Mike Elko breaks down how remainder of recruiting class will shape up

Things are flying fast for new Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko. Having inked his first recruiting class at his new job, Elko is not done yet. At his signing day press conference, Elko broke down how the remainder of the Aggies’ 2024 recruiting class will shape up.

In particular, Elko noted how important the transfer portal is going to be and how it could help to shape Texas A&M’s roster moving forward and balancing that with signing more high school recruits in February.

“I think obviously in this day and age the portal is critical,” Elko said. “I think there’s obviously gonna be a handful of kids that are going to be out there and still looking to sign in February, and if there’s kids that we think add value, we’re certainly going to go aggressively after every single one of those.”

One challenge that any new coach has is retaining the class and roster. For Elko, that was no different and he will continue recruiting through the portal and unsigned high school recruits as the offseason continues.

“You know, the portal window is open and will continue to be open. And so we’re going to look to be very aggressive. We already have been to some degree and will continue to be so, and, you know, just try to build this roster as best we can with quality additions.”

As of now, Texas A&M has the 12th-ranked recruiting class in the country and the seventh-ranked class in the SEC, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.

Elko explains what led him to hiring Collin Klein as offensive coordinator

Elko recently broke down why he chose to make Collin Klein Texas A&M’s next offensive coordinator.

“That obviously, I think, was the priority hire because that’s the one that everybody wants to know. What will the offense look like and what will the scheme look like? We’d have had a heck of a time trying to recruit without that position. I kind of locked myself in my office, and you go through names that you think make sense and you have some names that you think fit. And then you really just dive into, ‘What does this offense look like? How do they sequence plays, how do they play-call, how does it evolve game to game?’ That’s a process that, to me, you can’t play around with. I don’t really take anyone’s word for that at all. That’s something I just dive into myself. I did the same thing when I got to Duke,” Elko said.

“One, he’s extremely bright. Like, extremely bright. And I think the way he can teach our young men how to execute on offense, really, kind of took me real quick. And I think diversity in how he attacks people. I think if you watch his offense from this year vs. last year, it’s completely different based on his personnel, what they emphasize. It’s not, obviously, a completely different scheme, but it’s completely different in terms of how they’re emphasizes different players. I like how he mixes up tempos, I like how he mixes up personnels. And then, he’s a great person, and that’s the final piece of this is making sure that we add great people into this building. His family was down here for the first recruiting weekend, his wife. I just think we’ve added great people to the Texas A&M community, and that’s really important, too.”