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No. 3 Texas A&M is trying to focus on getting prepared to travel to play a motivated No. 20 LSU team with its back against the wall and its head coach, Brian Kelly, on the ropes amid a 5-2 start. More News: Jimbo Fisher Looking for Coaching Job Amid Likely Florida State Opening Despite having a big game upcoming on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, Aggies head coach Mike Elko had to address an ugly allegation from the SEC over a move his coaching staff made in Texas A&M's 45-42 win over Arkansas in Week 8. The SEC fined the Aggies $50,000 for being in "violation of the NCAA playing rule governing feigned injuries." More News: LSU’s Brian Kelly Issues Serious Warning to Team Amid Calls for His Firing The conference claimed video evidence showed a Texas A&M staff member standing at the 25-yard line to signal for cornerback Tyreek Chappell to fall to the ground and fake an injury so the team could be awarded an injury timeout. The incident occurred with 12:46 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Aggies leading Arkansas 38-27. The Razorbacks had the ball in the red zone. During his news conference on Wednesday, Elko voiced his disagreement with the SEC's determination and defended his program from questions about its integrity, calling the incident "isolated." “Yeah, I’m not going to comment a lot on it,” Elko said via On3. “I just think there’s a massive difference between impacting the integrity of the game and an isolated situation. That’s why I disagree, ultimately, with the decision. “We respect it. We appreciate the job the SEC office has to do. But I think when you have one situation in 20 games, there’s probably a little bit of a bigger picture to it than maybe we were offered the ability to present.” Arkansas later scored a touchdown and made a successful two-point conversion attempt on the drive to cut the score to 38-35. With the resulting win over Arkansas, Texas A&M jumped from No. 4 to No. 3 entering Week 9. The Aggies appear well on their way to making the College Football Playoff after a strong start to the season, but still have to face challenging contests against LSU, No. 15 Missouri and No. 22 Texas.
