The damage Jimbo Fisher did to Texas A&M is severe; Mike Elko needs a chance to breathe
Mike Elko has “asked” the media that covers Texas A&M football to not ask his players about last season, and this is after a ridiculous amount of paranoid-driven parameters of what these people are allowed to publicly discuss of what they see in practice.
Here is what they see in practice: An expensive football team that never lives up to the expectations set by its board of regents, its loyal fans, and its awesome dog. “The First Lady of Aggieland” deserves better.
In a sport where Delusion, Mistrust and Neurosis are on every head football coaches’ breakfast menu, Elko is setting himself up for Jimbo-like misery without Jimbo-like money.
This time one year ago, then Aggies head ball coach Jimbo Fisher was miserable, and checked out. The good people in College Station knew it, and he was gone by the end of the 2023 season. The results weren’t coming, and he was exhausted by expectations his contract justifiably established.
The pain, scars and embarrassment of the Jimbo era were not going to be fixed with a 2-0 start, or a 20-pack of free Shiner beer. But, neither can hurt. The 2024 season is not even one month old, and the Aggies new head coach and his fans all need to put down their phones, tablets and computers before they all try to kill the other.
No first-year coach needs a break more than Elko.
Texas A&M’s game on Saturday against Florida in Gainesville feels like it could be the entire season for one of these two nut-job fan bases. This is one of those games where if the transfer portal was open, half of the roster of the losing team may be in it by Saturday night.
Both teams are 1-1, with each still in recovery mode.
On the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 31, Florida lost at home, 41-17, to Miami.
On the evening of Saturday, Aug. 31, Texas A&M lost at home, 23-13, to Notre Dame.
Hours after that A&M loss, some reasonable Aggie fans shouted from the Dixie Chicken to the Koppe Bridge Bar & Grill that A&M should never have hired Elko but rather gone with current Washington coach Jedd Fisch.
A&M is favored by 3.5 points over the Gators; whatever Saturday’s outcome, Elko has to be given some time, and he must avoid some of the mistakes his control-freak predecessor made in his six years in College Station. Step away from the Paranoid Panel that too often ruins the personal lives of power college coaches.
It’s a reason why so often these people abuse alcohol, see their kids less than they sleep, and while they make a lot of money are full of regret.
No coach or fan base is feeling it like Elko and Texas A&M. Texas is not only a conference rival again, but ranked No. 2 in the nation; every single fear of Bevo’s arrival to the SEC is worse than the Aggies could have even conceived.
Only hours after Texas rolled defending national champion Michigan in Ann Arbor a few days ago, the same Notre Dame team that won at Kyle Field lost in South Bend, Ind., to mighty Northern Illinois. Only cost the Irish $1.4 million, too.
“I have no reaction to that,” Elko said on the SEC coaches’ conference call on Wednesday of Notre Dame’s loss.
Oh, he has a reaction all right. He’s just not sharing it.
These early-season games now more than ever are a disaster-in-waiting for coaching staffs, and their bonehead fan bases. The current rate of player turnover, and the ease of the transfer portal, has teams more vulnerable to the “Fire the Coach Now” early season loss.
A&M is in this position because the answer to their problems at head coach could never find his NFL quarterback that he needs to win; that and the administration approved a firing that will cost the athletic department $76 million. That decision creates lasting consequences.
Elko is a part of the Jimbo recovery process, and he should trust himself before going full R.C. Slocum (FYI, when R.C. was near the end of his tenure as Texas A&M’s head coach in 2002, he became your standard paranoid coach).
The Aggies are not as bad as they looked against Notre Dame. Their defensive line is one of the better groups in the SEC. Conner Weigman is the best Aggie quarterback since Kellen Mond’s senior season. For the first time in a long time, the Aggies offensive line is something more than a free HOV lane to the quarterback.
A&M wanted Elko for a reason. Elko wanted A&M for a reason. Whereas Jimbo had no clue what Texas A&M was about, Elko, who worked at A&M from 2018 to 2021, knew the landscape.
Regardless of the final outcome at Florida, A&M is not going to fire him on Saturday night. He should act like it.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 3:57 PM.
