Back in 1998, 21-year-old Mike Elko was finishing his playing career as a safety for Penn University of the Ivy League.
The Aggies joined the SEC in 2012 and have yet to appear in a conference championship game. In 2020, Texas A&M finished No. 5 in the nation and was left on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff with Jimbo Fisher at the helm and Elko as defensive coordinator.
Last month, Elko sat down for an extensive Q&A with ESPN college football senior writer & insider Pete Thamel. Junior starting quarterback Conner Weigman, new offensive coordinator & quarterback coach and Notre Dame senior QB Riley Leonard were among the topics of discussion.
Question: “What have the first few months been like?”
Answer: “A whirlwind of epic proportion. I don’t know that you can describe taking a job on the day that the portal window opens, two weeks before signing day with no staff, right? Trying to put all of that together into a puzzle, right? So yeah, I mean, it’s a lot, and you’ve got to be really patient and put it together the way you believe in and get it going where you want it to go.”
Q: “If you look back at the last two coaches at Texas A&M, there’s a case that neither built a solid foundation. There have been bursts of momentum but not a lot of consistency. What is it going to take to build a foundation here and go from there?”
A: “I think it starts with good people. That’s where every foundational program starts, is getting the right people, and so it starts with the right people on this floor of coaching. It starts with the right people in this building from a support staff, analytical role from the people in your strength and the conditioning department, and then you’ve got to build culture within your locker room. I think that’s a foundation that a lot of people lose sight of, right? This place has tremendous facility foundation, but within that, you still have to build a foundational core of who your program is going to be about.”
Q: “What lessons do you take from your last stint here?”
A: “The unique spot that I have sitting here for four years (as defensive coordinator) is I know all of the reasons why this place can win a national championship, and then I probably know some of the reasons why we failed, which I think gives me a unique perspective coming in. I come in with a lot more knowledge of what Texas A&M is all about. That can only help, and I just think we’ve got to be intelligent about how we go about building this place because it’s a place where it has high expectations and you have to win now for sure, but you’ve got to still focus on building it in a way that allows you to sustain the success that you have for long periods of time.”
