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.