Mike Elko shares his plans for offense at Texas A&M

New Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko has already proved what he can do on the defensive side of the ball in College Station. Now, however, the question is what he’s going to do on the offensive side of the ball.

At his introductory press conference, Elko was asked about his plans for that side of the ball.

“For everybody that’s the million dollar question and what I tell people is this, we’re going to find a way to play explosive offense,” Mike Elko said. “We’re going to be part of the modern era. We’re going to be able to switch up tempos, we’re going to be able to utilize our personnel. I think in this day and age you’ve got to be able to be very multiple and very adaptable in what you do on offense.”

At this point, Mike Elko isn’t interested in saying what type of system he’s going to run at Texas A&M. However, he did emphasize that he wants a multiple offense that is going to rely on playmakers.

“I think people get caught up in these words like they mean everything, like, oh, we got to be spread or we got to be pro-style. And at the end of the day, we’ve got to be a group that knows how to attack defenses, get the ball in our playmakers hands and allow them to be successful.” 

For the last two seasons at Duke, Kevin Johns has been Mike Elko’s offensive coordinator. He previously worked as the offensive coordinator at Memphis and Texas Tech among several other stops.

This season, Duke ranked 64th in scoring offense with 27.8 points per game and 96th in total offense, averaging 349.6 yards per game. Importantly, that was largely without starting quarterback Riley Leonard, who only played in seven games due to injuries.

Mike Elko opens up on how difficult leaving Duke was

It wasn’t an easy decision for Mike Elko to leave Duke and return to Texas A&M. As he explained, there were a lot of reasons to return to Texas A&M. However, there were also a lot of reasons to stay at Duke.

“How easy? I think every decision is really easy and really hard. I think if you’re true to yourself professionally, chasing this opportunity, coming to this great program, great institution, that’s easy. When you think about leaving relationships, leaving people, the strain and stress it puts on your family, it’s really hard,” Elko said.

“As a coach, you’re always caught in this back-and-forth pull, and I’m very thankful that I’ve got a very supportive family that backs me and backs my career and the things we want to do to chase my dreams to some degree, and that’s ultimately what gets us here.”