Press Conference: Elko, Aggies begin fall camp on Wednesday

The first fall practice for Mike Elko and the Fightin' Texas Aggies will be held on Wednesday night as the Maroon & White gear up for the 2025 campaign. On Tuesday, Elko, Trey Zuhn III, Marcel Reed and Scooby Williams addressed the media.

The following are live, paraphrased notes from Mike Elko’s Tuesday afternoon media availability:

Mike Elko

• It's here. It’s time. There is always a buzz in the air. Kids report today. Excited that we are healthy. This has an opportunity to build into something that could be a special year. We have 30 days now to start the process.
   
• It's all excitement and energy. You look at what you have to do in these 30 days. You're working with more knowledge. You have a better feel. You are able to go in with a tailored plan to attack it.
   
• With the offensive line, in terms of mindset, there is a massive shift. Some of the little things... playing with an energy about how we will finish. There is a technical aspect, and that falls on Adam Cushing. We want the offensive line to be the heartbeat of the team.
   
• I think, just like coaching, there is a foundation of what training looks like. There is a level where you can push the body. Our capacity to work when we got here was not real high. Some of the guys that have stood out are Cashius Howell, Marcus Ratcliffe and some young kids like TK Norman, who has put on 20 pounds. We are a bigger, faster, strong team than we were a year ago.
   
• Everybody is really ready to go to the first practice. Marcus Garcia is nursing a little something.
   
• It’s a unique world. Three years ago, they changed the way summer worked. You have a much better feel today at Practice #1 than you did years ago. Our expectation is that we set the tone. We want championship execution. We have certain markers we try to hit.
   
• Health matters. Keeping our best players healthy for most of the year plays a role. The one positive is that we didn't have a lot of soft tissue injuries or, in practice, so we couldn't control them. We lost Mark Nabou Jr. and Tyreek Chappell early.
   
• I spent my birthday working. I took my daughter to get a new car. I did some things with the house we are trying to finish.
   
• We are constantly monitoring distance in practice. There is always a lot more science that goes into it. Coach Tommy Moffitt and his team watch those spikes.
   
• We are going to be as excited for UTSA as we were for Notre Dame last year. Nothing is going to be handed to us. We learned that last year.
   
• Marcel Reed has a magnetic personality. Part of that is your ability to connect and relate to people. His offseason, you guys see it nowadays. You want your quarterback at the Manning Passing Academy.
   
• Reed is close to the weight we want him to be at. He has a natural metabolism that I wish I had.
   
• I don’t care about expectations. We have to go perform. Last year, at this time, if I had told you we would be first place in the SEC in November, everyone would have said, “No, you won’t.”
   
• KC Concepcion is an unbelievable playmaker. He has lived up to it. His work ethic and professionalism are exactly what we wanted them to be when we recruited him.