Replacing a head coach who brought home a Natty is one kind of pressure. But the pressure of replacing a head coach who got fired is maybe even more. That’s the case for Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko, who took up Jimbo Fisher’s hot seat. Even though there is a $27 million buyout, it is important for Elko to know what to do to avoid failure.

The answer can be pretty simple. Not to take Fisher’s path. When it comes to Texas A&M, Elko already has enough examples of what went wrong in the past during Fisher’s reign. It’s time for him to turn through the pages, taking lessons from his failing predecessor. Gabe Bock, who has worked in media and has covered the Aggies for nearly 2 decades, has some advice for Elko.

On the August 23rd episode, Bock joined the Drewtamu podcast. And he just said what others often avoid that is to use Fisher as an example to curate Elko’s 2025 design. “He can definitely learn from the guy that he replaced because the one thing you can’t have happen is the App State moment or anything just utterly embarrassing about the program,” said the analyst. “You got to have your team ready to play every single game. And the thing about Jimbo is the team wasn’t ready to play every single game. And when you’re not ready to play, you can get punched in the mouth.” Now there have been multiple punches in the mouth moments in 2024 for Texas A&M.

Back in 2022, under Fisher, Appalachian State secured a 17–14 victory over Texas A&M. We don’t have to travel back so far. Mind you, they were the same program that painted a picture-perfect 7-game winning streak earlier in the season. Now, will Elko be successful in saving Texas A&M from the Fisher curse?

Well, Bock trusts Elko’s head coaching talents. As he claimed, “The thing about Elko is I don’t think he’s going to get beat by teams that have inferior talent to him…whatever he can do he’ll do it because he has to but he wants to sit in there and watch tape you know sit in the back room, watch tape, break it down, figure out how he’s going to win and get his football team ready.” That’s because Elko knows how he can’t afford to take things easy in the Aggies squad.

After all, it’s the same program that did not think twice to fire their six-season head coach Fisher, even if it meant dishing out a fat check of $76 million. In Elko’s case, the figures look even more manageable, creating a sense of urgency within him. And guess what? Bock was not the only one to be clapping loudly for Elko.

Mike Elko’s former connection praises his vision 

“Well, I would say Mike has vision and Mike knows what he wants it to look like and taking those incremental steps with the big picture always in mind,” said Dave Clawson, the former Wake Forest head coach, on the TexAgs podcast. He considers himself lucky to have crossed paths with Elko, with whom his bond has been running for over 20 years.

So, who else to give him a shoutout, highlighting how Elko has only gathered fans in the multiple stops he made during his coaching journey. Clawson gave a rundown of the Texas A&M head coach’s successful run: “Mike was part of the rebuild at Richmond, the rebuild at Bowling Green, the rebuild at Wake Forest, and then he went to Notre Dame and flipped their defense in one year. And then what he did at Duke was one of the best coaching jobs in the ACC in the past decade. And so, you know, there is a history of success.”

Elko drove Duke to a 9-4 season and a bowl victory over UCF in the Military Bowl. Not just head coaching, he came off with flying colors serving as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2017 when the Fighting Irish finished with a 10-3 record, defeating LSU in the Citrus Bowl. Amidst all this hype, someone came up with a reminder that a lot of work needs to be done.

That’s none other than Ex-Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel. He revisited and dug up an old past that might help Mike Elko to tread with caution. On The Rich Eisen Show, Manziel shared his take on the Aggies lacking depth in offense, “And that’s the question. Obviously, last year was being at that game and the rivalry finally coming back in 2011 when I was redshirting. I got to be a part of the last heartbreak. Justin Tucker’s field goal to knock us off for the last one obviously, throughout my time there in the past years.” So, it’s time for Elko to buckle up and lead his team to success in 2025.