"The last thing I'm going to say, and I'm going to say this because it needs to be said. You can challenge Connor for how he plays, and you can be upset about Connor for how he throws a football. Some of the stuff that has been said about this kid and written about this kid is embarrassing," Elko said of quarterback Conner Weigman. "It's absolutely embarrassing, the stuff that gets out there on this kid."

Elko made it clear that he was not speaking to the A&M press corps, but the critics found largely on social media. After a 12-30, 100-yard, two interception performance against Notre Dame, Weigman was a lightning rod for online critics. The criticism from some angles became increasingly personal during the three weeks he was sidelined with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder, with jabs thrown at his work habits, personal life and even suggestions that, with Marcel Reed going 3-0 in his place, that Weigman should just pack up and leave A&M.

Weigman's response in his return to the lineup was to go 18-22 for 276 yards against No. 9 Missouri, spearheading a blowout few saw coming.

"This kid's a winner. He's a competitor. He does everything that he needs to do for Texas A&M football. And there's a lot of people right now that need to stand up and recognize what they've said over the last three weeks and take some (f--ing) ownership of it," Elko said.

Weigman did not speak with reporters after the game or on Monday, but the players who did were unsurprised at his strong bounce-back performance.

"Conner Weigman is a dog," defensive end Nic Scourton said. "He battled some injuries. This is my first year playing with him. Just to see what he's been going through, the media talking bad about him and things like that. For him to just fight, he's a warrior and he's a ballplayer."

Running back Le'Veon Moss, who joined the Aggie program with Weigman in 2022, said a big game from Weigman was what he was expecting.

"I seen what I always expected him to do. That's his job, so he do it. I was glad to have him back, though," Moss said. "I know it hurt him to sit out, but things happen. It's football. He was excited to be back, and he played with that intensity that he was excited to be back."

Weigman led scoring drives on his first four possessions and six of his first seven, picking apart a Missouri secondary whose coach also took his shots at Weigman. In his Tuesday press conference, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz scoffed at the idea Weigman playing, dismissing him as "the other kid" and saying the Tigers were preparing for Reed. Drinkwitz then banned Reed's sister, who works on the Missouri recruiting staff, from attending practice last week.

While there was a chance Drinkwitz could have been right and Reed would have started, Elko said that once the A&M coaching staff was sure Weigman could play, he would get the call.

"I think that the conversation for us was we wanted to see Conner at 100% and we felt like Conner at 100% gave us our best chance to win. And if we felt like he was going to be there, that was the direction we wanted to go," he said. "I think I made him come in my office and convinced me that he was ready. And so we had a conversation on Thursday, that conversation, that was probably the final piece that I was looking for."

Offensive coordinator Collin Klein said that Reed and Weigman had handled the last several weeks perfectly, with each supporting the other in a big way.

"And there was not a happier guy a couple weeks ago for Marcel and Conner Weigman and then after this last week, there wasn't any guy with a bigger smile on his face, that gave Conner any bigger bigger hug than Marcel Reed," he said.

While Reed remains the future of Aggie football at quarterback, Weigman is the present and the offense took off Saturday with his return. And Elko would be very happy to have his anonymous critics back off.

"You can criticize him as a quarterback. He stood up here. He owned his performance. We are all in this arena to be criticized. That's sports," Elko said. "When you start taking personal shots on a kid and start talking about personal things that are grossly fictitious and grossly false and those things become stories and start running, that's embarrassing.

Listen, we owned what happened against Notre Dame. We played bad. We played bad on offense. Everybody stood on this podium and said it. We called a bad game. I coached a bad game. Receivers played a bad game. Quarterback played a bad game. We played bad. And everybody in our program owned it. 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."

Scourton said that progress comes, in part, from Weigman himself.

"He comes in every game with that mentality, that he wants to dominate anybody and he has a chip on his shoulder," Scourton said. "He's a great player, great competitor, and he's not backing down from anything."