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Texas A&M is a program on the rise after reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time in history. Mike Elko is 19-7 overall and 12-4 against the SEC through two seasons in charge of the Aggies, including an 11-win season last year. 

But change defined the offseason in College Station. Elko replaced both coordinators and a bulk of the starting lineup from last year, including four starters on the offensive line and Cashius Howell and Tauren York on defense. 

I sat down with Elko last week to discuss his program and learn more about the Aggies for the 2026 summer magazine. 

Q: What are you most pleased with through two years as Texas A&M’s head coach? 

Elko: I’d say the overall development of the culture inside the program. I think that we’ve become a group that is more willing to do the work in the offseason, willing to put in the effort it takes to be successful in the game of football. We’re much more together as a group than we’ve been in the past and that helps us down the stretch in games. 

We’ve gotten to a point two years in a row where, for the first time in a long time, Texas A&M has clearly outkicked its preseason expectations. Obviously, you want to be a program that is maximizing what you’re capable of and that’s usually a good indicator of that. 

Q: Did you have markers to measure success when you arrived in College Station and is this program ahead of schedule? 

Elko: I’m not really a markers guy. Markers are too result based and the way the ball bounces in the game of football is too funny to base it off of that. Obviously, I’m excited with where we are. I’m excited by the trajectory of the program. I’m excited with what we’re doing. That was all we ever wanted to do, was to move things forward. I said that a lot after the first year. People kept saying that Texas A&M went 8-4 again and I’m like, ‘no, we didn’t go 8-4 again. We actually haven’t been 8-4 in a couple of years.’ If we had gone 8-4 again last year, then it’d be fair to talk about us going 8-4 again but we didn’t. And so, I’m happy with the direction that things are trending. 

Q: Do you think that reaching the CFP will change the focus surrounding Texas A&M football from what happened in the past to what is happening next? 

Elko: Yeah, I hope so. I just think it is unfair to the current players to carry the cargo of past failures. Texas A&M football is something that people are passionate about. I would like them to get excited when things are going well, be passionate about it when things are going well, and not be looking over their shoulder for when the shoe is going to drop. I think that’s a little bit more my messaging. Like, let’s just enjoy this ride until we give indications that things aren’t going in a direction that you want them to go. Let’s just enjoy the ride. Let’s stop looking back and saying, ‘well, all the other rides didn’t end the way we wanted them to so this one won’t either.’ I don’t see how that is productive. 

Q: What’s the next step in the evolution process for Texas A&M as you head into Year 3? 

Elko: Can we reload? We’re in a situation that we’re having to replace a lot of players. We had the most players at the NFL Combine and we’ll have double digit players drafted for the first time in a long time around here. To be an elite program, you’ve got to reload. That is our challenge. We’ve got a lot of new faces and we’re going to have a lot of new starters. Can we go out there and maintain our level? 

Q: When you evaluated last year, what did you like and what do you feel needs to improve? 

Elko: Obviously, we played really good football for a long time. I think we did things on the road that hasn’t been done around here in a while and that was a big part of last season. We knew the script for the season was that we were going to have to go on the road and win some tough football games. And we were able to do that at Notre Dame, at LSU, at Missouri. 

Then, I think, we hit a point where we just weren’t able to finish the way we had hoped or wanted to. But I think that sometimes that’s inevitable when you’re building. Every season is going to probably end a little short of the ultimate hope and you have to be able to recalibrate, readjust, and then move on. 

Q: How much will the experience of reaching the CFP help this program? 

Elko: I think even though it’s a lot of new players, you at least have players in the program that have experienced it. You know, we talked about that a lot in Year 1. Like, Year 1, the entire building had no idea what it needed to look like. Then in Year 2, we had a lot more guys that understood what the level needed to look like. Now, in Year 3, even with a lot of turnover, we have players in this program that know what it needs to look like for us to be successful and what it needs to look like down the stretch to win some of those big games in the playoffs and in the SEC title game. 

Q: Where have you seen the most growth from Marcel Reed and what’s the next step in his evolution? 

Elko: He’s continuing every year to get better and better as a quarterback. I think he’s learning how to play the position. He’s learning how to see things and he’s learning how to process things. I joked with someone the other day that a year or two ago it felt like people were asking me if he was capable of throwing a football forward. Then he gets into the playoffs and all of a sudden he can’t win us a national championship and now that’s a failure. He made a lot of massive steps last year. He’ll do the same this year. 

Q: How did you go about hiring two new coordinators and why did you decide to stay in-house for both? 
Elko: I don’t think you ever do anything just to do something. I think you owe it to the program to do what you believe is the best thing for the program. When you look at our two situations, Holmon Wiggins is a guy with a phenomenal offensive resumé and has been everything you can be other than a play caller. He’s coached in multiple national championship, coached a Biletnikoff Award winner, a Heisman winner and has been around some really talented offensive coordinators, so it seems like a natural evolution to allow him the opportunity (to call plays) and to support him with a strong staff, which also creates continuity for a returning quarterback. That all goes hand in hand together and I have a ton of confidence in Holmon and the job he’ll do this year. 

And then on the other side of the ball, we hired Coach Hemphill and brought him here with the expectation that there would be a transition. When coach (Jay) Bateman decided to go to Kentucky, the transition became natural. 

Q: How important is it for the program to beat Texas and get over that hump? 

Elko: It’s a double-edged sword. The game is extremely important to Aggies. It is extremely important to our program. It is extremely important to our fan base. There’s no doubt about it. Because of that, it occupies a lot of time in your brain. It would be wrong of me to say I feel as though last year going 11-1 and making the playoffs was a failure because we didn’t beat Texas. And so you kind of live in both of those worlds, right? It’s an extremely important game and we have to win it, but I really don’t want it to define who we are. I’d like us to be a program that can live without being defined next to them. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to become. 

Q: How do you measure success in 2026? 

Elko: Again, I just think it’s so hard to quantify that. We know what our goals and expectations are as a program. We want to be competing to go to Atlanta. We want to compete for the playoffs. We want to beat UT. Like, those are the goals and expectations for the program now.