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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
DALLAS — After an offseason at Texas A&M that saw an exodus of players following the firing of Jimbo Fisher, Aggies coach Mike Elko said Thursday that he’s happy with the state of the program ahead of his first season at the helm.
Texas A&M had 30 players leave, most notably several members of Fisher’s 2022 No. 1 national class, including No. 1 overall recruit Walter Nolen, who went to Ole Miss. But Elko said in his first appearance at SEC media days that there was no panic in re-recruiting his own roster.
“The people who wanted to stay stayed,” Elko said in a session with ESPN. “You only want people who want to be with you. … Had you used NIL dollars, had you used other means to try to keep people, then they’re not actually there because they want to be. They’re there because of some extenuating factors. And then that’s when you get conflict, because they’re not there to actually do the things the way your vision wants them to be done.”
Elko noted this is his seventh time as a first-year staff at a new school, five as a coordinator and two as a head coach. He left a job as defensive coordinator under Fisher at A&M before taking over at Duke prior to the 2022 season.
Change is something he’s used to, and rebuilding a roster on the fly is not foreign.
“I’ve only been a head coach in the portal era. And so, I don’t have any past feelings of what culture-building looks like. I only know how to do it when you have this massive roster turnover all the time.”
The Aggies added 28 new players to fill those holes in Elko’s first days in College Station.
Taurean York, a freshman All-American linebacker for the Aggies last season, said it was chaotic amid the uncertainty of a coaching search, but he believes the finished product will be much improved over the teams that went a combined 12-13 over the past two seasons.
After Fisher was fired with a $76 million buyout, sources told ESPN that there was a “culture of individualism” in the program with players rarely held accountable. “Accountability” was a keyword among the Aggies players, with offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III saying discipline has been a focus.
“We’ve had some issues in the past, but we’ve definitely got those squared away,” Zuhn said. “[Elko] brought accountability to the team, where people need to be where they’re needed to be on time, every day. … If you’re fighting for your whole team. It just makes it that much easier.”
Despite the recent spate of mediocrity, Elko said he was drawn to Texas A&M because of the opportunity to break through. Texas A&M hasn’t won a national championship since 1939 or a conference title since 1998.
Elko, who took over a 3-9 Duke team and was named the 2022 ACC coach of the year after going 9-4, believes he’s up to the task.
“There’s not a lot of programs where you say they have the infrastructure to win at all, and they haven’t been able to do it yet, or they haven’t quite been able to get the recipe right yet,” Elko said. “I think as a competitor, you always have the inner confidence that you’re the one that can figure it out. … You come down here and you learn what this place is and what it’s all about. And now the opportunity to come back and run the program, you believe you can get it to where it should be.”