Texas A&M coach Mike Elko is giving Aggies fans something to latch onto

Down by 13 points late in the second quarter of Texas A&M‘s 33-20 win over Florida in The Swamp on Saturday, the Gators executed the perfect punt. Florida pinned the Aggies at their own 1-yard line hoping to force a mistake that would get it back into the game. 

In the pouring rain playing with backup quarterback Marcel Reed, Texas A&M sucked the soul out of Florida’s program. Play by play, run by run, the Aggies methodically marched down the field. The Gators knew what was coming and it didn’t matter.

Texas A&M finished its 99-yard drive on a one-yard run from Reed with 44 seconds in the first half, capping a 15-play drive in which the Aggies attempted to throw the ball only once. 

In that moment, everything (rightfully) became about Billy Napier and whether his time is up at Florida. Even Monday, that’s still the most intriguing story from Saturday. 

But in a game between a program on the verge of firing its coach and a program that just lived through that torment a year ago with the Jimbo Fisher fiasco, what did that drive mean for Texas A&M? What did it mean for Mike Elko? What did it mean for Aggies fans starving to finally cultivate a winner? 

A lot. 

Elko knew the stakes of the job he took when he agreed to replace Fisher, especially after Texas A&M paid more than $75 million dollars to remove him. College Station is a place that has all the money in the world, and it will use that money to hire a coach, fire a coach or invest in a winner. But you have to win and you have to win fast. Like Florida, Texas A&M isn’t the epitome of patience. 

Elko has to give fans something to grab onto as they wait a few years for their new head coach to get things right. They can grab onto wins and/or improvement to the on-the-field product, recruiting victories and transfer portal additions. But in the first year of a coach’s new position, there has to be something to latch onto. 

So when we examine the job Elko has done in a few short months in Aggieland, there is a lot to like, a lot to latch onto. 

First, Elko made crucial additions to his team through the portal after watching 18 players enter it. Adding offensive lineman Kolinu’u Faaiu, defensive end Nic Scourton, linebackers Cashius Howell and Scooby Williams (from Florida) and others was crucial. Elko told On3 in May he was going to do it and he did it, much better than Napier did it three years into leading Florida. 

“I just think it’s not as hard as you think about it as long as you just kind of redirect your vision of what college football is,” Elko said. “It’s just not the same. So now, ‘OK, let’s move forward and let’s figure out how do we create a culture that sustains a little bit more volatility, a little bit more in and out?’ And you do that by creating very clear standards, very clear expectations, enforcing that throughout your program.”

There’s also high school recruiting. Though Texas A&M isn’t on pace to sign a mega-class like it did in the 2022 cycle, the Aggies currently have the No. 9 overall class in the On3 2025 Industry Football Team Recruiting rankings. It has pledges from four top-100 players. Three of them are from California. Commitments such as five-star quarterback Husan Longstreet of Corona (Calif.) Centennial, four-star cornerback Adonyss Currie of Lancaster (Calif.) Quartz Hill, four-star defensive lineman DJ Sanders of Bellville (Texas) High and four-star linebacker Noah Mikhail of La Verne (Calif.) Bonita lead the way.

You can say Texas A&M didn’t do a good enough job recruiting the top-tier talents in the Lone Star State this cycle, but Elko is still settling into his job. The reality remains that Texas A&M can field a nationally-competitive roster by signing classes that look like what Elko has already assembled and accentuating the roster through the portal. Not even a year into this job, Elko has done a fine job putting together a roster.

Then, of course, you have the on-the-field product. Though Texas A&M wishes it would have been able to close out the Notre Dame game at home in the season-opener, it illustrated the toughness, athleticism and grit against Florida you want to see out of a team in transition. And the Aggies did it without quarterback Conner Weigman while showing off the high upside of the backup quarterback Reed. That drive before halftime told quite the story and it wasn’t only about Florida.

There’s no telling how Texas A&M is going to perform the rest of the way, but it has a surprisingly manageable schedule in this year’s SEC. The Aggies don’t play Georgia or Alabama in the regular season and host Texas on Nov. 30 in what may set college football stadium decibel records. 

Elko knows how quickly a fan base can sour on a coach. He knows he doesn’t have a five-year arc to prove he’s the right guy at A&M. The Aggies faithful want — deserve — a winner and for how much it cost to put Elko in this position, they don’t want to sit around and wait. 

So as we sit around and wait for Napier’s fate to become a reality, it’s important to not lose sight of the team on the other sideline. That Texas A&M team’s coach has already done a better job with the Aggies than Napier has done in three years with Florida.

Texas A&M is doing what needs to be done to be competitive in the SEC. Whether it’ll be successful is all apart of the waiting game, but Elko is passing the grade.

So far, that’s a win.