Mike Elko's source of motivation will have Texas fans laughing out loud at the Aggies

One day before Steve Sarkisian and three Texas football players took the podium, the Texas A&M Aggies and head coach Mike Elko had their turn.

Elko's opening statements and time on stage were pretty uneventful. That is, other than when the Aggies' head coach shared that he motivated his players with one... unique... aspect of the Texas A&M football program.

"I show them our trophy case, and it's empty," Elko said on keeping his players motivated.

If that doesn't give college football fans a good laugh, much less fans of the Texas Longhorns, then I don't know what will.

Of course, the Aggies are one of the few Power Conference teams to not have a National Championship to their name. In fact, Texas A&M hasn't even won a conference title since the turn of the century, securing a Big 12 Championship in 1998.

Not to mention that despite joining the SEC in 2014, the Aggies have never made an appearance in the conference title game.

Additionally, in the two (yes, just two) postseason games that Elko has led the team to, the Aggies have gone 0-2. At the end of the 2024 season, Texas A&M lost to the USC Trojans 35-31 in the Las Vegas Bowl. Last season, the Aggies failed to score a touchdown in their first-round College Football Playoff game at home, losing to the Miami Hurricanes.

Texas Longhorns clearly still have the upper hand on Texas A&M

On the other hand, Texas has won four National Championships (1963, 1969, 1970, 2005), won three Big 12 titles after 2000 (2005, 2009, 2023), and played in the SEC Championship game in the Longhorns' first season in their new conference (2024).

Using an empty trophy case as motivation might be the most Aggie-esque move of all time by a head coach. Meanwhile, Sarkisian uses the expectation of winning trophies as motivation for his team, holding the Longhorns to Texas's high standard.

It was 24 years ago that then-head coach Mack Brown allowed a chant to echo from the Texas locker room as the Horns fought for a win over the Kansas State Wildcats. That chant? Something that Athletic Director Chris Del Conte quotes to this day:

"The pride and winning tradition of The University of Texas will not be entrusted to the weak or the timid... The pride and winning tradition of The University of Texas will not be entrusted to the weak or the timid... THE PRIDE AND WINNING TRADITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS WILL NOT BE ENTRUSTED TO THE WEAK OR THE TIMID!"

Yes, the Aggies made it to the CFP last season, a first in Texas A&M program history. However, Elko still has yet to eke out a win over the Longhorns, going 0-2 in the Lone Star Showdown since taking over in College Station in 2024.

Also read: Settling the debate between the Lone Star Showdown and the Red River Rivalry

Even Texas A&M starting quarterback Marcel Reed had to admit that he wasn't fully prepared to play Texas last season, using a moment at SEC Media Days to say, "That Texas game kinda threw me for a loop."

So far, Texas and Texas A&M are still on drastically different levels, and the trophy case is just another example of how the Longhorns have the upper hand.

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