Mike Elko Makes His Feelings Clear On The NCAA Transfer Portal

The first-year Aggie football coach had an interesting comparison of the portal on The Aggie Football Hour.

Sep 14, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko walks the sideline against the Florida Gators during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

To some coaches, the NCAA transfer portal is a big deal, and some even base their season off of how well they reel in players from the block. Others don't worry as much about transfers, but each coach has his own way of approaching the situation.

And boy, does Mike Elko have an interesting way of looking at the portal.

While Texas A&M has had historically good recruitments over the past handful of seasons, the first-year Aggie head coach compared his mindset of the transfer portal to that of your local neighborhood garage sale.

Elko went into further detail of his peculiar analogy on The Aggie Football Hour, explaining the work that has to be done to find the diamonds in the rough, much like one would at a garage sale.

"Here's the analogy I'll make, and I don't know if I should say this live but, the Transfer Portal is like the neighborhood garage sale," Elko said. "It's not just go in and pick out whatever you want and everything's all good. Within the neighborhood garage sale, there's a lot of really good things but it takes a lot of work."

Elko expanded his explanation using more of a visual perspective, and highlighting the additional thoughts that go along with picking up players.

"You've got to get out of the car, go look around the whole lot. You gotta find what's right. I think that's how you approach the Portal," Elko explained. "It's not just, 'Oh, hey, here's a shiny thing.' You kind of go in with a jaded thought process of, 'Okay, why is he transferring? How is he gonna help us? What's his role gonna be?"

Elko was able to reel back defensive end Nic Scourton to his home in Bryan-College Station from Purdue via the Transfer Portal, so maybe this analogy isn't the worst approach to take with the situation.