Mike Elko turned a question about Penn State into a lecture about media coverage of coaching searches.
The Texas A&M coach called speculation around the coaching carousel “absolutely hilarious” during his Monday press conference and dismissed it as “a waste of brain space.” He ripped reporters for how they cover coaches during hiring cycles, pointing out that three weeks ago people thought he should be fired and now he’s supposedly a top candidate elsewhere.
Three weeks ago, his Aggies were 5-0 coming off a 31-9 win over Mississippi State with victories over Notre Dame and Auburn already on their résumé. So, we’re not exactly sure what hot seat Elko’s pontificating about, unless he’s trying to make a broader point about the industry itself. Either way, Elko has never had his seat warmers on full blast during his nearly two years in College Station.
“I think it’s absolutely hilarious how you guys cover coaches,” Elko said Monday. “I think, three weeks ago, I was getting fired. Now, I’m getting hired… You don’t want me to stay, but I’m leaving. It’s just absolutely hilarious. It’s just a waste of brain space to spend any time talking or thinking about any of that stupidity.”
Calling it stupidity isn’t a denial. And this is the same Mike Elko who said almost identical things two years ago at Duke when his name came up for the Texas A&M job, then took the Texas A&M job two weeks later.
In November 2023, Duke was 7-5 and Elko was fielding questions about the Texas A&M opening. He insisted he was “very committed” to Duke, said his family loved Durham, and claimed they were doing “really special things” there.
“I say this all the time: When you’re doing your job, everybody thinks you’re leaving. When you’re doing your job bad, everyone thinks you’re leaving. It is literally the nature of college coaches, so you try not to pay any attention to that stuff,” Elko said then.
He said he didn’t know where the rumors came from. He said “nobody ever asked my opinion on what I think about things.”
Texas A&M announced him as its next head coach on Nov. 27, 2023.
Elko’s tiff with how the media covers coaching searches would land better if the last time he made it, the rumors hadn’t turned out to be completely accurate. He dismissed the speculation, performed the commitment routine, then left for the job two weeks later.
Texas A&M is 7-0 and undefeated in SEC play. Penn State just fired James Franklin after three straight upset losses. Elko grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Penn. The connection is real. Maybe he stays, maybe he doesn’t. But dismissing the speculation as “stupidity” rings hollow when he did the exact same thing two years ago, then left for the job two weeks later.
Elko said he doesn’t discuss Penn State with his players because it’s a waste of time. Fair enough, but the last time he called coaching rumors a waste of brain space, he was coaching at a different school two weeks later.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.