Mike Elko explains how Texas A&M athletics success helps football program

One thing that can really help recruiting is having multiple successful athletics programs on campus and few schools can boast that in the way that Texas A&M can currently.

The Aggies had a pair of NCAA Tournament teams in men’s and women’s basketball and now the baseball team is one of the top squads in the country.

All of that is helping new football coach Mike Elko.

“I think success breeds success, right, in everything that you do and everything that you look at,” Elko said. “When you see other programs, other teams doing it at an elite level, doing it at the pinnacle of their sport, I think that only builds optimism around this university, this community and these athletic programs. So it can only help when all of your programs are having success. There’s nothing negative about every athletic program at Texas A&M being very successful.”

Elko has been aggressive about using those environments in recruiting whenever possible. Recently, Texas A&M hosted visitors on campus and took them to a baseball game.

With the baseball team as good as it is, why not show prospective recruits how Texas A&M fans treat their own?

“I think it’s just that environment, when it’s going on an SEC weekend, especially like it was (when) we set an attendance record, it’s the spirit, it’s a showcase of what Aggieland spirit looks like,” Elko said. “You say, ‘Hey, take this, feel this environment, now multiply it by twelve-fold and that’s Kyle Field on Saturdays.’ I just think the way Aggies rally around our programs is very impressive, and that shows up in a lot of different ways.”

Perhaps not entirely convinced of what Elko was preaching, one intrepid reporter decided to press the issue. He asked if Elko really thought the recruits were impressed by the atmosphere.

“Certainly more impressed than like had they showed up and we got beat by six runs a game and there was 12 people there,” Elko deadpanned.

Point being: Texas A&M is quite good in a whole lot of sports right now. And the hope is that football can soon follow suit with Elko at the helm and riding the momentum the rest of the program is helping generate.