COLLEGE STATION, Texas — In the final years of the Jimbo Fisher era, Texas A&M football embodied the phrase “all hat, no cattle.”
The program was defined not by the championships Fisher was supposed to bring but by its shortcomings. Instead of winning rings — or filling in the missing dates on the plaque handed to Fisher in 2018 by chancellor John Sharp — A&M became a disappointment in the past two years: an overexposed program with recruiting rankings and preseason hype that failed to match its on-field results. The Aggies’ peak in the Fisher era, a 9-1 record, near-miss of the College Football Playoff and top-five finish in 2020, was the exception — not the rule — under Fisher.
Mike Elko, who worked as Fisher’s defensive coordinator for four years but left the program after the 2021 season to become the head coach at Duke, was well aware of the national narrative around the team when he returned to Aggieland in November to replace Fisher. Elko also knew what A&M needed: a drastically different approach.
Elko rarely makes headlines with his news conferences. You won’t find him trading barbs with his SEC counterparts, as Fisher did when responding to accusations from Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin. In more than two decades as a defensive assistant, mostly at places far off the casual fan’s radar, Elko has perfected the art of keeping his head down, doing the work and letting the results tell the story.
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And what a story the Aggies are telling in 2024, with No. 14 Texas A&M’s 38-23 win over No. 8 LSU on Saturday night as the latest triumph. Eight games into Elko’s first year, A&M is alone atop the SEC entering November as the only team without a conference loss. And it’s a serious contender for the Playoff.
This A&M team is way more substance than style.
“We back up our actions,” Elko said. “We’re very honest. We’re very open. And this is a real program. It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BSing everybody.”
Whether that was intended as a shot at Fisher, who famously speaks at a rapid pace, is unclear. It came in response to a question to Elko about how he has found success so quickly, both in Year 1 at Duke and A&M. It’s hard to ignore the connection, but Elko has been careful and measured when speaking about A&M’s recent past, choosing not to take veiled shots at his predecessor and his former boss, making it less likely that he was directly pointing the finger here.
Elko pointed to his messaging to players, the culture they’ve built and the time he and his staff have put in to form relationships with players
“I’m not one of those guys who’s a hugger and pat them on the back,” Elko said, “but I’m with them all the time, and I think they appreciate that.”
What happened for nearly four hours on Saturday night, in front of the third-largest crowd in Kyle Field history, hammered home that the narrative around A&M is changing.
Now, the Aggies have a shot to accomplish something they never did under the coach to whom they guaranteed nearly $95 million: winning the SEC and making the Playoff.
“From where we were when I got here and the whole rhetoric around this program was NIL and mercenaries and selfishness and all of those things, to see where we are now … that’s a credit to those kids in the locker room,” Elko said. “It’s a credit to their character. It’s a credit to who they are.”
If A&M’s season opener, a 23-13 home loss to Notre Dame, was the last time you checked in on the Aggies, things have changed dramatically since. They’ve won seven games in a row — some ugly, others dominant. But they keep finding a way every single week.
Saturday night was a perfect example. Trailing 17-7 with less than five minutes to go in the first half and LSU pushing to extend that lead, Texas A&M seemed as if it was veering toward the danger zone.
But it came out in the second half looking like a different team. After LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier picked apart the Aggies in the first half, the defense found ways to pressure him in the second. They picked him off three times and turned up the heat on him.
Offensively, Elko made the shrewd decision to bench starting quarterback Conner Weigman for backup Marcel Reed, and the offense scored on its next five drives. The momentum shift was instantaneous.
Yes, there are flaws with these Aggies, and Elko pointed them out afterward, from penalties to turnovers. But in this topsy-turvy college football season, why not Texas A&M and its first-year head coach?
“They’re learning what it means to be a winner and how you go from being a talented football player to a winner,” Elko said. “They’re doing the things that winners do, right? They’re playing extremely hard. They’re straining. They’re playing together. They’re finishing.”
These are all things that could not be consistently associated with the Aggies in the recent past. Under Fisher, the problems within the program ranged from a loose, undisciplined culture to a reluctance to evolve the offense to poor roster management. When lining up across from the Alabamas, Georgias and LSUs of the college football world, the Aggies didn’t look much different. But the lack of attention to detail showed on the scoreboard. Texas A&M went 12-13 in Fisher’s final two seasons and didn’t win a road game for more than two years.
Upon his return, Elko installed discipline by making punctuality a non-negotiable. He instituted organization and structure but allowed players freedom to be themselves as long as they took care of business. With the help of an organized, efficient personnel department, he restocked the roster, filling holes with experienced transfers. And once the games began, he pushed the right buttons when needed.
So far, it’s helping the Aggies reverse negative trends, particularly at Kyle Field. For every seminal moment at the 102,733-seat palace — including the 2021 upset of Alabama and the seven-overtime win over LSU in 2018 — there have been plenty of home defeats that shattered optimism in the Aggies’ search for SEC relevance. Auburn in 2013. Ole Miss in 2014 and 2016. The Appalachian State debacle in 2022.
With Texas A&M’s 24-20 home record against SEC teams entering this season and 10-15 home record against ranked teams, opponents have become comfortable in big games at Kyle Field. Although the Aggies lost the opener to Notre Dame, they’re 2-0 in SEC home games this season, pounding Missouri earlier this month.
Before Saturday night, A&M and LSU had met eight times when both were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25. LSU won all eight until the Aggies squashed that streak Saturday.
It’s not as if everything is where Elko wants yet. There’s a quarterback situation the coaches will have to deal with in deciding whether to stick with Reed or return to Weigman. The Aggies have to protect better and be more productive in the passing game. Penalties were an issue on Saturday: A&M had 10 for 101 yards.
But looking at their schedule, it’s not a stretch for the Aggies to win their next three: at South Carolina, vs. New Mexico State and at Auburn. That would put them at 10-1 before their regular-season finale: a home game against No. 5 Texas, a long-awaited renewal of their heated in-state rivalry, which has been dormant since 2011.
That Nov. 30 tilt might be the most anticipated game at Kyle Field since their last meeting 13 years ago before the Aggies exited the Big 12 for the SEC (only for the Longhorns to initiate the same move a decade later). If both teams enter with double-digit wins, the storylines and Playoff stakes for that one will make for unparalleled drama.
But there’s much to do before A&M can consider such a stage. Elko said as soon as Saturday’s game ended, his mind immediately shifted to South Carolina.
“The price of success and the price of winning games like this is you now have a target on your back,” he said. “And so what 5-0 (in the SEC) means is we’re going to have a heck of a time trying to get to 6-0.”
Eleven months after Elko’s hiring, A&M heads into November in pole position in the SEC race. It’s a position few would have pegged the Aggies for entering the season and seemingly more unlikely after the Aug. 31 loss to the Fighting Irish.
In the meantime, they’ll keep working, letting their play do the talking. By now, everyone should be listening.
“We have an amazing opportunity right now that we really want to take advantage of,” Elko said. “And to do that, we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
(Top photo: Tim Warner/Getty Images)
