Johnny Manziel told Ross Bjork Texas A&M needed to become an 'intimidating bully'

The Texas A&M Aggies finally have their new head coach, Mike Elko. Amid the search that ultimately led to Elko, athletic director Ross Bjork reached out to former star quarterback Johnny Manziel for some advice.

Bjork explained that Manziel told him that Texas A&M needed to be an intimidating bully. It was advice he took to heart during the search.

“What was really cool is probably the first, I’d say the first week of the process, you’re hearing from people who are interested in us too,” Ross Bjork said. “We obviously had a list and we want to be proactive in that list. But then it’s like, oh, you heard about this person, you heard about this person.”

For Bjork, that was proof that Texas A&M can compete for championships.

“So, it actually helped validate what we all say, right? We think we can win championships here. We think we can compete at the highest level. Other people saw that. Other people in the football world saw that. So, in a lot of ways, then you check that, okay, how does your final group sort of stack up to what people are saying in the landscape? What we think the DNA should be of the program. And again, the goal is to get it right. And everything that Coach Elko has, it matches what we think are the ingredients.”

That’s where Johnny Manziel and several other former players came in. Ross Bjork had conversations with people who have been around the program, looking for insight into what they thought the program needed. In particular, what Manziel said stood out to him.

“So, to me, that was a great process to learn. The incoming, the outgoing, all the conversations, the former players were awesome. Like talking to those guys. I mean, talking to Dat Nguyen or Ray Mickens or Johnny Football, he’s the one that said Johnny Manziel’s, the one that said we need to be an intimidating bully,” Bjork said.

“He actually had another adjective. I can’t say that, but he said, that’s what we got to be. And I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s pretty powerful coming from an offensive guy.’ So, it just matched all the things that you’re seeing unfold here in the last couple of hours with Coach Elko.”

Johnny Manziel’s word, obviously, goes a long way at Texas A&M. A legendary quarterback there, Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012. In the process, he helped to smooth the program’s transition to the SEC.

Ross Bjork explains Mike Elko’s contract being College Football Playoff incentivized

The details of Mike Elko’s contract show that there are a lot of incentives, particularly relating to making the College Football Playoff. In turn, his base salary is lower than what Jimbo Fisher was making during his time in Aggieland. That was a decision that Ross Bjork explained.

“I think with the CFP expanding to 12 teams and given where we are, given our resources, given the commitment to football — that if we have the right coach and the right plan that we should be in the hunt every year for those playoff spots. That’s how we looked at it. We know there’s got to be a base salary. But then the rest of it is based off making and earning your way through the CFP,” Bjork said.

“I just think having a 12-team playoff, the incentive-based process of a contract. The market here in the SEC — we wanted to be fair in the market… I think the landscape can change where you actually have to earn things. If somebody believes in themselves, believe in their plan, they have the right approach, they’ll earn it. And you have a chance to be paid like a national championship-level coach.”