Texas A&M Football: Why Mike Elko thinks Jimbo Fisher “deserves praise”
The Texas A&M football team lost its best assistant coach this offseason when Mike Elko announced that he’d be departing the program to take over as the new head coach for the Duke football team. It wasn’t a huge surprise, as Elko was one of the best assistant coaches in the country — it was only a matter of time before he left for greener pastures.
But despite leaving, Elko is still an Aggie at heart.
This week, the Duke football head coach joined the Saturday Down South podcast, speaking about all things football. When Jimbo Fisher came up, Elko did not hold back to defend his former boss and current Texas A&M football head coach.
Mike Elko thinks Texas A&M football HC Jimbo Fisher deserves more praise for his recruiting prowess
If you look at headlines revolving around Jimbo Fisher, most of them are not very positive. Rather than receiving praise and congratulations for his record-breaking 2022 recruiting class, you’ll see media outlets attempting to downplay what Fisher did.
Heck, some media outlets are even attacking him, claiming that the sole reason why players are deciding to attend Texas A&M University is because of NIL benefits. There’s reason for skepticism here, but the lack of appreciation for what he’s done in Aggieland is a bit jarring.
Elko, however, thinks Fisher deserves praise. Here’s what he said about the situation on the SDS Podcast.
"“Jimbo signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country to Texas A&M. When you do that, you deserve praise. Point blank. To look at it any other way is unfair. It takes so much work, it takes so many people, it takes an effort from such a large group to do that. To try to turn this into any other story, to me, just isn’t right. I think it deserves a ton of praise that he was able to go out and land the class that he did.”"
Elko goes on to explain that A&M’s recruiting isn’t just money-related. Think about it — are the Aggies the only school in the country that will now give players an opportunity to make money at the college level? It’s not a rhetorical question — the answer is no.
Next. Why this 5-star freshman is a breakout candidate. dark
The truth of the matter is that Jimbo Fisher is the first coach to figure out how to continue to recruit at a high level, even with NIL. There’s no cheating or scheming going on here, so what’s the issue?