Mike Elko shares his feelings on what Brian Kelly has done for his career

The only two undefeated teams in SEC play this season square off on Saturday in an elite matchup when No. 8 LSU takes on No. 14 Texas A&M in College Station. Two of the top teams in the nation and two head coaches who are familiar with one another.

Aggies’ head coach Mike Elko coached under LSU head coach Brian Kelly for one season at Notre Dame back in 2017. And ahead of their first head-to-head matchup, Elko was asked if he learned anything from Kelly during their time together in South Bend.

“Oh yeah, I learned a lot,” Elko said. “Brian’s a really, really successful head coach that maybe isn’t into the huge self-promotion business. He’s the winningest coach in Notre Dame football history, I don’t know that that’s something that rolls off of everyone’s tongue. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.”

Following 12 seasons at Notre Dame and an impressive 113–40 record with the Fighting Irish, Kelly took his talents to The Bayou in 2022. The same year that Elko got his first head coaching job at Duke following four seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Aggies and a lone year at Notre Dame.

“My defensive coordinator path kind of married his head coach path, started D2, worked its way all the way up through,” Elko said. “He had success kind of everywhere he went and so a ton of respect for him, who he is. Certainly appreciate him giving me the opportunity he did to be the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and he’s a really good coach. He does a really good job getting the best out of his team.”

Elko and Kelly’s coaching paths have led them to the top of college football, crossing for one year at Notre Dame before meeting once again seven years later in one of the biggest games of the current college football season.

Both LSU and Notre Dame suffered Week 1 non-conference losses to ranked opponents. But since then, they’ve each rattled off six-straight wins apiece. As one team will suffer its second loss of the year on Saturday and another will firmly assert themselves as a College Football Playoff contender with a signature win.