Aggies HC Mike Elko speaks ahead of Texas A&M’s first fall practice

“It’s here. Finally. It feels like, in some ways, I got here two days ago and, in some ways, five years ago.” “Everyone is really excited to take the work we’ve done this summer on the things we’ve perceived that we’ve improved on and get out on the grass to make it a reality.”

“quite a few wide open position battles” entering fall camp.

“Chase (Bisontis) has been a guard all the way. He has never left guard. We feel that’s the right spot for him.”

“He has been a guard since day one with us.”

“We’re very strong on the defensive line. I think that’s well-documented.”

“Feel better standing here at the podium today than I did going into the summer. Each of those kids has taken a step.” “Noah (Thomas) has had a really good summer. Moose (Muhammad) had a really good summer. Cyrus (Allen) and Jabre (Barber) had a really good summer.”

“Without adding players, the things that needed to happen have happened.”

“You have a battle at center between probably three guys. The guys that lose that battle could flip out to guard or flip out to right tackle.”

“There are a lot of ways that we have to look at this to make sure that we have the best five on the field and have a flexibility that does not lock us into only playing five.” “One of the things that could give us an advantage is playing seven or eight guys.”

“From where we were to where we are, it would be hard to stand here in front of you and tell you it’s a strength. We’ve made a lot of strides and really improved.”

“It will be significantly better than it was in the spring.”

“On the back half of the summer, you saw some noticeable comfort increases in the offense.”

“A good one. … When you talk about where he was in the spring, learning a brand new system, coming back from injury and not being anywhere near 100 percent.” “To now be healthy and play and function the way you want to. … It has been a cool summer for him to see it all come together.”

“It’s going to take time for him. Coming back from an ACL, that’s not easy.”

“He’s still working his way back to being able to plant, cut and move the way he wants to. … I have a lot of confidence in him.”

“It’s interesting. There is still so much uncertainty on that, even the 105 number is not finalized yet.”

“It’s hard to come up with a plan or a thought of what it will look like until we get an answer on the parameters and rules will be.”

“What we’re trying to do in camp is establish what we believe winning football looks like.”

“We have formulas for what winning football looks like in practice, and that’s what we’re trying to hit day in and day out in camp.”

“When we go out tomorrow night, we expect that we are operating at full speed, are ready to roll with no build-up.”

“He committed to the weight room from January to today. That commitment ultimately helps.”

“In terms of his ceiling, he’s a 6-4 kid who catches the ball with a huge catch radius. … What he needed to do was get a little stronger to have better play-strength.”

“We have more versatility and pieces in the secondary room than we did at any point in the last six years. When you have that, you feel like you have enough to put it together to be effective.”

“It has been well documented that Coach (Tommy) Moffitt has had a change in that. From a cultural standpoint, the way we look at strength and conditioning is different.”

“We embraced it. I don’t think we had a single kid miss a lift this summer. That’s good.”

“When you go out and see these guys in fall camp, I think a lot of their bodies look a little different, and they handled the last eight months the way you would have expected them to.”

“Rueben Owens and Le’Veon Moss have had great summers. Amari Daniels looks a lot different. EJ Smith is now primed.”

“You have a lot of pieces back there that could be very successful.”

“He’s going to bring that excitement to our offense that a lot of Aggies have been looking for.”