The Texas A&M Aggies hired Mike Elko ahead of the 2024 season to author a turnaround. After all, that is what he just did at Duke, where he went 17-9 over the last two seasons after the program went 5-18 in the two seasons before he arrived.
The Aggies have not appeared in any of the weekly rankings for the College Football Playoff in 2022 or 2023. They reached those rankings at least once in six of the prior eight seasons.
Mike Elko Plans To Bring Accountability To Texas A&M Football
Elko got a glimpse of the potential for greatness at Texas A&M when he was the Aggies defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher as they went 9-1 including an Orange Bowl victory over North Carolina in 2020.
However, as the program sips on the cold reality of zero conference title game appearances since joining the SEC in 2012 and zero conference championships at all since 1998, Elko is ready to stop discussing potential and instead ready to start discussing results.
“It’s time to stop talking about what we’re capable of,” Elko said at SEC Media Days on Thursday. “I’m proud of how quiet our offseason has been. I’m proud of how quickly our players have adapted to a new culture and a new way of attacking football.”
The Aggies’ last two full-time coaches, Kevin Sumlin (2012-17) and Fisher (2018-23), certainly brought bursts of excitement to the program.
Sumlin won 11 games in his first year in College Station, with Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel igniting an offense that averaged 44.5 points per game.
But he never posted a winning record in conference play after that before he was dismissed in 2017.
Fisher had Texas A&M ranked in the Preseason AP Poll in each of the past five seasons. But only once did the Aggies finish the season in those same rankings before he was let go in the middle of the 2023 season.
When asked to compare the difference between Elko and Fisher, junior offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III offered a candid response by saying, “One of the first things he brought was accountability to the team, where people need to be and on time. If someone was late, it would affect the whole team, and we’d all have punishment.”
One thing for sure is that Elko is not expecting anyone associated with Texas A&M football to tolerate losing.
“I don’t think this is a patient era. You don’t come to Texas A&M with what we’re capable of doing and talk about building for the future.”
Only 44 days separate us from seeing Texas A&M take the field against Notre Dame for the first time under Elko’s head coaching. If talking time isn’t over now, it most certainly will be then.
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