Ross Bjork reveals Texas A&M engaged with Power Five, NFL coaches in search

After moving on from Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M underwent a long coaching search with numerous candidates. In the end, athletic director Ross Bjork landed on Mike Elko to be the team’s next head coach.

When speaking about the process, Bjork noted that the program was in touch with a lot of different Power Five and NFL coaches.

“It’s hard to say, honestly,” Ross Bjork said. “People are still playing games. We went through the weekend. Like I said, we engaged with a bunch of Power Five sitting head coaches, several Group of Five head coaches, several NFL coaches.”

Ross Bjork didn’t mention any coaches by name. However, based on some of the rumored names that were given throughout the search, it’s not surprising that there was at least some kind of engagement between the program and coaches in the Power Five and NFL.

“So, it’s hard to say exactly what the final group was because things were fluid on Saturday and we were still hearing from people wanting to get in at the last minute and so you had to filter all of that as well.”

One coach who Texas A&M did apparently have some amount of interaction with was Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops. On the final Saturday of the regular season, it was rumored that Stoops would become the next head coach at Texas A&M before things fell apart and Mike Elko got the job.

“Well, look, here’s the thing. Over the last two weeks, when we engage with up to 30 different coaches at varying different levels? Some were in person, some were Zoom, some were calls, some were through third parties, etc.? There’s going to be a lot of moving parts. As President Welsh said, one of the things he learned going through this – it ain’t over ’til it’s over. We wanted to make sure we engaged with our final group of candidates as long as possible,” Bjork said.

“I don’t know how all of that got out. I respect Coach Stoops. He has been in the SEC a long time. I appreciate his statement.”

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

Throughout the process, Ross Bjork reached out to former players for advice. Among those players was Johnny Manziel, who Bjork said told him that Texas A&M needs to become an intimidating bully on the field.

“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.”