Trev Alberts gives his initial impressions of athletes, coaches at Texas A&M

New Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts hasn’t had a ton of time with the school to get to know the various coaches and athletes he’s going to be overseeing. However, those he has seen have left him with an excellent first impression.

While speaking to the media at his introductory press conference, Alberts praised the school’s coaches, in particular new football coach Mike Elko.

“There’s a lot of winners here,” Trev Alberts said. “There’s a lot of great coaches here. I mean, that’s really obvious. You go down the list. First of all, it appears that they’re great people. Great hires have been made here. They are really, really — I didn’t know Coach [Mike] Elko personally, but I know of him. That’s a real football coach. He knows how to build a culture. He knows how to build a tough team. I’m excited to get to work with him. I don’t want to single out any more, but I just think about all the coaches, I think there’s really, really high-level talent here.”

Mike Elko was, obviously, hired following the 2023 season to replace Jimbo Fisher. He had previously worked at Texas A&M as a defensive coordinator and had been the head coach at Duke. For his part, Trev Alberts recently hired Matt Rhule at Nebraska to run the football program, investing in a coach known for his ability to build a program.

“So I think at the end of the day, and we talked about a lot of this when I was at Nebraska. I mean, Nebraska fans are no different than Aggie fans. We want to win. So we get so fixated all the time on winning, winning, winning, winning, winning. When Coach [R.C.] Slocum will tell you, at the end of the day, stop talking about winning,” Alberts said.

“Let’s start talking about the process that leads to the wins, right? I think it was a great coach not long ago that talked about the culture precedes the championships. I mean, winners act like winners long before they ever win. So, it’s the things that nobody sees. It’s the culture. It’s the hard work. It’s the unity. It’s all those little things that ultimately lead to what we all want.”

That emphasis on culture is particularly important to Trev Alberts as college sports continue to change. Particularly, as he looks at how coaches build programs in the world of NIL and the Transfer Portal.

“So, we can get really fixated on wins. And I’ve seen successful organizations, of course, everybody wants to win. But the real issue is do we have the fundamentals in place and the details in place that ultimately lead to those wins? I think that will be an area of focus, and I think you have the right coaches here who understand that; understand that culture now is more important than ever before,” Albert said.

“There’s total freedom of movement with NIL. You’re going to want coaches that players believe in. Genuine, authentic leadership in the coaching space is going to be more critical than ever before, and I think Texas A&M has a whole group of coaches like that. So that’s exciting to get to partner with them.”