).
“More than anything, you just want it to be a little bit of the fruits of the labor,” Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield said. “Even when things were looking bleak and people were telling us we stunk five days ago, we just stuck with it.”
Texas A&M has won 13 of the past 14 matchups against Arkansas.