Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Aggies Ready for Fresh Start Without Jimbo Fisher and Ross Bjork

Mike Elko brings his even temper and defensive success to College Station as a new era begins in Aggieland.

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Sep 4
Sep 4

By Scott Salomon

Texas A&M fans have reason to believe that they will succeed this upcoming season as they have rid themselves of former Head Coach Jimbo Fisher and Athletic Director Ross Bjork. 

Fisher was nothing more at A&M than a money-grubbing carpetbagger who thought that he could stay in College Station and continue to produce 5-7 teams. Fisher talked a big game but wrote checks that the team could not cash. 

As the losses mounted, so did the desire to run him and former Director of Athletics Ross Bjork out of town. Fisher was fired during the 2023 season, and Bjork is now the Athletic Director in waiting at Ohio State University.

The top recruiting classes that Fisher put together, with big NIL contracts that are supported by a collection of big Texas-sized boosters, kept falling apart due to the transfer portal. Fisher could not get the kids to buy into his system and has not had a truly good season with any quarterback not known by the name of Jameis Winston.

Bjork is best known for his big blunder at A&M as he gave Fisher a guaranteed contract for ten years that will pay the former coach $75 million, with no offset clause. That means that if Fisher gets another job, somewhere, anywhere, he gets to pocket the $75 million from TAMU, plus his salary from his new employer.

Swallowing that was hard for A&M boosters, who could not run Bjork and Fisher out of town fast enough. The buyout is the largest in the history of sports for any coach or manager.

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However, before leaving College Station, Bjork attempted to make amends with the boosters by hitting a home run with his final hire.

In comes former Duke Head Football coach Mike Elko. Elko signed a modest six-year contract that will pay him an average of $7 million per year, plus result-based incentives.

“Coach Mike Elko is one of the best leaders and coaches in college football and has had high-level success at each stop of his career. “He is known amongst coaching circles as one of the best defensive minds in the country,” Bjork said in a statement after the hire.

The hiring was a homecoming, so to speak, for Elko, who led Duke to bowl games in consecutive seasons. Elko was the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at A&M from 2018 to 2021, leading the team to four straight bowl trips and an overall record of 34-14.

“Coach Elko has a vision for Aggie football and a specific plan for innovation and greatness, which is exactly what our program needs right now to compete in the modern era of college athletics,” Bjork added. 

“We are fortunate to attract a head coach of his character, coaching acumen, recruiting experience in the SEC, winning formula, ability to develop players to their full potential, and a love and familiarity with Aggieland and our University, which makes him a perfect match. We are excited to welcome Coach Elko and his family back to Aggieland, and we cannot wait to get started.”

— Former Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork

Elko hit the ground running once he got to College Station. He signed 14 players during the Early Signing Period. More are expected when the signing period comes around again in February.

“I think when you get hired 18 days before signing day, I’m not sure that you can even imagine what this is like to try to build relationships with people that you’ve never met, to try to convince people that we’re the right staff, that I’m the right man, that we’re the right people, that they still want to send their son to play for.” Elko said during his post-signing day press conference. “I think everybody understands what Texas A&M is all about, but relationships are a huge part of recruiting, and they always will be. And so we had to hustle. And we have been hustling nonstop since we got here, and we have gotten in front of as many people as we possibly can.” 

Elko worked relentlessly through FaceTime, Zoom and all other methods of communication to get his early commits. He slept little, and all the while, he and his staff worked their hardest to bring A&M fresh blood that believed in his system.

“As you could probably see in my face, I haven’t slept at all. The term used to be you’re drinking out of a firehose when you take a new head coaching job. I don’t know if there’s a term that actually applies to this,” Elko said. “You know, when you step into this with basically active free agency going on in your own roster every day and having to put all of those fires out consistently every day, trying to keep our kids happy, and here trying to identify the ‘24 class, make relationships and build all of that, try to identify who’s going in the portal and who fits, that’s going in the portal and recruiting all of that.”

“By the way, trying to fill out some people so that you’re not doing all of that by yourself. So yeah, it’s a challenge, to say the least, but certainly, a challenge that we jumped into as best we could.”

Elko is enjoying the college version of free agency as A& M’s 23 total transfer portal commits are second to only Louisville, which holds 26 commits.

Former Alabama four-star cornerback Dezz Ricks committed to the Aggies last Tuesday night. Ricks is the eighth defensive back to join A&M along with UAB’s BJ Mayes, Flordia’s Jaydon Hill, Kansas State’s Will Lee III and Cal Poly’s Donovan Saunders at corner, and San Diego State’s Marcus Ratcliffe, Vanderbilt’s De’Rickey Wright, and Central Michigan’s Trey Jones at safety. 

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