Texas A&M learned from past mistake with unsexy Mike Elko hire that looks like home run
It wasn’t flashy.It didn’t draw overflowing praise.
It wasn’t the kind of move, like Texas A&M’s previous coaching hire of Jimbo Fisher, that was going to inspire immediate adulation.But sometimes those are the best choices.So far, Mike Elko is looking like a home run, the former Duke head coach who got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook and had stints at Fordham, Hofstra, Richmond and Bowling Green leading the Aggies to their first 5-0 start in the SEC since joining the powerhouse league in 2012.Texas A&M didn’t have high expectations.
It was picked ninth in the conference coming off a 7-6 season that included the firing of Fisher.Then, it dropped the opener of the Elko era to Notre Dame.
At that point, a bowl appearance would’ve been deemed successful in College Station.But Texas A&M hasn’t lost since, reeling off seven consecutive wins.It knocked off LSU, ranked eighth in the country at the time, on Saturday night, rallying from a 10-point deficit.
It now sits alone atop the SEC, ahead of the likes of preseason championship favorites Texas and Georgia.Elko showed his coaching chops in this win, making the move to bench struggling starting quarterback Conner Weigman and replace him with electric dual threat Marcel Reed.Reed, who had played well earlier in the year when Weigman was out with a shoulder injury, went on to run for three touchdowns.This was by far the most impressive win of the year for Texas A&M, which hasn’t exactly dealt with a gauntlet otherwise.
It hasn’t had to deal with Georgia, Alabama or Tennessee.The Nov.
30 showdown against Texas is the game that will really reveal what this team is made of.But one of Fisher’s major issues was losing the games he was supposed to win.
Big victories were often followed by incomprehensible losses.Elko seemed to allude to that after the victory over LSU, saying, “This is a real program.
It’s not fake.It’s not a politician running this p...