Mike Elko takes possible jab at Jimbo Fisher following LSU win

Eight games into his tenure in College Station, Mike Elko has delivered a defining win for the program. Texas A&M took down LSU in impressive fashion in front of a 100,000-person crowd at Kyle Field. For the first time in program history, the Aggies are 5-0 in SEC history and in the middle of the College Football Playoff conversation.

Elko not only made a huge statement on the field but during his postgame press conference too. He took a possible jab at former head coach Jimbo Fisher, calling Texas A&M a “real program.” A message for recruits, certainly, after a frustrating few years in Aggieland.

“This is a real program,” Elko said via Brent Zwerneman of The Houston Chronicle via X. “It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BSing everybody. This is a real program and for all the recruits out there, this is a real place.”

Fisher was fired by Texas A&M last season after struggling to get on-field results. In fact, the dip in form really occurred when Elko left the program to accept the Duke head coach job. The Aggies averaged nine wins in the four seasons Elko was the defensive coordinator and then totaled 12 in 2022 and 2023 after his departure.

So, yes — Elko might be calling out his former boss on what he turned the Texas A&M program into. Especially when building the famous 2022 recruiting class, one the former DC helped build alongside Fisher. Plenty of perceptions came from there, ones Elko believes are now gone after just a few months in charge.

“From where we were when I got here, the whole rhetoric about this program was NIL, mercenaries and selfishness, and all of those things,” Elko said. “To see where we’re at now… That’s a credit to those kids in the locker room. It’s a credit to their character, it’s a credit to who they are.”

Whatever demons were seemingly in College Station when Fisher was there, Elko has exercised them. Texas A&M is the last remaining undefeated team in the SEC and have a direct path to Atlanta for the conference championship game. Something many Aggies would not have believed to be possible this time a few months ago.