Many of the final dominoes are falling to place around the many Power 5 head coaching vacancies around the country. And while a few dominoes are left to fall, we got a lot of clarity about the future of the ACC on Friday.
First, it was officially announced that Tony Elliott would be the new head coach for the Virginia Cavaliers. Then, Duke announced that it had hired Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko as its new head coach.
Sources: Duke is finalizing a deal to make Texas A&M DC MIke Elko the school’s next head coach. He’s the former DC at Notre Dame and Wake Forest.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 10, 2021
Elko had been said to be a finalist, alongside Elliott, with the possibility that former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett could be an unconventional pick as well. And although one ESPN person called Garrett a “frontrunner” on Friday, the role eventually went to Elko, who has extensive experience in college football and, specifically, the ACC.
The 44-year-old began his coaching career at Stony Brook before he took a brief stint at his alma mater, Penn. He worked his way up to Fordham, Richmond, Hofstra, Bowling Green, Wake Forest, and eventually Notre Dame before taking the Texas A&M job in 2018.
The 2016 Wake Forest defense was one of his best, ranking in the FBS top 20 for defensive touchdowns scored, turnovers, red zone defense, sacks, and scoring defense. This past season’s Aggie defense was the No. 3 scoring defense in the nation while the 2020 defense was the SEC’s top total defense. He’s also been part of a Texas A&M coaching staff that was among the top recruiters in the nation.
While Elliott may have been Duke’s top pick, they still seemed pretty high on Elko, and so did a lot of people chiming in on social media to discuss the move.
Mike Elko has worked for Dave Clawson, Brian Kelly and Jimbo Fisher in the past 6 years. So he’s gotten the Clawson blueprint to build at a small school, Jimbo’s intensity & recruiting, and Kelly’s natural understanding of the south.
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) December 10, 2021
Congrats to Coach Elko! Great programs have to replace NFL draft picks and elite coordinators all the time. Next man up. https://t.co/aKoOnD8YSe
— Old Army Fight (@OldArmyFight) December 10, 2021
Duke hires Texas A&M DC Mike Elko, who IMO is a great fit because he has familiarity with what it takes to recruit and build to a place like that off his experiences at Wake Forest. It makes total sense. In the same way Tony Elliott makes sense for Virginia.
— Andrea Adelson (@aadelsonESPN) December 11, 2021
Mike Elko is a good hire for Duke. I have no idea if it will work out.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) December 10, 2021
Should I have had “Duke becomes the largest fly in the ointment for Texas A&M’s potentially transcendent recruiting class” on my 2021 college football bingo card? Because I did not. https://t.co/jvFgL40ryJ
— Parker Thune (@ParkerThune) December 10, 2021
Love this. Coach Elko is a really, really good coach and a really good dude. Very happy for him and he's now much closer to home. https://t.co/2ppH8DXIQ9
— Bryan Driskell (@CoachD178) December 10, 2021
We’ll see if Elko can live up to the standard that his predecessor, David Cutcliffe, put in place for 14 seasons. But so long as he does better than Ted Roof, Duke fans should be happy.