'Big Time Head Coach!' Mike Elko Praises Former Coaching Partner Brian Kelly

Elko and Kelly will battle it out this Saturday night as Elko's Aggies take on Kelly's LSU Tigers.

Oct 19, 2024; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko walks down the sideline during the first half against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-Imagn Images / Matt Bush-Imagn Images

In his first season as the head coach for the Texas A&M Aggies, Mike Elko has already faced off against a lot of his former players and schools, such as Bowling Green, where he was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, as well as Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, who was under Elko's coaching while they were both at Duke.

And speaking of Notre Dame, another notable meeting between Elko and another former coaching partner will take place this Saturday as he takes on Brian Kelly, whom he served with at Fort Bend while Kelly was the head coach and Elko was defensive coordinator.

This weekend will be the first matchup in the SEC between the two head coaches, as Kelly took over the LSU head coaching job in 2022, replacing Ed Orgeron after he spent 12 seasons as the Fighting Irish head coach.

On The Aggie Football Hour Wednesday night, Elko spoke with Andrew Monaco about just how much he learned from Kelly and how he was able to handle running a well-known team like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

"Being at Notre Dame was my first dive into this high-level, high-profile world of college football. I had been at Bowling Green and Wake Forest before that, no disrespect to those schools, but there wasn't 95,000 people at the games," Elko said. "Just managing player performance and player psychology through dealing with everything that comes into those types of pressure, types of games and atmospheres, I just really appreciated the way he (Kelly) handled the psychology of the sport, and you can certainly look at the results he's had over his career, he's been extremely successful. He's always been a big-time head coach."

Elko and his former head coach will kick off from Kyle Field in a battle for SEC supremacy on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m.

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