Update: The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel provided some perspective on what actually transpired in the interview room.
Not exactly. It’s a tiny interview room tucked into the concourse of the stadium where fans were still exiting, and a reporter opened the door not realizing the press conference had already started.
(And that reporter was me.) https://t.co/L8NVP8KOCh
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 29, 2025
The original post continues below.
The worst night of Mike Elko’s coaching career just kept getting worse. His undefeated Aggies had just blown a halftime lead and lost to Texas 27-17. His SEC Championship Game hopes were gone. And now he had to sit through a postgame press conference while listening to the Longhorns celebrate next door.
The door was apparently open, and Texas wasn’t keeping it quiet. The third-ranked Aggies had led 10-3 at halftime before watching Texas rattle off 24 unanswered points, with Arch Manning throwing a touchdown and running for another 35-yard score in the fourth quarter.
Elko was trying to process all of that when the celebration noise started bleeding through. He tried to answer questions about what went wrong, but the cheers kept interrupting. He started talking about how his team didn’t play well enough, and that’s when he snapped.
“We didn’t play the way we needed to play… CAN WE CLOSE THE DOOR AND RUN A PROFESSIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE, PLEASE? MY GOSH!”
Mike Elko was not happy about the loud Texas celebrations interrupting his press conference 😅 pic.twitter.com/D7QSefjdHx
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 29, 2025
He immediately apologized, but the moment was already out there.
Texas dominated the second half. Quintrevion Wisner rushed for 155 yards, becoming the first 100-yard rusher for Texas all season. Manning threw for 179 yards and added 53 on the ground. The Aggies managed just seven second-half points, all coming on an EJ Smith touchdown run that cut it to 20-17 before Manning iced it with his long scoring run.
For Elko, this was supposed to be the season. Texas A&M was 11-0 heading into Austin with a chance to clinch the SEC Championship Game. Instead, they’re picking up the pieces of a devastating loss, and their coach had to process it all while listening to the team that beat them party in the next room. You can’t really blame him for wanting someone to close the door.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.