Texas A&M’s season hasn’t gone the way anyone in College Station wanted, but Saturday still carries a meaningful marker for Mike Elko. A win over South Carolina would give the Aggies a much-needed boost after the bye week and push Elko to 40 career victories as a head coach.
That number would place him in a fairly exclusive group. Right now, 63 active college football head coaches have reached 40 wins in their careers. Elko could become No. 64 if Texas A&M gets past the red-hot Gamecocks.
Elko’s rise has been quick. He started as a head coach in 2022 at Duke after leaving Texas A&M, where he had served as defensive coordinator. His first season in Durham produced nine wins, followed by a seven-win campaign in 2023.
He then took over at Texas A&M in 2024 with a 16-9 career record and delivered an 8-5 season in his first year in College Station. In 2025, he followed that with a historic run that included a College Football Playoffs appearance and an 11-2 record.
Now sitting at 4-4 in 2026, Elko is 23-11 at Texas A&M and 39-20 overall, good for a 66.1 winning percentage. That ranks 23rd among active head coaches.
The bigger question is what that means for the Aggies’ long-term direction. Elko is only in his third year with the program, and this is just his fifth season as a head coach overall, so the sample size is still small.
Even so, the comparison points are strong. Coaches in their fifth season include Dan Lanning at Oregon, Joey McGuire at Texas Tech and Rhett Lashlee at SMU.
All three are viewed as major threats to reach the College Football Playoffs, and all three have already cleared the 40-win mark. McGuire has the fewest of the group with 42.
If Elko’s first 2.5 years in College Station were stretched across a full five-year span, he would project to a 44-20 record. That would put him ahead of Lashlee’s 42 and level with McGuire, while still trailing Lanning’s 53.
The numbers don’t settle the debate by themselves, but they do show why Elko is already being viewed in the same conversation as some of the sport’s most respected young coaches.
In Other News...
Texas A&M Suddenly Has A Real Worry With Top LB Commit
Texas A&Ms recruiting momentum has hit a familiar late-summer stress test with Kaden Henderson, the five-star linebacker who remains committed to the Aggies but is headed to Notre Dame this weekend. Henderson picked Texas A&M over the Irish the first time around, which is why this trip is getting such close attention from Aggie fans who know how quickly elite recruiting battles can shift once other programs get another look.
For now, Henderson has continued to signal that his commitment to Texas A&M is still solid, and the staff has kept a strong relationship with him throughout the process. Even so, any visit to a major rival for a player of his caliber naturally invites concern, especially when the Aggies are trying to hold onto one of the biggest names in their class. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Still Has A Real Shot In One Huge Recruiting Battle
Texas A&M still has work to do in a recruiting battle that has already narrowed to one of the bigger names on the board. Logan Lokey, the 4-star defensive lineman from Denton, picked Oklahoma over several other schools, and the Sooners landed him by selling a fit with Brent Venables and defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis. For the Aggies, it is another reminder that the best battles in Texas recruiting often come down to relationships as much as geography.
Lokeys commitment may not be the final word, though, which is why this one still matters to A&M. The article points to uncertainty about whether he stays locked in if Oklahomas coaching situation changes, and that leaves the door open for other programs to keep pressing. In a recruiting fight this important, Texas A&M can hardly afford to go quiet. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Offense Faces More Pressure After Elkos Latest Decision
Texas A&M heads into Week 10 at 4-4 overall and 1-4 in SEC play, and the offense is still searching for answers as South Carolina comes to town. Mike Elko confirmed that Marcel Reed will remain the starting quarterback, keeping the Aggies pointed in the same direction even as the unit continues to sputter and the three-and-out issues pile up at a rate that ranks among the SEC's worst.
There is at least one encouraging development in the backfield, where freshman running back KJ Edwards has shown improvement and given the offense a small lift. Still, with the Aggies needing a sharper showing to steady their season, the pressure on Reed and the rest of the offense only grows as the schedule tightens and the margin for error keeps shrinking. [Read more 🡒]