Projecting Mike Elko’s First Texas A&M Football Staff

Predicting Texas A&M Football’s Offensive Staff under Mike Elko

Wide Receivers: Trooper Taylor
Taylor is an SEC veteran, having coached at Tennessee and Auburn, overseeing receivers for the latter during their national championship season in 2010. He’s another top recruiter, and currently serves on the Duke football staff as RB coach and Associate Head Coach. He has coached many positions, including RBs, WRs, and even CBs, which is why I slotted him as the receivers coach. This is another guy that may require an Associate Head Coach title to get him on the staff, which would be just fine in my book. Losing Craig seems more likely than not at this point, but Taylor wouldn’t be a huge downgrade when it comes to recruiting, and could be a boon in on-field production.

Tight Ends: Tim Brewster
Brewster is another recruiting ace, erstwhile Aggie staffer, and (now former) part of Coach Prime’s staff at Colorado. If only for his recruiting acumen, he would be a good pickup for the Aggies at this spot. He oversaw Jace Sternberger’s one year in Aggieland, which was one of the most prolific for a TE in recent history for the Aggies. He’d be my pick, though I have no idea how likely or unlikely the prospect is.

Running Backs: Rashaad Samples
This is another shot in the dark, but Samples has a reputation that precedes him when it comes to recruiting in Texas. He was able to recruit top talent to both SMU and TCU in his time at each spot before taking a job at Arizona State. His name was often brought up by fans with regard to open offensive staffing spots under Jimbo, but that never ended up materializing. Due to recent reporting, maybe we have been able to figure out why that may be, but under Elko things may be different. I’d love to see him steal Samples away from ASU.

Offensive Line: Brandon Jones
Jones currently oversees the Missouri OL, which is a unit that is a finalist for the Joe Moore Award (top offensive line in the nation). Whoever succeeds Addazio here at A&M will be walking into a great situation; not only would it be hard for the line to play worse than they have been, but there is a huge amount of raw talent (and seniority!) to work with in College Station. If Moore is the guy at OC (which, again, is a wish-list hire), then I can see Jones accompanying him to College Station.