The Hot Board: What impact does the vacancy at Texas A&M have on Mike Elko and Michigan State’s search?
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State’s competition in the coach search business might have gotten a bit stiffer on Sunday when Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher.
Put aside the irony that the Michigan State and Texas A&M job openings are due to the terminations of two of the most lavish coaching contracts in sports history, with Fisher and Mel Tucker being fired within two months of each other, with several years remaining on each deal. Fisher will get his money. Tucker is negotiating for a settlement.
In the process, Michigan State and Texas A&M have earned reputations for being willing to heap dumb loads of cash for football coaches. A&M will likely do it again. Michigan State is going to want to be more frugal this time, but it remains to be seen whether Michigan State will be willing to walk away from its top candidate if and when that coach’s representation wants something approaching Tucker money. That chapter has yet to be written.
Getting back to the Fisher firing and the big question of the day: Will the opening at Texas A&M have an impact on Michigan State’s coaching search?
On Friday, I theorized that Spartan fans should root for Texas A&M to win out, so that Fisher could keep his job, so that Michigan State wouldn’t have to worry about one of its top candidates – Mike Elko – having a wandering eye toward College Station, Texas. Elko was defensive coordinator in Aggieland under Fisher from 2018-21, prior to taking the head coaching job at Duke.
Well, Texas A&M beat Mississippi State on Saturday, but Fisher was fired nonetheless on Sunday. So much for my theory and Spartan prayers to the football gods.
As expected, Elko has become a popular name on Texas A&M coaching Hot Lists, in the eyes of pretty much every pundit who has put out a list.
On3 national college football expert Andy Staples listed Elko first on his list of 12 Hot Board candidates for the Texas A&M job.
Staples on Elko:
“Elko served as Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator from 2018-21 before leaving to work miracles in Durham. He won nine games in 2022, and he’s 6-3 this year despite losing his top two quarterbacks to injury. Elko’s success at Texas A&M was not duplicated by successor D.J. Durkin, and Elko’s defenses helped mask some of the Aggies’ offensive deficiencies. Elko has proven to be excellent so far as a head coach.”
The rest of Staples’ list included some names that Michigan State is known to be in contact with for its opening, including Kansas’s Lance Leipold and Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith.
Staples on Leipold: Leipold has won everywhere he’s been, but his reclamation of Kansas has been extraordinary. He took over the worst program in the Power 5 at the end of spring practice in 2021 and now has a seven-win team ready to play in a bowl for the second consecutive season. Before Kansas, Leipold made huge improvements at Buffalo. Before moving to the FBS, Leipold went 109-6 and won six Division III national titles in eight seasons at Wisconsin-Whitewater. Leipold also would be an attractive candidate for Michigan State, which fired Mel Tucker in September. Kansas is expected to offer Leipold a massive deal to stay, but Texas A&M could afford to outbid the Jayhawks and/or Spartans if he’s the choice.
Staples on Smith: Smith, a former Beavers quarterback, has done an incredible job reviving the program at his alma mater. He took over a team that was a mess following the resignation of Gary Andersen, and he slowly built Oregon State into the team no one in the Pac-12 wants to play. The Beavers went 10-3 last year and are 8-2 this season. But following the breakup of the Pac-12, Oregon State’s uncertain conference situation means Smith being an alumnus probably isn’t enough to make him stay if a Big Ten or SEC program came calling.
Staples also included Washington’s Kalen DeBoer and Urban Meyer, two names that were thrown around for the Michigan State job at one point or another.
Staples also listed Arizona’s Jedd Fisch and Texas San Antonio’s Jeff Traylor.
Elko’s name came up big and strong when Staples spoke with TexasAgs publisher Billy Liucci on Staples’ podcast, Sunday.
“You look at names like Jeff Traylor, at UTSA, that will come up a lot,” Liucci said. “One that definitely is going to come up and is absolutely going to be one of the candidates that A&M takes a long, hard look at is Mike Elko, and what he’s done at Duke in two years. There’s a bunch of names that come up that you go, ‘Huh.’ But Elko and Traylor are a couple that you have to take along look at.”
COMP’S TAKE: I wouldn’t think that Jonathan Smith and Lance Leipold would be A-listers for the Texas A&M job. That could change if Smith beats Washington or Oregon in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Elko is the candidate on MSU’s radar that would be most likely affected by A&M’s opening.
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So I got on the phone and polled some sources with deep, direct knowledge within the industry for their thoughts on the A&M job as it relates to Michigan State.
One Dallas-based source, who knew last week with certainty that Fisher would be fired by the end of the weekend, believes Florida State’s Mike Norvell, Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin and former Texas Tech Kliff Kingsbury will be prime targets for Texas A&M.
One West Coast industry source told me Kiffin, Smith, Elko, Traylor, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman and Oregon’s Dan Lanning would be the top candidates.
I asked a second industry source in Texas, with great knowledge of the coaching workings in the Lone Star State, what are the chances that Texas A&M makes Elko its No. 1 target.
“Relatively low,” the source said. “It will be Lanning and DeBoer, then Traylor and Elko.”
I asked him if there is any chance A&M would go after Kiffin.
“Zero,” the source said.
I asked why. The source says Kiffin has poked fun at Texas A&M’s “fake army,” in reference to the school’s Core of Cadets and their ceremonial march-in prior to home football games.
Kiffin is such a wise guy.
“Traylor and Lanning will be the finalists,” the source said.
Lanning has a $20 million buyout, by the way. But oil money can slide a long way in Texas. They’re already paying Jimbo way more than that to go away, so what’s another couple dozen million?
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Lastly, I spoke with a fourth industry super source, this one with more knowledge on Elko’s situation than any of the above, so strong that I’m not even going to narrow it down to a geographic region for you because I don’t want to blow his cover.
The source said Elko isn’t as enamored with Texas A&M as a lot of us on the outside might assume. Elko has coached at A&M. He’s had success there. He’s seen it, with all of its warts.
Texas A&M has great support, great resources, mammoth potential. But the warts, according to the super source and the Dallas source, stem from the overzealous meddling of regents and boosters.
I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of what goes on at Texas A&M, but two of these industry sources tell me the internal meddlesome pressure is going to be a negative in the school’s search to replace Fisher.
The super source also says it’s wrong to assume that Elko is more attracted to Texas A&M than Michigan State. That’s not me talking. That’s what the super source says. And I’m actually softening what he said, so that I don’t sound like a delusional pom-pon waver.
To me, Texas A&M seems like a clear tier or two above Michigan State in terms of pure football nuclear power and championship potential. So this isn’t my opinion. It’s just the information relayed from my super source: Don’t assume that Elko would view A&M above of Michigan State.
As I wrote on Friday, I’ve had conflicting information on Elko’s level of interest in Michigan State. One industry insider whose information on media negotiations has always been 100 percent insightful and accurate, a gentleman who goes by the handle of “Atlanta12” on the SpartanMag Underground Bunker, told us a few weeks ago that Elko makes more money than people realize at Duke, and Duke is set to raise his deal substantially, and that Elko would not seriously consider Michigan State.
I respect that opinion and viewpoint wholeheartedly. “Atlanta12” has more backroom insight on this matter than I do.
But my super source is even closer to the Elko situation than our beloved “Atlanta12.” And he says Elko is very intrigued with Michigan State.
So, stay tuned.
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Hey, we’re in coaching rumor mill mode now. I am just passing along to you the information and insight that I’m getting from industry people who are closer to the job search situation than I am. Some of them have what you would call “direct knowledge of the situation,” and others are informed observers.
I can’t tell you every single thing that comes across my desk, but the above is a good chunk of it, if you’re into that type of thing. If not, you can just steer clear of all the smoke and innuendo and wait until the last week of November to find out who Michigan State hires, and tune back in at that time. I can appreciate that.
I realize that some of our information is conflicting. So you can imagine how hard it is for me when people ask me what my confidence meter is for Candidate A, Candidate B, Candidate C in terms of their chances of becoming the next Michigan State head coach. It’s a puzzle. But the pieces will be falling into place steadily over the next three weeks.
Duke coach Mike Elko (left) speaks with North Carolina coach Mack Brown prior to Saturday’s Duke-North Carolina game. No. 24 North Carolina won in double-overtime, 47-45.
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