One of the stories of the 2018 season for Texas A&M football was the turnaround of the defense. Jimbo Fisher tried to hire LSU’s Dave Aranda to be the defensive coordinator, but when they made him the highest paid coordinator in the country, Fisher turned to Mike Elko.
No disrespect to Aranda, but it’s pretty clear Elko was a great hire. The defense went from 78th in total defense to 36th and from 87th in scoring defense to 58th (a number inflated from the LSU game which went to seven overtimes).
They also had the No.