One of the bigger splash hires of last offseason was Texas A&M football luring defensive coordinator Mike Elko away from Notre Dame to take the same job with Jimbo Fisher’s first staff. Although Elko was the second choice behind LSU’s Dave Arranda — who ended up as the highest paid coordinator in the country — he was expected to turn around the Aggie defense.
He did exactly that.
Texas A&M drastically improved in almost every area from 2017 to 2018. Part of that was Fisher’s offense holding the ball longer and keeping the defense fresh, but most of it was Elko implementing a scheme to take advantage of the Aggie strength, which was its front seven.