Texas A&M Aggies Hiring of Mike Elko Was Always The Right Move
It has been a wild 24 hours in Aggieland.
If Texas A&M Aggies fans were up late last night, most of them went to bed believing Mark Stoops was going to be the program's next head coach.
However, that plan embarrassingly fell apart, after the Aggies board of regents pulled the plug on Stoops, thanks in part to backlash from the fanbase.
It wasn't a good look for the program, not only because they had promised a national search for a big name, but also because based on the way things went down with Stoops, it appeared that the Aggies had fired Fisher without knowing where they were heading next.
However, about 18 hours later, the Aggies landed their man in Duke Blue Devils coach Mike Elko - the guy whose job it probably should have been all along.
Is it one of the flashy program-changers that had been hinted at throughout the search? No. In fact, not even close.
What Elko is, however, is the right hire.
Mike Elko
Not only did he already know the program well, and not only did he prove that he possessed the chops to lead a program with Duke over the last two years, but the players love him, which should help the program minimize the losses to the NCAA Transfer Portal.
But there was one thing that athletic director Ross Bjork said that was notable - the job in Aggieland isn't for everybody - and that is where Elko fits like a glove.
“Do you have the chops to deal with this job? (It’s) not for everybody," Bjork said earlier this month. “This is not an 8-4 job. It’s not. Because of the decision we made (on Fisher), but also because of the resources and expectations. Does somebody have the wherewithal to deal with that, the weight of (the job) and the magnitude, and not get fazed and rattled, not panic, and if something doesn’t go right, they fix what they need to fix?"
The now-new Aggies coach possesses each and every one of those attributes.
Elko is aware of the Aggie way of life. He knows the ins and outs of the program. He knows what makes the fan base tick. And he knows what it takes to have success in Aggieland.
So was it Ryan Day, Dan Lanning, Dabo Swinney, or Dan Campbell? No. But at the end of the day, it was both the safe hire and the right hire.
And that is what matters most.
