Mike Elko is hired by Texas A&M to succeed Jimbo Fisher

Mike Elko is hired by Texas A&M to succeed Jimbo Fisher
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Mike Elko of Duke has been appointed as the new football coach at Texas A&M, athletic director Ross Bjork announced on Monday.

Elko was the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M before leaving to become the head coach at Duke two years ago. He oversaw some of Texas A&M’s most successful recent campaigns, which included the 9-1 season that ended in an Orange Bowl victory in 2020.

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In a statement, Bjork commended Elko’s “vision for Aggie football” and said the new coach had a vision for “innovation and greatness” at the university.

“Coach Mike Elko is one of the greatest leaders and coaches in college football who has had high-level success at every stop of his career,” Bjork stated. “He is known among coaching circles as one of the top defensive minds in the nation. He also has shown his capacity to lead and turn around an organization as a Power 5 head coach.”

Elko will be introduced at a news conference on Monday afternoon.

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After Elko left after the 2021 season, Texas A&M’s results have declined. After the Aggies finished 12-12 in their previous two seasons, the school had to pay a record $76 million for the buyout of coach Jimbo Fisher. The buyout is by far the largest in the sport’s history and is not subject to offset or mitigation.

After joining Duke for the 2022 season, Elko demonstrated his coaching prowess right away, leading one of the biggest turnarounds in college football history. Elko took over a Duke team that finished 3-9 the previous season, and in his first season, the team went 9-4.

This year, after Duke defeated No. 9 Clemson 28-7 to start the season, Elko made a name for himself as a contender for a more prominent position. The Blue Devils were 4-0 at the start of the season before losing to Notre Dame at home, with Riley Leonard, the starting quarterback, suffering an injury in the fourth quarter.

After that, Duke’s path took a different turn. After finishing 7–5, the team will play in a bowl game for the second year in a row.

Elko assumes leadership of a Texas A&M program that has had difficulty making the most of its talent and financial resources. Since joining the SEC in 2012, the school has not participated in the conference championship game and has not won a league title since 1998.

Elko, a defensive coach by profession, has worked at schools like Bowling Green, Wake Forest, and Fordham over the years, where he developed his ability to make the most of the resources available. At Duke, he undoubtedly carried out that action after the program had suffered under David Cutcliffe’s predecessor, Elko, who implemented drastic changes without a major personnel overhaul.

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