It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t draw overflowing praise. It wasn’t the kind of move, like Texas A&M’s previous coaching hire of Jimbo Fisher, that was going to inspire immediate adulation.
But sometimes those are the best choices. So far, Mike Elko is looking like a home run, the former Duke head coach who got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook and had stints at Fordham, Hofstra, Richmond and Bowling Green leading the Aggies to their first 5-0 start in the SEC since joining the powerhouse league in 2012.
Texas A&M didn’t have high expectations. It was picked ninth in the conference coming off a 7-6 season that included the firing of Fisher. Then, it dropped the opener of the Elko era to Notre Dame. At that point, a bowl appearance would’ve been deemed successful in College Station.
But Texas A&M hasn’t lost since, reeling off seven consecutive wins. It knocked off LSU, ranked eighth in the country at the time, on Saturday night, rallying from a 10-point deficit. It now sits alone atop the SEC, ahead of the likes of preseason championship favorites Texas and Georgia.
Elko showed his coaching chops in this win, making the move to bench struggling starting quarterback Conner Weigman and replace him with electric dual threat Marcel Reed. Reed, who had played well earlier in the year when Weigman was out with a shoulder injury, went on to run for three touchdowns.
This was by far the most impressive win of the year for Texas A&M, which hasn’t exactly dealt with a gauntlet otherwise. It hasn’t had to deal with Georgia, Alabama or Tennessee. The Nov. 30 showdown against Texas is the game that will really reveal what this team is made of. But one of Fisher’s major issues was losing the games he was supposed to win. Big victories were often followed by incomprehensible losses. Elko seemed to allude to that after the victory over LSU, saying, “This is a real program. It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BS’ing everybody. This is a real program.”
Under Fisher, Texas A&M frequently won the offseason, but his big recruiting classes never produced nearly enough results. He was paid extraordinarily well — Fisher signed a 10-year, $75 million contract that was later extended to be worth $95 million — and failed to win 10 games once in six seasons. Elko is headed there in his first year, and that could be a footnote in what this team can accomplish. A spot in the SEC championship and the playoff are both realistic.
Texas A&M hired a grinder, a guy who spent 23 years working his way up to being a head coach. He had only two years of head-coaching experience when he was chosen to lead the Aggies. It wasn’t a sexy move. But it seems like a smart one.
Grade-A Prime
You can dislike Deion Sanders. Feel he is too brash, too arrogant and not accountable enough. He has unnecessarily created negative headlines for himself at times, particularly with how he has treated the media and some former players, but the man can coach.
He has Colorado bowl eligible just two years removed from a one-win season, just one game behind BYU for first place in the Big 12, despite injuries limiting star receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter in two recent games. It is on pace for its most wins since 2016. The Buffaloes’ lone league loss was a three-point setback to No. 17 Kansas State. Remember, at Jackson State, Sanders won back-to-back SWAC crowns for a program that hadn’t won the league title since 2007.
Colorado’s schedule the rest of the way is soft. Three-loss Texas Tech is the toughest opponent. It’s not out of the question Sanders could be coaching in the Big 12 title game, with a shot to reach the playoff. Pretty impressive work from Coach Prime. He deserves credit, his antics aside.
Red & silver alert
It seems crazy to suggest, when you consider the talent on the roster and the offseason it had, but Ohio State is in peril of missing the playoff. It visits No. 3 Penn State on Saturday and still has to face surprising 13th-ranked Indiana. It nearly fell at home to also-ran Nebraska on Saturday. The Buckeyes already have a loss at No. 1 Oregon. They probably can’t afford more than one more loss. Losing left tackle Josh Simmons to a season-ending knee injury is a big problem. Ohio State couldn’t run on Nebraska without him, and now it will have to deal with Penn State’s fantastic front seven. There should be concern in Columbus.
