Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko brings accountability to Aggie football program

DALLAS, Texas (KBTX) - The Mike Elko era of Texas A&M football began with several honest conversations. The Aggies were reeling after a 7-6 season which saw head coach Jimbo Fisher released with two games remaining in the regular season.

The new coaching staff didn’t sugar coat the state of the program. they took over with the players that remained on roster and those brought in through recruiting and the transfer portal.

“We can’t verbalize what we are,” Elko said. “Facts tell us who were are and we were a 12-13 football program the last two years. So, the only way to change that is work. You can’t just say you want to be different and say you want to compete, you have to do it. I think that has been, from day one, internal conversations that we had.”

Accountability has been a key word for the A&M football program in Elko’s first offseason and the program has already seen the fruits of that labor well before the team takes the field for the first time in 2024.

Throughout the spring, the entire team was divided up into groups for the purpose of accountability. Each group had some veteran, vocal voices from the team, but also contained players who have yet to embrace leadership roles on the team. Each group is responsible for making sure everyone arrives to team meals and meetings on time, or else everyone on the subsection is docked points. The team with the most demerits at the end of the week would undergo a physical fitness punishment.

The lowlight of the punishment was 500-yard plate pushes at 7 in the morning, offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III revealed.

As the elected offensive captain for the team, he was quick to point out that his team was never in the bottom of the standings, so he was saved from the anguish of the punishments.

“That was really a way to get people motivated to hold each other accountable and hold themselves accountable,” explained Zuhn.

In this program there are also rewards, including gear, for the teams that finish at the top of the standings, linebacker Taurean York shared. However, York never reaped the benefits of winning, he said with a laugh.

“That’s actually one of the first things [Elko] hit on when he got here,” York recalled. “He’s like, ‘winners get good stuff and losers, they hate it all the time.’”

Naturally, this program pushed A&M’s leaders to rise to the top and keep everyone in their group moving in the same direction. Defensive lineman Shemar Turner, a vocal leader for the Aggies, had to remember how to allow other voices to be heard as well.

“There are leaders on some of the teams that speak up higher,” remarked Turner. “They’re supposed to speak up here and push the team. Then, there’s also guys that aren’t as high as level leaders on the team that you have to sit back and learn how to follow while they’re leading as well. Everybody doesn’t have a specific year to lead. Everybody has a role. Everybody is holding everyone accountable.”

On the field, players have been held accountable in not taking a day off from competing. It’s about finding where a player thinks his limit might be, and giving just a little bit more.

“That was a major thing for him is teaching us how to win every single day,” Zuhn said. “So, we’re not satisfied just doing our best. We want to win. If we’re running a sprint, or you’re lifting weights, and you see someone a little bit ahead of you, you’re doing a little bit more weight. You just have that drive at the back of your mind, ‘hey, I’m going to do that or I’m going to get them.’”

After Elko was installed into the program in late November, it took the team about two months to really find their stride within this new culture that emphasizes accountability.

“He runs a tight ship,” York described Elko. “He doesn’t allow you any loose ends. He wants you to be ready on time. Whenever you have that type of structure and discipline, it’s easy to buy in.”

The name that was hardly spoken Thursday was that of Fisher, who was absent from SEC Media Days for the first time six years. While Elko and players noted accountability was a change, they did not use that as a comparison to the previous season or regime.

“We haven’t really looked back at all,” Elko said. “I think one of the things that’s important when you take over a program, you just be clear with what you’re looking for. I’ll let other people judge these differences or judge what’s different between me and Coach Fisher. I hadn’t spent a ton of time thinking about what’s different. I think our focus is what we want our program to look like, the culture that we want, the level of buy in and discipline and accountability that we want and that’s kind of been where we have focused our attention.”

What is the indicator that this new culture has taken hold? A&M’s actions have spoken louder than their words.

“Just the most proud of the fact that it’s been a really quiet offseason,” added Elko. “I think we talked a lot about just kind of going to work and improving and enhancing our program and I think we’ve been able to do just that and I think when you’re not hearing about programs in April, May and June, it’s usually a good thing.”