Other than the record (7-1), the spot atop the SEC standings (5-0) or the flood of interested recruits (three four-star prospects committed just last weekend), perhaps the clearest sign of what first-year coach Mike Elko has done at Texas A&M is that he had to clarify a statement he made Saturday following an impressive 38-23 victory over LSU.
As the road to the SEC title increasingly runs through College Station, people are wondering whether Elko is trash talking other coaches.
Who saw that one coming?
“This is a real program,” Elko said on Saturday. “It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BS’ing everybody. This is a real program and for all the recruits out there, this is a real place, and if you want to be really good at football, this is a really good place to be.”
Fans and media speculated that Elko may have been taking a crack at LSU coach Brian Kelly (who worked briefly in politics before becoming a coach) or perhaps former A&M coach Jimbo Fisher (who is famous for talking very fast).
Elko said it was neither. First off, he worked as an assistant for both men — Kelly at Notre Dame (2017) and Fisher at A&M (2018-2021) — and is grateful to them for the opportunity, mentorship and friendship.
It was, Elko said, a statement about the strength of the A&M program he has already built. Come here and win.
“It’s just comical that I actually have to do this, but it’s necessary,” Elko said on Monday. “In the postgame, I was asked to kind of give a synopsis on how we sell culture to our program. In doing so, I made a statement that seemed like a very benign statement that someone managed to be taken as a shot directly at people. … I want to make sure everybody knows that I was not talking about anybody directly.”
This is the soap opera of the SEC, so the denial — true or not — will only tamp down the speculation, not end it. Whatever. That’s the spice that makes the league so interesting. For the Aggies, the chance to be on this side of some speculative, possible swipes has to feel good.
Because as of late, A&M has been mostly the punchline of jokes — mainly how the school will spend and spend on coaches and players yet still lose five games a season.
When he arrived from Duke last offseason, Elko was no one’s idea of a big-name hire. A&M doled out a record $76 million to buy out the contract of Fisher, whom they had paid tens of million to come to town after winning a national title at Florida State. Fisher was a splash hire and while he did produce a 9-1 season during the 2020 COVID campaign, the results were mostly underwhelming. Take out 2020 and he went 19-20 in SEC play.
All sorts of names (real or imagined) were bandied about as a replacement — Dan Lanning (Oregon), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), Dabo Swinney (Clemson). Kentucky’s Mark Stoops almost took the job.
Yet A&M wound up with the more understated Elko, who had done impressive work in making Duke football respectable in two seasons there. He’s proven, at least thus far, to be the perfect choice. And there is no reason to think it needs to be a short-term success story.
Elko, 47, is an old-school football coach; a no-nonsense former defensive coordinator. He wants his teams to be physical and fundamentally sound. He wants an identity.
Texas A&M is a school that doesn’t need splash to draw in talent. It already has so many resources and so many advantages.
It’s located in the heart of Texas (just an hour from the outskirts of the greater Houston area); plays in mammoth 100,000-seat Kyle Field; has state-of-the-art facilities; its fan passion far exceeds what on-field results might dictate. And, of course, it’s got a lot of money — for everything, including name, image and likeness.
The only mystery in College Station is how it hasn’t worked to the level it should — just one double-digit win season since 1998 (the magical 2012 Johnny Manziel team).
Get the right guy and there is no limit to the program. There never has been. It’s why former SEC commissioner Mike Slive actively brought them into the SEC back in 2012. It’s the finding the “right guy” part that has left them flummoxed.
Is Elko that guy? He might be, and if he is, it changes a lot of the calculus both in the conference and across the country. The term “sleeping giant” gets bandied about a lot, but no one denies A&M is one.
Eight games doesn’t get you anything, of course. Neither does one great season. A&M needs a long-term leader because if they get one, then all the ingredients are there for a national power to emerge.
It’s partially why Elko is focused on this weekend’s tough road trip to South Carolina, on speaking directly to recruits and potential transfers, and using whatever bully pulpit he can to tell the world that Texas A&M football is legit.
That enough people paid attention that he needed to explain that he wasn’t bashing anyone when he was pumping up the Aggies is a welcome bit of good news for the long-slumbering program.
