Dialing in on defense
Veteran unit hopes to build on strong season by refining what worked well last year
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M returns perhaps its most experienced defense in program history, based on five seniors from last season back in action for the Aggies after the NCAA did not count a year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A&M finished ninth in total defense last season, its highest in that category since No. 3 in 1993, when current A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko was still in high school in South Brunswick, N.J.
On one hand, the Aggies’ surge on defense the past three seasons pleases Elko. On the other hand, the fourth-year coordinator said any pleasure derived from past success can prompt future trouble.
“We’re guaranteed nothing by experience,” Elko said of grand expectations for A&M’s 2021 defense. “We’ve got to work to get everything we want in the game of football. Everything that we did last year is just that — what we did last year.”
Based on returning nine starters to an already solid unit, however, Elko realizes that hopes among A&M fans have never been higher for one of his defenses.
“We have the capability and potential to be really good,” Elko said. “But we’ve got to put in the work to make sure that shows up on Saturdays in the fall.”
A&M fourth-year coach Jimbo Fisher gets most of the accolades for the Aggies’ rise in the rankings, including a No. 4 finish in the 2020 Associated Press poll, but primarily behind the scenes, Elko has worked wonders with the previously maligned defense once known as the “Wrecking Crew.”
“We have a culture and a mindset that we continue to implement each and every day,” said senior defensive end Micheal Clemons, who played under previous A&M coach Kevin Sumlin in 2017. “We don’t try to look too far ahead — it’s a day-by-day thing. We’re further along than we’ve ever been.
“This is the best defense we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
A&M will find out if that optimistic sentiment holds up starting Sept. 4 against Kent State at Kyle Field. The Aggies open SEC play Sept. 25 against Arkansas in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
Fisher is thankful, too, he hasn’t lost Elko, 44, to the NFL as a coordinator or to another university as a head coach. It’s become an annual tradition around College Station following the football season: Elko’s name surfacing as a headcoaching candidate before he ultimately chooses to stay at A&M.
This past spring it was at Kansas, which hired Lance Leipold from the University of Buffalo after Elko passed on the chance for his first head coaching job at any level.
“You guys make a lot more of that than I do,” said Elko, who along with his wife, Michelle, is raising a family in College Station. “I’ve never really been looking to go anywhere. Obviously opportunities present themselves, and as an assistant you have to look at them, but I’ve never really come close to leaving.”
Elko’s oldest of three children, Michael, is a senior shortstop at College Station High School and has pledged to play baseball at Northwestern University.
“We’re extremely happy here,” Elko said, “and we’re excited for the season.”
A&M fired Sumlin in November 2017 and hired Fisher from Florida State in December of that year. Fisher then hired Elko from Notre Dame, where he’d spent a lone season as defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly.
Before Elko’s arrival, A&M had not ranked in the top 50 in total defense since 2006, when Dennis Franchione was coach and Gary Darnell served as defensive coordinator — and that was 46th nationally.
A&M’s No. 9 finish in total defense last season marked its first top 10 tally since 2001 (No. 10), and the Aggies’ last conference champion in 1998 (while they were Big 12 members) also finished 10th in total defense.
As recently as five years ago under Sumlin and then-coordinator John Chavis, A&M ranked 90th in total defense, meaning the Aggies leaped from 90th to ninth from 2016-20 under the new regime. Despite all that experience — including what’s expected to be one of the nation’s top defensive lines led by junior DeMarvin Leal — Elko said don’t expect him to ramp up the defense’s complexity in a season the Aggies expect to compete for their first SEC title.
“When you watch us play defense, I don’t think you’re going to see it look much different,” he said. “We didn’t go into the offseason and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got all these guys back, how can we reinvent football to try and make it more challenging and more complicated (for offenses)?’
“We just want to run this thing better, and the guys are very confident in what we’re doing. … They understand how this thing goes, and so all you’re trying to do is build on that — to elevate it.”