Gig 'em

Agree completely. The tie-in is that Elko coached him at Duke for his breakout season. I've heard he's headed for ND, though. I can see the draw of that game next year with Leonard playing on the road against his old coach in game one of the season.

After the disaster the past couple of years have been, See ya!!! I do wonder how the offense would have flowed if Petrino had really been left to do his thing in his own way.

That caught my eye too. Agree, that would be worth celebrating at this point.

The player reaction to his hire is all you need to see. Elko's the right guy for the job. It took a long, long, long 6 years to get here, but here we are, finally. Gig 'em!

I love this guy - "You can’t fire a coach and pay him nearly $80 million in walkaway money — and not make a splash hire." That's a nonsensical statement. We're over the "splash". We made a huge splash last time and ended up paying for it 6 years later. Matt Hayes wants a "splash hire"? All I want is a really good coach, and we got that box checked. We don't need a "splash".

I do agree with your last statement, though. Elko's the best choice at this point whether it's splashy or not. Success will be judged based on performance.

Well, I disagree with Josh on that. Jimbo was that "home run hire". When we hired him, he was fresh off winning a national championship from FSU, and he was widely projected to be successful here. I think Pate's taking the wrong lesson from this. It's not that there were no potential "home run hires", it's just that making a "home run hire" doesn't guarantee anything except a larger salary.

The "home run hire" talk puzzles me. It's like people haven't learned anything from the Jimbo hire. No coach is ever a sure thing. Elko is a good coach who knows the program and is liked by the best players on the team. In my opinion, Elko's about as close as you can get to a home-run hire. He'll have the best chance of keeping the current roster as intact as possible for next year's season while building for the future. Elko's viewed as a safe choice because he has the best chance of success.

I'm with you. The offense actually looked pretty creative yesterday. That's what I was expecting from Petrino all along. I'm wondering if there was something to the idea that Jimbo kept his offense in there and had Petrino running it instead of handing over the reins completely. A competent offense paired up with a D led by Elko and Robinson - now that would be something to see.

I like the hire a lot. Elko was a master as a DC. He's only had two years as a HC, but he took Duke from 3-9 to 9-4 and had them competing with ND and FSU until the QB was injured. He's a culture coach, and our defensive players love him. My guess is he knew Jimbo's dysfunctions and knows he can fix them. As far as whether it's a "splash hire" or not, I think we made a big enough "splash" in hiring a coach with a natty last time around and don't need any most "splash". Seems like we made a more reasoned choice this time. Gig 'em!

I'm not sure what all the Stoops talk was about. It was odd, for sure. Stoops is a good coach, but I've always thought Elko would be very near the top of the list, particularly when you add the importance of retaining talent on the roster for next year's run along with long-term growth.

Excellent hire. I really like Elko. I expect we'll not have much, if any, attrition through the portal on the defensive side of the ball. We may even pick up a commit or two who were on the fence. Not entirely sure about the offense, but he has a good head on his shoulders and he does see the value in a modern approach to offense, which is something Jimbo struggled with.

Nobody fired Jimbo quickly enough to be a red flag. I loved Jimbo's contract because it gave him enough time to show us his ceiling. There's no debating it now. Jimbo wasn't the guy. Many schools would have never given him 6 years. I'm a big fan of patience for head coaches because sometimes turnarounds take time. Fire a HC 3 years into the job and any reasonable person would always ask themselves "what if we'd given him a bit more time to execute his vision?". With Jimbo, we never have to ask ourselves that question. We know he wasn't the right guy. I'm pretty sure the next guy will also get a chance to prove himself worthy or otherwise.

After 5-7 and 7-5 seasons, I'm not sure he'd be a step back. I'm surprised by the hire, but after seeing the last few seasons play out, he's definitely an upgrade over Jimbo.

I'm not sure it matters what Aggies think of the hire. We all thought hiring a coach who'd won a natty was a pretty good sign of future success. Now that that's thrown out the window, I'm open to listening.

The game's a lot different now than it was when he was at UF or even OSU. Dealing with college players now is more like dealing with NFL players than the college players of years gone by. I'm not sure Urban's able to do well in that environment.

Agree. A coach who's won in a bygone era isn't necessarily a coach who can win today. Frankly, I have real doubts that Urban's style would work in the NIL era. It's just a different world than when he was at his prime.

Definitely a good point. I think we've shown that hiring a coach who's won big at one school doesn't necessarily mean that he'll bring that level of success with him. The game's changed a lot since 2013. Heck, the game's changed a lot since 2021.

In all fairness to Connor, he's been pretty adamant that although the seat was hot, Jimbo would not be bought out for some time due to the price tag.

In reality, the big guaranteed contract was probably what it took to get a HC with real skins on the wall to switch programs into a place with a history of relative mediocrity in terms of football underperformance. I remember well the media saying there's no way A&M would ever be able to land a "great coach" like Jimbo, and being shocked when it happened. Revisionist history is abundant these days, though. I credit the Aggie leadership for swinging for the fences. The extension was a bit much, but again, it was probably what was necessary to keep him from going to LSU. In hindsight, that would have been a good thing but you make decisions with the information at hand, and some of them go awry. That's part of the risk you take in participating. There are a lot of options moving forward, but I do sincerely hope the Aggies continue to swing for the fences rather than resigning themselves to the coaches left after being picked over by schools with more sustained success on the field. If you don't try, you'll never win.

There's definitely a risk/reward with that kind of contract. The benefit is that the buyout stays the hand of the big money donors who might otherwise fire a decent coach after a bad season or two. Programs have been in prolonged purgatory going through the coaching carousel. Stability is important in coaching. The risk is in the possibility that you've chosen the wrong coach, that he can't actually get you where you want to be. It's looking more and more like that might be where we are. Regarding your "generational QB" comment, we'd probably still have only one loss if Weigman had stayed healthy. Jimbo's biggest problem is in choosing his assistants. The fact that a guy has been a HC and used to be a good position coach a decade ago doesn't make him a good position coach 10 years later. A competent O Line coach would have made Jimbo's past 2 years look an awful lot better.

I fully expect our defense to tee off on them. If our O line can continue to improve a bit, we have a decent shot at it. The road losses have to stop at some point, right?

Agree that Judkins will run over 77.5 yds. He's a great RB and even "slowing him down" would be keeping him in the range of 100 yds at this point in the season. Aggies have been really solid against the run, but he'll get his yards. I'm interested in seeing how the D plays against Ole Miss after Kiffin walked on the field and called Bryce Anderson a "little bit***" last year. I expect them to play like it's personal. Still not sure how our offense is going to do, though. The Rebs' defensive front is legit and our O Line hasn't played well this year.

Elko's a defensive boss, and I think he's one guy who, if a change were made at the top, would be able to keep the Defensive stars together on the team without significant portal losses. And with his recent tenure at A&M, I would be optimistic about keeping the top offensive talent as well. I'm not sure he eats, breathes, and sleeps recruiting the way Jimbo does, though. That's the potential downside.

Agree. I'd love to think there's enough NIL money to keep him home for another year, but odds aren't great on that one.

Pretty fair assessment, as much as it pains me to say it. Apart from your expectation of the Aggies scoring 37 against SC, I really don't see any point to argue.

Agree. Connor's just playing the odds in saying that "Jimbo isn't getting fired in 2023". He's assuming we beat either LSU or Ole Mss on the road.

Not at all. I'm looking well beyond it.

I get that, and it's a fair point. Still, the past two weeks, we've played teams that seemed intent on giving us the W. Even with everything that's gone wrong, competent game management decisions would likely have placed the Ags at the top of the SECW. It's really been that close in both games.

I find myself in the awkward position of agreeing with everything you just said.