It appears Mike Elko will be making a return to Texas A&M.
Yahoo Sports can confirm reports that Texas A&M is on the verge of hiring Elko as its next head coach. Elko was the defensive coordinator at A&M from 2018 to 2021 and then spent the last two seasons as the head coach at Duke.
Elko, 46, inherited a Duke program that went a combined 5-18 overall and 1-17 in ACC play in 2020 and 2021 and quickly transformed the Blue Devils into a winner.
In 2022, Elko’s first season in Durham, Duke was one of the biggest surprises of the college football season as it went 9-4. The nine wins were the most for the Blue Devils since 2014. This year, Duke finished out the regular season with a 7-5 record that could have been much better had starting quarterback Riley Leonard not gotten injured.
The Blue Devils started 4-0 and were ranked No. 17 in the country when they nearly upset Notre Dame back on Sept. 30. Leonard was injured at the end of that game and returned a few weeks later but was clearly not full healthy. The Blue Devils lost on the road to Florida State and Louisville — the two participants in the ACC title game — and then were down to their third-string quarterback.
Despite the QB injuries, Duke finished out the season with a 7-5 overall record and a 4-4 mark in ACC play. Overall, Elko had a 16-9 (9-7 ACC) record in his two seasons with the Blue Devils.
Before becoming a head coach, Elko had stops as a defensive coordinator at Bowling Green, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Elko spent four seasons under Jimbo Fisher as the Aggies’ DC. Now he’s set to replace Fisher as head coach.
Texas A&M fired Fisher on Nov. 12 with the Aggies sitting at 6-4 on the year. Fisher, who won a national title at Florida State, was given a monstrous contract to come to College Station but ended up going 45-25 (27-21 SEC) in his six seasons on the job.
To move on from Fisher, the school has to pay out more than $75 million in buyout money.
The hire of Elko came after Texas A&M was reportedly on the verge of hiring Mark Stoops from Kentucky.
