Mike Elko can't mess around. The Texas A&M coach can't straddle the line. There is only one answer at quarterback for the No. 10 Aggies the rest of the season.
That would be one Marcel Reed, the redshirt freshman who changed the Aggies' -- and perhaps the entire college football -- season.
Reed was the difference in the Aggies' biggest game in years. Lose to a bitter rival (LSU) and Texas A&M is on fence for the SEC Championship Game and College Football Playoff. For more than a half, that's what it looked like: LSU took a 17-7 lead and Aggies starter Conner Weigman was ineffective (6 of 18 passing, 64 yards).
Then Elko inserted Reed and everything improved -- Reed's confidence; Kyle Field's decibel level; Texas A&M's trajectory.
On that last note, there shouldn't be discussion at this point. Reed injected so much energy that the Aggies went on a 31-6 run in the final 23 minutes and throttled the Tigers 38-23.
With five weeks left in the season, a Texas A&M team picked ninth in the SEC's preseason media poll is the only team undefeated in conference play. Last Saturday, Reed was the main reason. He is faster, more athletic and just might have better upside than Weigman, a sophomore.
Reed was a quarterback microwave, instantly heating up a unit on an otherwise cold night offensively. He took just 22 snaps but scored a rushing touchdown on three of them. He guided five scoring drives while the offense averaged nine yards per play. Reed completed both of his passes for 70 yards. How's that for efficiency?
At this crucial point in the season -- check that, in Texas A&M history -- there is only one decision to make. The Aggies have been jonesing for a difference-making quarterback for years. Jimbo Fisher, a quarterback maker in his career, lost that touch in College Station.
That failure, more than anything, might be the reason Jimbo is sitting back counting his $76 million buyout these days. Even with all that cash as a cushion, it must be annoying that Elko is chasing an SEC title while maximizing both current Aggie quarterbacks, guys that Fisher recruited.
Install Reed in a lineup that includes a shut-down defense, and suddenly we're talking about pursuit of more than Texas A&M's first conference title in 26 years.
Predictably, Elko did not commit to a starter on Monday.
"The possibility is there for a lot of things," the coach said.
Then, he dropped what should be considered a hint of what he's thinking.
"You know what Marcel can do. It was not on Connor completely," Elko said. "But you know you have this guy who is an extremely quality capable kid and is a different dynamic. When the opportunity presents itself to make a change and try to inject some life into it, we're certainly comfortable he can do it."
Certainly, Texas A&M's passing game needs to get better, but it was telling that LSU never knew what hit it when Reed came in the game. It was like it had never entered Brian Kelly's consciousness that Reed might play. But the quarterback had seen significant time this season prior, going 3-0 as a starter in Weigman's absence due to a shoulder injury.
"We have to have a plan for Marcel ready at all times," Elko added. "You never know injury-wise how the game is going to play ... If Connor goes down and Marcel's got to go out there and win us this game. What does that look like?"
We saw a glimmer of an answer Saturday night.
"Getting that spark in the second half," Reed told reporters, "There was no going back from that."
Reed is that dervish that cannot, at his peak, be accounted for. How can a defense slow him down when players like Reed don't know what they're doing to do snap to snap?
Circumstances quickly determined Reed is arguably the key to the Aggies' season. Mostly, you start Reed because you can't afford not to. He's the spark off the bench who might transfer if he remains there any longer. Elko is threading a needle between two guys he wants and the reality he may lose one no what his decision may be.
At this point, Texas A&M and Elko can't afford to lose Reed. South Carolina at night this week will be a significant challenge coming off the LSU win. The Texas games looms a month from now to close out the season.
Who would rather have behind center? Thread that needle, Mike.
It would be nice to keep both, but speaking of which, this isn't Texas. There are only so many Arch Mannings around, five stars who are willing to back up a Heisman contender (Quinn Ewers) for two years.
In the time it takes to shout "Howdy," Elko and the Aggies have one of the deepest quarterback rooms in the country. But deregulated transfer rules have made these kinds of decisions almost commonplace. If the backup is worth a spit, his upside always prevails, it seems.
It's as hard writing these words as it is for the Aggies coaching staff understanding them: if it comes to that, is Weigman expendable? After LSU, Reed certainly is not.
At stake is the Aggies' most important season in more than a quarter century. That's important, too. Aggies everywhere have been hearing about that 1998 season since then because it's been so long since they won big. That year, they won 11 games, upset Kansas State in overtime of the Big 12 Championship Game, threw the first year of the BCS into a tizzy, and played in the Sugar Bowl. They even made a movie about the guy who caught the game-winning pass against the Wildcats.
Since then, the Aggies have won 11 games only one other time, that magic Johnny Football Heisman year in 2012.
Judging by body language and observations, Weigman wasn't happy with being yanked. But hurting someone's feelings shouldn't be a factor. If his ego is bruised enough to enter the portal after being pulled, well, Elko knows that's a cold, hard truth.
So is the fact that every coach worth his whistle is trying to recruit his existing players on any given day.
This is big boy football, and these sorts of decisions are almost commonplace. Tom Brady eventually replaced Drew Bledsoe because of an injury. Oklahoma won a national championship 40 years ago with a freshman quarterback named Jamelle Holieway. Would it have been that way if one Troy Aikman wasn't injured? We'll never know.
Over the summer, Pro Football Focus named Weigman the No. 1 quarterback for the 2025 NFL Draft. While that raised eyebrows then and certainly now, the point is that Weigman was more than capable. Still is.
But Reed has that "it" factor, that running ability that hints at Lamar Jackson.
There is a fine art to handling what happens next. No big deal. The near-term future of Texas A&M football is at stake. That's why Aggies everywhere want to party like it's 1998.
