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LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly is Impressed With Texas A&M Aggies' Mike Elko

New Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko is already earning the respect of his SEC peers.

Matt Galatzan

Feb 7, 2017; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Brian Kelly and his defensive coordinator Mike Elko watch warmups before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 7, 2017; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Brian Kelly and his defensive coordinator Mike Elko watch warmups before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
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When the Texas A&M Aggies hired new head coach Mike Elko after the firing of Jimbo Fisher, the consensus was that the program had made a safe and smart decision.

However, as time goes on, it appears that Elko has a chance to be much more than that.

Not only is he already bringing in an elite recruiting class, in 2025, but he managed to keep together the 2024 class after the Fisher exit and rebuild an immense amount of the roster via the NCAA Transfer Portal. Not to mention the seemingly stellar coaching staff he was able to put together.

Of course, that is just one of many aspects of a head coach's job.

But Elko has done so well, that he has the Aggies as a top-25 candidate and a dark horse candidate in the SEC according to many.

In fact, he is also already catching the attention of other head coaches around the league, including LSU's Brian Kelly, who had nothing but good things to say about Elko on Monday at SEC Media Days in Dallas.

Kelly Elk
Feb 7, 2017; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Brian Kelly and his defensive coordinator Mike Elko watch warmups before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

"He's a smart football coach," Kelly said. "When I say smart, I don't mean intellectual, but he has a degree from an Ivy League school too... What makes Mike a really good head coach is that he's not going to just be a defensive coach. He's going to oversee all units because he knows it all goes toward winning. I think he'll be very successful at Texas A&M."

Kelly, of course, knows Elko as well as anyone, with Elko working as his defensive coordinator in 2017 at Notre Dame, before he left to take the A&M Job with Fisher from 2018-2021.

Now, Kelly will get his first up-close look at Elko as a head coach next season, with the two teams set to face off on Oct. 26 at Kyle Field.

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Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.

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