Mike Elko on challenge of slowing down Arkansas’ offense

First-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko spent a lot of time with media discussing the challenge of slowing down Arkansas’ offense in the final installment of the Southwest Classic on Saturday.

When it comes slowing down the nation’s eighth-highest total offense that features Bobby Petrino dialing up the plays and Taylen Green serving as a dual-threat playmaker, the plan is much like a Facebook status for a relationship on the rocks: It’s complicated…

As Petrino left Texas A&M, Elko arrived to take over for Jimbo Fisher after a successful run at Duke. But, the defensive-minded head coach is plenty familiar with his counterpart after crossing paths at previous stops in the ACC.

“He’s been an offensive coordinator for a really long time,” Elko said. “I went against him back in the ACC when he was at Louisville and I was at Wake.

“He’s really sound in what he does. He has a really good plan for how they want to run the football. He’s got a really good plan for how they want to create shot plays down the field. They do a good job creating different looks. He’s a really good play-caller. He’s been really successful for a long time as an offensive coordinator.”

At Wake Forest, Elko was tasked with preparing for how Petrino would utilize Lamar Jackson. Now, he will be tasked with Taylen Green, who is used in a similar fashion.

While Green is unlikely to match Jackson’s 2016 Heisman season levels of production, he is a dual-threat nightmare with a knack for big plays.

Green ranks third in the SEC in passing plays greater than 30 yards and is tied atop the league in rushing plays of equal distance.

The explosive capability is undeniable, and Elko knows his Aggies will have to be fully focused from start to finish to avoid getting burned.

“When a player has the ability to make explosive plays, it certainly enhances your focus level play to play,” he said. “Because regardless of down and distance, area of the field, situation, he has the ability to make an explosive play with his arm or with his feet.

“That type of explosiveness creates a higher level of focus within your defense because you can’t make mistakes. You make one mistake and it’s seven points. That’s usually a focus as a defense, but when you have a player like this who is as explosive as he is, it enhances it.”

To the casual observer, the remedy for Green would be to assign a “spy” on defense, but as Elko explained, it is not nearly as simple as it sounds.

“That’s a word general fans have used, like ‘Oh, you just spy the quarterback.’ It’s way more complicated than that,” he said. “When we’re running an 11-man defense, it takes 11 people to fit the run. They’re going to call a play and run the football. We can’t just say ‘You spy the quarterback.’

“What you try to do 1st and 2nd down with each of your coverage structures is try to identify as the play goes out who becomes the guy paying attention to him if he does pull the ball down. I don’t know that it specific to this guy spies him. It’s kind of as the play unfolds, as the route concept develops, as the coverage develops, who winds up in that spot that makes sure he keeps secondary eyes on him.”

Texas A&M has a dynamic quarterback of its own in redshirt freshman Marcel Reed who it sees every day in practice. The Aggies also dealt with a dual-threat quarterback in a Week 1 home loss to Notre Dame in former Elko playmaker Riley Leonard.

“We’re a little bit fortunate because we had some preparation with this for Notre Dame,” Elko said. “We faced a dual-threat quarterback against Notre Dame that was a very similar type mindset in terms of how you go about this.

“So, that helps, but still they present different challenges. We have to be sure we account for him.”

Arkansas (3-1, 1-0 SEC) and No. 24 Texas A&M (3-1, 1-0 SEC) will kick off at 2:30 p.m. (CT) on Saturday from AT&T Stadium.