Ad Disclosure
Mike Elko won’t have his total roster on Dec. 27 when Texas A&M tries to end its 2024 season with a bang against USC in the Las Vegas Bowl.
The Aggies head coach confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that senior defensive lineman Shemar Turner, and junior defensive linemen Shemar Stewart and Nic Scourton will opt out of the bowl game. Stewart and Scourton recently declared for next spring’s NFL Draft, so their opt-outs for the bowl game aren’t surprising. With Turner being a senior and the NFL Draft likely awaiting him, his decision wasn’t a shock either.
So, Texas A&M will be hurting a bit along the defensive line against the Trojans in Sin City. But this hardly means there is some kind of mass exodus going on in College Station for the bowl game. In fact, it’s the opposite, with Elko also saying on Tuesday that he doesn’t expect any other opt-outs.
The Aggies went 8-4 in the regular season, winning 7 in a row after a season-opening loss to Notre Dame before losing 3 of their last 4. They clearly didn’t finish the regular season the right way, but Elko believes so many of his players are choosing to play in the bowl game because they want to finish the season the right way.
“It probably speaks to culture,” he said on Tuesday. “For some of our seniors, this is a chance for them to go out and have a big game against USC. … Our kids trust in the culture here.”
The Aggies will kick things off with the 6-6 Trojans on Dec. 27 at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
