Texas A&M has hired Duke's Mike Elko as its new football coach, athletic director Ross Bjork announced Monday.
Elko is a former Texas A&M defensive coordinator who left there two years ago to take the Duke head-coaching job. He was the coordinator for some of Texas A&M's best recent seasons, including the 9-1 campaign in 2020 that culminated with an Orange Bowl victory.
Bjork praised Elko's "vision for Aggie football" in a statement, saying the new coach had a plan for "innovation and greatness" at the school.
"Coach Mike Elko is one of the best leaders and coaches in college football and has had high-level success at each stop of his career," Bjork said. "He is known amongst coaching circles as one of the best defensive minds in the country and has shown his ability to lead and turn around a program as a Power 5 head coach."
A news conference to introduce Elko has been scheduled for Monday afternoon.
One of the best leaders and coaches in college football has been named the next head football coach at Texas A&M.
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) November 27, 2023
Welcome back to Aggieland, @CoachMikeElko!
🔗 » https://t.co/ARPmQHOTX1 | #GigEm pic.twitter.com/x89fVDfnzw
Since Elko's departure after the 2021 season, Texas A&M's performance has dipped. The Aggies went 12-12 the past two seasons, which is why the school paid a record $76 million buyout to fire coach Jimbo Fisher. The buyout is not subject to offset or mitigation and is by far the biggest in the history of the sport.
Elko immediately showed his chops as a head coach, authoring one of college football's biggest turnarounds upon landing the Duke job in the 2022 season. Duke went 9-4 in Elko's first season after he inherited a team that had gone 3-9 the year before.
This year, Elko established himself as a candidate for a higher-profile job when Duke opened the season with a 28-7 win at No. 9 Clemson. The Blue Devils began the season 4-0 before losing to Notre Dame at home, with starting quarterback Riley Leonard getting injured in the fourth quarter.
From there, Duke's trajectory changed. The team finished 7-5 and will go to a bowl game for the second consecutive season.
Elko takes over a Texas A&M program that has struggled to maximize its monetary and talent resources. The school hasn't won a league title since 1998 and hasn't played in the conference title game since entering the SEC in 2012.
A defensive coach by trade, Elko has worked at places over the years -- Bowling Green, Wake Forest, Fordham -- where he has learned to maximize the resources available. He clearly did that at Duke, after the program had dipped under predecessor David Cutcliffe, as Elko brought on wholesale changes without a significant personnel overhaul.
ESPN's Chris Low contributed to this report.