Cook’s jab at 12th Man ‘lit fire’ under A&M in win

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — No. 25 Texas A&M recorded its biggest win over a top-10 team in program history Saturday with a 41-10 blowout of No. 9 Missouri and appreciated the assist by Tigers quarterback Brady Cook.

Before heading to Texas, Cook was asked about how Missouri prepared to play in front of the crowd at Kyle Field. “The noise at practice is actually louder,” he said, attributing it to the speakers used to simulate the playing environment.

Aggies coach Mike Elko didn’t seem to mind the comments making their way to the 97,049 Texas A&M fans in attendance.

“The 12th Man certainly heard some of the statements made about how easy it was to play in Kyle Field, and that was good,” Elko said with a smile after the Aggies improved to 5-1 and 3-0 in the SEC.

Cook finished 13-of-31 for 186 yards with a touchdown and was pressured on 13 of 37 dropbacks despite the Aggies only blitzing him seven times, according to ESPN Research.

Texas A&M defensive end Nic Scourton, who had 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss, said the comments provided motivation to the team.

“They kind of lit a fire under us,” he said. “Coming into our place, like pre-interviews, talking down on Kyle Field, coming in here and stepping on our field and stuff like that. I think guys were really motivated to go out there and be dominant.”

And the Aggies were dominant. They led 24-0 at halftime before Le’Veon Moss ran 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second half. He said he, too, took the stadium comments personally.

“Most definitely. They thought they were coming to get a piece of cake,” Moss said.

Moss ran for a career-high 138 yards with three touchdowns. Missouri had just 79 yards in the first half and finished with 254 total yards while allowing 512 to the Aggies.

After Moss’ third score gave the Aggies a 41-7 lead, fans began chanting “overrated.”

On Friday, Missouri wide receiver Theo Wease Jr. posted an Instagram story saying he’d received a “warm welcome to College Station,” with a picture of a Texas A&M blanket with a note that appeared to be from Aggies corner Will Lee IV that said, “Get used to this blanket… It will be real tomorrow.”

A Texas A&M spokesperson called it “false news” and Elko suggested it was a little gamesmanship by Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz. Lee also responded on social media Friday, denying that it was him who sent the blanket.

“My suggestion would be you guys should go ask Eli where that came from,” Elko said. “Because I have a strong feeling that that came from the other side and had nothing to do with Texas A&M, Will Lee, or anybody over here.”

The game also marked the return of Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman, who injured the AC joint in his throwing shoulder in the season-opening loss to Notre Dame, then aggravated it in Week 2 against McNeese. Marcel Reed started the past three games for the Aggies.

Weigman, who was a game-time decision, was in command all day, going 18-of-22 for 276 yards, and Elko had an impassioned defense of his starting quarterback after message board and social media speculation about the quarterback’s character. Weigman had a miserable start to the season, going 12-of-30 for 100 yards and two interceptions in the loss to Notre Dame.

“I’m going to say this because it needs to be said,” Elko said. “You can challenge Conner for how he plays and you can be upset about Conner for how he throws the football. Some of the stuff that has been said about this kid and written about this kid — not by you guys, you guys have been great — is embarrassing. This kid is a winner. He’s a competitor. He does everything that he needs to do for Texas A&M football.”

Scourton praised the quarterback, saying he’s “a dog.”

“To see what he’s been going through, the media talking bad about him and things like that and him to just fight, [Weigman’s] a warrior,” Scourton said. “Great player, great competitor, and he’s not backing down from anything.”

Elko said the Aggies have put the loss to the Irish in the rearview mirror after a 3-0 start in the SEC.

“Everybody in our program owned it,” Elko said. “So I don’t know that it’s anything other than we had a bad night, and we went back to work to get better. And we’re seeing progress moving forward since then. Today, we played better. And so now we’ve got to keep doing that. This doesn’t become a statement, we’ve got to keep doing it.”