Has Mike Elko finally awakened the sleeping giant that is Texas A&M?

Other than the record (7-1), the spot atop the SEC standings (5-0) or the flood of interested recruits (three four-star prospects committed just last weekend), perhaps the clearest sign of what first-year coach Mike Elko has done at Texas A&M is that he had to clarify a statement he made Saturday following an impressive 38-23 victory over LSU.

As the road to the SEC title increasingly runs through College Station, people are wondering whether Elko is trash talking other coaches.

Who saw that one coming?

“This is a real program,” Elko said on Saturday. “It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program talking fast and BS’ing everybody. This is a real program and for all the recruits out there, this is a real place, and if you want to be really good at football, this is a really good place to be.”

Fans and media speculated that Elko may have been taking a crack at LSU coach Brian Kelly (who worked briefly in politics before becoming a coach) or perhaps former A&M coach Jimbo Fisher (who is famous for talking very fast).

Elko said it was neither. First off, he worked as an assistant for both men — Kelly at Notre Dame (2017) and Fisher at A&M (2018-2021) — and is grateful to them for the opportunity, mentorship and friendship.

It was, Elko said, a statement about the strength of the A&M program he has already built. Come here and win.

“It’s just comical that I actually have to do this, but it’s necessary,” Elko said on Monday. “In the postgame, I was asked to kind of give a synopsis on how we sell culture to our program. In doing so, I made a statement that seemed like a very benign statement that someone managed to be taken as a shot directly at people. … I want to make sure everybody knows that I was not talking about anybody directly.”

This is the soap opera of the SEC, so the denial —…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/has-mike-elko-finally-awakened-the-sleeping-giant-that-is-texas-am-190229516.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-29 19:02:29

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