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Duke football's head coach Mike Elko leaves for Texas A&M gig

Duke coach Mike Elko walks off the field after after the team's win over Wake Forest in an NCAA college football game in Durham, N.C., Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.
Ben McKeown
/
AP
Duke coach Mike Elko walks off the field after after the team's win over Wake Forest in an NCAA college football game in Durham, N.C., Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.

After a two-year stint in Durham, Duke University’s football coach is headed back to Texas.

Mike Elko was named the head football coach at Texas A&M University on Monday, just days after the Blue Devils beat Pittsburgh at home in its final game of the regular season.

It will be a homecoming, of sorts, for Elko, who was formerly the Aggies’ defensive coordinator. The official news came from the A&M athletic department Monday morning.

"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," Athletic Director Ross Bjork said in a press release. "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."

Elko coached at Duke for two season. He took over a team that had gone 3-9 the season before his arrival, and brought the Blue Devils to a 9-4 record. That was good enough to land Duke a spot in the Military Bowl, in which the team took down the University of Central Florida 30-13. Elko also took home ACC coach of the year honors.

Duke finished the 2023 regular season 7-5, playing the latter portion of the year without its starting quarterback Riley Leonord, who was injured.

Former Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher was fired from the role earlier in November.

Josh Sullivan is a social media producer with WUNC’s digital news team.
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