Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko offered a clarification for his “politician” comments last week. However, that hasn’t stopped ESPN’s Rece Davis from offering fresh speculation.
Following A&M’s 38-23 win over LSU over the weekend, the first-year head coach appeared to be taking a shot at…someone.
“I think it’s the way we talk to the young people and the things we talk about, the messaging, how we bring really good people into the building. We talk about doing things together, we talk about culture. And everyone talks about it, but we go out and live it every day. And I think we back up our actions, we’re very honest, we’re very open,” said Elko at the post-game presser. “This is a real program. It is not fake. It is not a politician running this program, talking fast and BSing everybody. This is a real program. And for all the recruits out there, this is a real place. And if you want to be really good at football…”
At the moment, people speculated that Elko was either referring to his predecessor, Jimbo Fisher, or that evening’s opponent, Brian Kelly. However, he later denied that he was speaking about anyone specific.
“It’s comical I have to do this, but it’s necessary,” Elko said Monday. “In the postgame, I was asked to give a synopsis of how we sell culture to our program. In doing so, I made a statement that seemed like a very benign statement that somehow managed to be taken as a shot directly at people. You guys gave me multiple opportunities in nine months to take shots at people, and I’ve never done it.”
Not everyone buys that explanation, however. College GameDay host Rece Davis discussed the comments on this week’s episode of the College GameDay podcast and shared that he thinks it was a shot at Steve Sarkisian and the No. 1 Texas Longhorns.
“The low-key target could have also been Steve Sarkisian because now you’re back in the conference with Texas,” Davis said. “You’re always fighting against Texas. And I don’t know that Sark fits the mold of what he said. But for all of these 100 years that we’ve been talking about A&M football, everything is, in some way, shape, form, or fashion, aimed at Texas. Texas A&M left the Big 12 to go to the SEC because of Texas. They didn’t want Texas to come in because they don’t like Texas. So that’s a possibility, too.”
ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel added that he thought Elko was using the remarks to get the attention of several four-star recruits in the class of 2026, all of whom recently committed to Texas A&M over Texas.
Whatever his intention, Elko has certainly got people talking about the Aggies and how they’re making things happen. That can’t be a bad thing.
