First-Place Aggies Refocus as 'Targeted' Team

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When the season began, no one expected No. 10 Texas A&M (7-1, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) to reach this point so quickly.

The Aggies were often absent from offseason SEC title and College Football Playoff discussions as other schools like No. 2 Georgia (6-1, 4-1), No. 6 Texas (7-1, 3-1), No.7 Tennessee (6-1, 3-1) and No. 14 Alabama (6-2, 3-2) became the talk of the conference.

However, as the season reaches November, the Aggies sit atop the conference with a six-game winning streak and two wins against the Associated Press Top 25—squarely in the mix with or even ahead of the aforementioned teams as the SEC race heats up.

"It's a great feeling being undefeated in the SEC and staying at the top," defensive tackle Albert Regis told the media on Oct. 28. "We're the only team, but it's the SEC. Every week's a hard week, and we've seen it time and time again where undefeated teams go into other people's stadiums and lose. We're not trying to be one of the teams and still continue to play our best brand of football."

Aggies' Upcoming Challenges

The Aggies' next challenge is a road test against an underrated South Carolina (4-3,2-3) team on Nov. 2. The game will be another primetime game for Texas A&M. South Carolina doesn't have a great record, but they can be a difficult opponent to face in their home stadium.

"I think this will be the challenge of the year to date," head coach Mike Elko said during a press conference on Oct. 28. "This is going to be an extremely talented team—4-3, coming off of a bye week, [and they] certainly could be 6-1 easily."

Texas A&M has only played two road games this season, coming out on top against Florida (4-3, 2-2) on Sept. 14 and against Mississippi State (1-7, 0-6) on Oct. 19. The Aggies dominated the Gators, but the Mississippi State game was more challenging as it was within one possession during the fourth quarter.

Elko said he believes his team is built to succeed in the fourth quarter as the players progress and begin to absorb the head coach's confident, calm and collected persona.

"We're playing very level. We're not an emotional rollercoaster," Elko said. "We're not starting like a fireplug then all of a sudden, we fade away. We're coming in prepared for a 3.5-hour fight, and I think that has shown itself a little bit in the fourth quarter. There hasn't been panic. There's just been a stick-to-it-iveness to stay with what we're doing and find a way to elevate it and do it a little better."

Steady Improvement, Culture

Texas A&M will need that fight in its final four regular season games. As Regis mentioned, no SEC game is an "easy out." Texas A&M faces a couple of lower-level SEC teams before a big matchup with the Longhorns on Nov. 30, but the Aggies cannot overlook the competition.

South Carolina took No. 14 Alabama and No. 16 LSU (6-2, 3-1) to the brink and dominated Oklahoma (4-4, 1-4) like Texas earlier this season. The other SEC team on the schedule, Auburn (3-5, 1-4), has had inconsistencies but has kept many SEC games close down the stretch. A team like that can be dangerous if the right moment or opportunity comes.

While many will question if the Aggies have what it takes, Elko once again leans on the fact that the culture and mindset he has tried to build in College Station, Texas are beginning to show and pay dividends.

"I like what I hear from them when they talk to you," he told the media. "I think that means the messaging is getting through. I think we've tried to attack this thing from a mindset of, 'We need to improve every week. We need to get better every week. We need to approach every challenge and give ourselves the opportunity to have success every week.' I think they're locked in and focused on what we're capable of, and I think we're capable of that next step.

"If we finished 5-3 in the SEC, I don't think anyone in our locker room would be happy with that," Elko said.

That next step is crucial because Texas A&M fans may not be able to handle another letdown after the Jimbo Fisher era, and their expectations have grown with Elko's success so far in his first season.