Notre Dame, on September 13th, is set to face Mike Elko’s Texas A&M at South Bend, and it can renew some old wounds for Mike Elko from the 2024 season. Last year, Elko’s opener was overshadowed by his former Duke quarterback, Riley Leonard, who outdueled the coach in an Irish uniform. Even before the Notre Dame opening game last year, Elko knew the threat that Leonard carries. “The irony of playing against him in the opener, certainly, isn’t lost on me. He’s going to do everything he possibly can to make sure he has the upper hand on me for the first time,” said Elko last year. However, this year, the script can repeat, only this time Notre Dame is without Leonard and coming off a defeat in Miami. So, Mike Elko won’t feel the “awkwardness” that he felt last year with Leonard under Notre Dame’s center.

“I thought last year was a great game. Obviously, it was our first game as a staff, and you had all the awkwardness of going against Riley Leonard, our former quarterback, but it was a great game,” said Mike Elko in a recent NBC Sports interview. The Aggies’ head coach then went on to expand how this year is going to be similar, with results potentially going any team’s way.

“It was a great game, went down to the fourth quarter. They made a few more plays than we did. I think this one is going to be very similar. I think it’s going to be a lot of really good players on the field. It’s going to be a great environment, and you know, the team that makes the most plays in the fourth quarter will win,” concluded the head coach. Of course, last year’s game was a close contest as Texas A&M also had home advantage. But this year the game is at South Bend, and combining the quality of Notre Dame’s squad under Marcus Freeman, the Aggies would be on their toes.

Notre Dame did lose their opening game against Miami in a close 24-27 thriller, with CJ Carr managing to complete just 19 of the 30 passes, along with an interception. The rushing game, too, Notre Dame’s strength last season, produced just 93 yards, and Jeremiyah Love was limited to just 33 yards on the ground. However, against Texas A&M, Notre Dame would look to improve on CJ Carr’s mistakes and deploy a dynamic run game to tackle Mike Elko’s situational blitzes, something Jeremiyah Love’s explosiveness dealt with effectively last year. Despite that possibility, Mike Elko isn’t feeling the heat too much, due to his past Notre Dame connection.

Notre Dame is still reaping the rewards of the foundation laid by Mike Elko

Notre Dame’s dominance on the college football scene might be attributed to Brian Kelly and, lately, Marcus Freeman in recent memory. But the 2017 season that Mike Elko spent at South Bend did more than people give him credit. For one, Notre Dame had a 4-win season in 2016 with the defense under Brian VanGorder ranked at the bottom of the FBS rankings. In that situation, Brian Kelly called on the services of Mike Elko, who was at Wake Forest as their DC, leading a top-20 defense. And what Elko did in just that one year in 2017 is still giving rewards to Notre Dame 8 years later.

“I loved working with Brian. It was really cool to go in there and kind of be part of the revitalization of that defense. Notre Dame had come off obviously a really tough year, and, you know, had some really great players, had a really great staff, and, to whatever degree we kind of got the things going, it’s great to see the success that they’ve had,” said Mike Elko about his Notre Dame tenure. The turnaround for Notre Dame in 2017 was truly remarkable.

Mike Elko arrived with his aggressive 4-2-5 scheme and deployed situational play as the Irish’s defense went from allowing 369.2 yards per game in 2016 to finish in the top half after the season. The season, too, was salvaged, with Brian Kelly finishing with a 10-3 record, including wins over teams like USC and Virginia Tech, and LSU. As for the defensive dominance, Notre Dame hasn’t looked back ever since!! So much so that Notre Dame’s 4-2-5 man coverage defense under Chris Ash has the potential to disrupt the Aggies’ winning run.