Texas A&M Football

Texas A&M's new head coach Mike Elko is determined to bring the school's football team back to its former glory.

"We are going to build the premier football program in the country," Elko said, via SB Nation's Robert Behrens. "We are not gonna talk about it anymore, we are gonna be about it."

Elko agreed to a six-year contract with Texas A&M, featuring a $7 million base salary and a lot of money that could be earned through incentives:

Jimbo Fisher was fired on Nov. 12 as the Aggies struggled to replicate the success of their 9-1 campaign in 2020. This included a 2022 campaign that resulted in a 5-7 finish, Texas A&M's worst record since 2008.

This season, the school hasn't ranked higher than 23rd in the AP top 25 poll at any point in the season. That's the lowest the Aggies have ranked since 2017, when head coach Kevin Sumlin was also fired.

"The assessment that I delivered was that we are not reaching our full potential," Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said after Fisher was let go (via ESPN's Pete Thamel). "We are not in the championship conversation and something was not quite right about our direction and the plan."

This led to the Elko being hired after two successful seasons leading the Duke Blue Devils. He helped build a stout defense that has allowed just 19.8 points per game in 2023, the second-best mark in the ACC.

Elko previously served as the Aggies' defensive coordinator from 2018 through 2021.

Texas A&M filled its head coaching vacancy, hiring Mike Elko away from Duke on Monday.

Elko's contract will be worth $42 million over six years, with additional money available through incentives:

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on Sunday night that the two sides had reached a deal.

Elko reportedly informed the Blue Devils of the move during a team meeting on Sunday night.

Elko served as the Aggies' defensive coordinator from 2018-2021 under head coach Jimbo Fisher. Fisher was fired midseason in 2023, and Elijah Robinson has served as the team's interim head coach.

This news comes one day after conflicting reports involving Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops emerged. Stoops ultimately took to social media to let it be known he was staying with the Wildcats.

Elko left College Station to become the Duke coach ahead of the 2022 season and has had a pretty successful tenure in Durham. The Blue Devils went 9-4 in Elko's first season, including a 30-13 victory over UCF in the Military Bowl, and started 4-0 in 2023 before finishing 7-5 in his second season.

His 16-9 start to his coaching career at Duke has been extremely promising, especially considering the Blue Devils had three consecutive losing seasons prior to his arrival.

Elko's previous experience with Texas A&M means he could be a familiar face to a team that desperately wishes to take the next step. The Aggies went 7-5 in 2023 and finished in fourth place in the SEC West.

On Saturday night, Jeff Tarpley of 247Sports reported that Texas A&M was set to hire Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops to replace the fired Jimbo Fisher as head football coach.

However, conflicting reports have since declared that Stoops won't be hired by the school:

Stoops himself took to X to refute the reports:

Stoops, 56, has gone 73-64 in his 11 seasons at Kentucky, including a 7-5 record this season. It's been a strong run at a school famously more invested in the basketball program.

As for whether the potential hire would have been the right move for a Texas A&M program where the expectations often unrealistically ignore the realities of life in the loaded SEC, that was met with mixed reaction on social media:

One thing that Stoops would have had in College Station, compared to his time in Lexington, asw more resources. He lamented Kentucky's lack thereof during an October radio appearance following a 51-13 stomping at the feet of two-time defending national champion Georgia.

"I can promise you—Georgia, they bought some pretty good players," he said (h/t ESPN). "You're allowed to these days, and we could use some help. That's what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of 'em. I encourage anybody that's disgruntled to pony up some more."

Stoops somewhat clarified his remarks the next day.

"Basically one person was questioning me and the program and getting over the hump," he said. "I really simply should have said, 'Hey, dude, I've gotten over a lot of humps. That's not a hump, that's Mount Everest.'"

The expectation at Texas A&M is that you summit those peaks. Jimbo Fisher never came close, registering a 46-25 record and just three bowl appearances in parts of six years.

The question would have been whether Stoops could have gotten closer to meeting the expectations of Aggies' fans.

"This is not an 8-4 job. It's not," athletic director Ross Bjork said on the Aggie Fan Zone radio show in November (h/t Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle). "Because of the decision we made (to fire 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?"

It's a moot point now, as Stoops appears set to remain with the Wildcats, leaving the Aggies to continue their search.

As the college football regular season comes to a close, a lot of attention will start to be directed towards the offseason's coaching cycle, particularly the Texas A&M job.

And as the Aggies continue their search for their next head man following the firing of Jimbo Fisher, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has emerged as a potential candidate for the job, according to the Houston Chronicle's Brett Zwerneman.

Swinney has been with the Tigers since midway through the 2009 season.

A two-time national champion, Swinney is considered one of the better college football coaches of this generation and has turned the Tigers into a true perennial power over the past decade.

Swinney has amassed a 168-43 record since taking over at Clemson. This season has been. a bit of a disappointment, with a 7-4 record going into Saturday night's game against South Carolina.

He hadn't loss four games since the 2011 campaign.

If Texas A&M wants Swinney, it'll be a costly proposition for both sides as the 54-year-old agreed to a contract last year that pays him $10.5 million per season through the 2031 campaign.

A&M is already paying a record $76 million buyout after firing Fisher.

But the Aggies have shown time and time again that cost is no obstacle and athletic director Ross Bjork said as much. He revealed that the program intends to offer a heavily incentivized contract to whomever replaces Fisher—who went 45-25 in six seasons.

Ohio State's Ryan Day, Arizona's Jedd Fisch, Duke's Mike Elko, Washington's Kalen DeBoer, UTSA's Jeff Traylor and Nebraska's Matt Rhule are all potential candidates as well.

Texas A&M insiders said Jimbo Fisher had already peaked as a football coach when the Aggies signed him $95 million deal in 2021, according to The Athletic's Sam Khan Jr., Bruce Feldman and Max Olson.

"Jimbo lost his fastball," one former Texas A&M staffer said, per Khan, Feldman and Olson. "He was hungry and motivated at FSU. Then he started reading his press clippings."

Fisher was fired by Texas A&M on November 12 in exchange for a record buyout of more than $76 million, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.

The Aggies put together a 45-25 record in six seasons under Fisher but have not played a College Football Playoff game since he took over.

Fisher joined the school after eight seasons with Florida State, where he led the Seminoles to the program's first national championship since 2014.

But Florida State declined after that championship— and insiders blamed Fisher for a similar decline at Texas A&M, which ranks last in the FBS in total offense with 4,455 yards gained through 11 games.

That offense was heavily dictated by Fisher. After the Aggies finished 2022 as one of the worst offensive teams in college football, the team hired Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator. Even after that, many of the plays Petrino called were still designed by Fisher, A&M staffers told ESPN's Dave Wilson.

A staffer similarly told Khan, Feldman and Olson that Fisher hired Petrino "for perception" but never truly gave up control of the Aggies' offense.

"Jimbo's scheme was antiquated in 2014 when he won a national championship at Florida State," one staffer on an opposing SEC team said, per Khan, Feldman and Olson. "It was kind of out-of-date then, and it's just not gotten better in 10 years."

According to Khan, Feldman and Olson, five people involved with the Texas A&M program described Fisher as "stubborn."

The record buyout shows how serious Texas A&M was about getting away from that leadership. By firing Fisher and getting additional time with the NCAA transfer portal open ahead of December 4, the Aggies have extra time to put together a new offensive identity heading into 2024.

UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor interviewed for the Aggies' vacancy at the same position on Tuesday, according to Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman.

Duke head coach Mike Elko is also considered a "strong candidate" for the role, as he previously served as Texas A&M's defensive coordinator.

This comes after former Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher was fired on the morning of Nov. 12, as the school has accumulated a record of just 11-11 over the past two seasons.

Traylor has led the Roadrunners to a record of 37-13 since he took over in 2020. UTSA has appeared in bowl games during each year that he's been head coach, and they seem poised to continue the streak with a 7-3 mark in 2023.

Meanwhile, Elko has led the Blue Devils to a 6-4 record in 2023. They're now bowl-eligible for the second consecutive year after last season's 9-4 finish. Elko's defense has been a major reason behind Duke's football turnaround, as his team is allowing just 18.8 points per game. That's the third-best average in the ACC.

While Traylor and Elko are both respectable candidates, Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork likely won't be rushing to make any quick decisions. He outlined his vision for the Aggies' next head coach when speaking to reporters.

"Here's the profile from what we will work on," he said, according to Mark Heim of al.com. "A coach that has a program identity, great interpersonal skills, track record of player development, commitment to academics, recruiting machine, supreme organizational skills, culture of discipline, passion for the game, proven winners, strong leadership skills, involved in the community, of course knowledge of Xs and Os, and someone who understands and can capitalize in today's modern-day college athletics."

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was initially a rumored candidate for the role, but "backchannel communications" made by the Aggies to gauge his interest were unsuccessful as it was made clear that Campbell would remain in the NFL (via Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports).

In the meantime, Texas A&M will look to avoid finishing back-to-back seasons without a winning record for the first time since 2008-09.

While there was certainly a lack of on-field success during the Jimbo Fisher era at Texas A&M, the program also suffered from a number of off-field and disciplinary issues during his tenure, according to ESPN's Dave Wilson.

Fisher, 58, was dismissed by the Aggies on Nov. 12 as the team sunk to a 6-4 record this season despite having unlimited resources at one of the best funded programs in the entire country.

The former National Champion coach put a heavy emphasis on recruiting over his six seasons. He brought in a top 10 recruiting class in all but two seasons that he was in College Station—including the No. 1 overall class in 2022—per 247 Sports.

However, it appears that often times that talent came at the cost of discipline as Fisher opted to have a player-led locker room, which didn't lead to a whole lot of order.

"There was 100% a lack of discipline, a lack of accountability," a former player said.

Another former player told Wilson that there was a culture of "individualism" on the roster, as players were not often punished for missing meetings or being late.

Some examples of the off-field issues include five-star cornerback Denver Harris getting suspended twice before transferring to LSU—where he has yet to play due to disciplinary reasons (as noted by Wilson).

Four-star corner Smoke Bouie and five-star wide receiver Chris Marshall were also suspended and both eventually left the Aggies.

So, while Fisher was great at bringing in talent, A&M wasn't able to take advantage of it due to a lack of the culture that he built at his previous stop with Florida State—where he won a national title with the Seminoles.

Fisher went 45-25 during his time with the Aggies—28-21 in the SEC. His best campaign came in 2020 when he led the program to a 9-1 record and a win in the Orange Bowl.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is expected to spurn any formal interest from Texas A&M as his alma mater is looking to replace Jimbo Fisher, according to CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd.

Dodd reported the Aggies made "backchannel communications" with Campbell's representatives, at which point "it was made clear that Campbell would be staying in the NFL with the Lions."

Campbell was mentioned as a potential candidate for A&M given his ties to the school, with The Athletic's Bruce Feldman writing how he "epitomizes everything we suspect the school would want in a head coach." However, Feldman also cited a source who said the timing was "horrible" in terms of him possibly walking away from the Lions.

Detroit's success this year made Campbell a long shot at best. The team leads the NFC North at 7-2, and its coach would presumably want to see through the franchise's first trip to the playoffs since 2016.

Waiting Campbell out would mean Texas A&M couldn't fully bring him aboard until mid-January at the earliest since the NFL's Wild Card Round runs from Jan. 13-15. As a result, the Aggies would technically be without a coach during December's early signing period.

There may come a time when Campbell returns to College Station, where he was a player for four seasons. That time clearly isn't now.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney shrugged off a question Tuesday regarding his potential interest in the head coaching job at Texas A&M.

According to Chapel Fowler of The State, Swinney didn't flat-out deny interest, but he declined to engage in the discussion beyond saying: "I'm just focused on this job ... Always have been. Just trying to beat North Carolina. It must be November—that's all I can say."

The Texas A&M job became available this week when the school fired Jimbo Fisher following a disappointing 6-4 start.

After going 83-23 and winning a national title in eight seasons at Florida State, Fisher made the surprising decision to leave FSU for Texas A&M.

Fisher was seemingly lured in by the opportunity to build a perennial power in the SEC, as well as a 10-year, $75 million contract.

Following Fisher's arrival, the Aggies had the fifth-ranked recruiting class in the nation in 2019, per 247Sports, followed by No. 6 in 2020, No. 9 in 2021, No. 1 in 2022 and No. 10 in 2023.

Despite the amount of talent Fisher brought in, he went just 45-25 at Texas A&M and never won more than nine games in a single season.

As for Swinney, he has enjoyed success that was previously unprecedented in the history of Clemson football.

Since taking over as Clemson's head coach in 2008, Swinney is 167-43 with eight ACC titles and two national championships.

From 2015 through 2020, the Tigers reached the College Football Playoff six consecutive times and they played in the National Championship Game on four occasions.

The past few years have been a bit more of a struggle, though, with Clemson going 10-3 in 2021 and 11-3 in 2022, and missing the CFP each time.

They are just 6-4 so far this season as well, marking Clemson's most losses since going 10-4 back in 2011.

Not coincidentally, the downturn has coincided with quarterback Trevor Lawrence leaving Clemson for the NFL and going first overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2021 NFL draft.

That could potentially prompt Swinney to consider other options, as could the prestige of the SEC compared to the ACC, but it is somewhat difficult to envision him leaving what remains an enviable situation at Clemson.