Following a 27-6 defeat at the hands of the Missouri Tigers this past Saturday, the season for the Texas A&M Aggies appears to be spiraling downward.
Although Mike Elko’s team kicked off their campaign with two consecutive wins, they have completely lost their stride by dropping games against Kentucky, LSU, and Missouri, causing them to plummet in the SEC rank order.
Elko, historically known for having little tolerance for press scrutiny, was questioned after this recent defeat regarding his message to Aggie supporters who are beginning to give up hope. The coach took that moment to publicly criticize a major media outlet that follows his program.
“There’s a difference to me between the fan base and social media. So there’s one group that I really don’t care much about,” Elko stated. “Billy’s cesspool can go be Billy’s cesspool. Our fan base, stay with us, be behind us. We’re going to build something that we told you we were going to build. So we’re in a really bad spot right now, but we’ll work our way out of it.”
While outsiders might not immediately catch his reference, Texas A&M supporters recognized instantly that he was taking a jab at TexAgs and Billy Liucci, its co-owner and executive editor. This third-party sports hub and message board operates as a central hub for the Aggie faithful. Far more than a standard team blog, it functions as a comprehensive digital ecosystem, boasting more than 50 discussion boards, tens of thousands of members, and its own podcast and radio network. Its relentless focus on Aggies football can become quite challenging for a head coach during a losing streak.
Throughout this season, we have witnessed various press-related indicators signaling that a football program is facing severe internal friction. For instance, Maryland restricted journalists from asking follow-up queries at Mike Locksley’s press encounters. Meanwhile, in professional football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prohibited press access to stadium tunnels while coaches and players are present. Now, at Texas A&M, the head coach is targeting one of the prominent media platforms tracking his squad amidst a painful stretch of defeats.
“Going to show restraint here (for now) and get back to answering questions, but the head coach losing 27-6, then immediately calling out an incredibly large portion of the loyal but also understandably frustrated fan base was a wildly unnecessary misstep,” expressed Liucci in a post on X this past Saturday.
Absolutely. Remarks of this nature rarely yield positive outcomes. If anything, it will inevitably drive a massive wave of visitors straight to TexAgs to check out the ongoing discussion regarding Elko’s program.
The article Following Missouri loss, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko calls out TexAgs as ‘Billy’s cesspool’ was originally published on Awful Announcing.
