Report: Texas A&M expected to hire Mike Elko as next head football coach

Texas A&M made a major move to part ways with coach Jimbo Fisher following a subpar 2023 campaign, and the Aggies have now identified their next head coach: Duke‘s Mike Elko.

Texas A&M is expected to hire Elko after two years at Duke, according to a report from Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle.

But his return to Texas A&M will be a familiar one. Elko was the program’s defensive coordinator from 2018-2021.

Elko had immediate success upon taking the head coaching job at Duke, winning nine games in his first season. While he couldn’t quite match that in 2023, he did still manage to get the Blue Devils bowl eligible despite injuries to starting quarterback Riley Leonard.

Texas A&M will be hoping Elko is up to the task, and there is no doubt about what the expectations are.

“This is not an 8-4 job. It’s not,” Texas A&M athletics director Ross Bjork said on the Aggie Fan Zone radio show. “Because of the decision we made (to fire Fisher) but also because of the resources and expectations. Does somebody have the wherewithal to deal with that, the weight of (the job) and the magnitude, and not get fazed and rattled, not panic, and if something doesn’t go right, they fix what they need to fix?

“Do you have the chops to deal with this job? (It’s) not for everybody.”

Elko is apparently keen on taking on that challenge, continuing the strong upward trajectory his coaching career has been on the last few years.

The new Texas A&M coach has slowly risen through the ranks over the past 20 years. He first reached the FBS level in 2009, when he took a job at Bowling Green. After that he spent time at Wake Forest (2014-16) and Notre Dame (2017) prior to his stint at Texas A&M.

Texas A&M will make it well worth Mike Elko‘s while if he can succeed.

“We have to get this contract right,” Bjork said. “We can’t do what we did before. … We’ve level-set with everybody we’ve talked to and said, ‘Here are the parameters, and here is the structure.’ It gives you an incentive structure that is way different than what we’ve had before. You can have a base package that has to be competitive, but then it’s like, we’re not giving bonuses to go to the Liberty Bowl. (You make) the CFP, the first round, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, you host, you win the national championship.

“You win the national championship, you’ll get paid like a national championship coach. That’s how we’re putting this package together.”