The usual koolaid before the results come in, but I think we are on the right track.

https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/texas-am-aggies-mike-elko-establish-discipline-ainias-smith-mckinnley-jackson-pro-day

Quote:

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'Best Aggies Hire Ever!' Coach Mike Elko Establishes Discipline In Texas A&M Football Culture

Several former Texas A&M Aggies football players made themselves available at Pro Day at Kyle Field on Tuesday, including defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson and running back Ainias Smith.

Several former Texas A&M Aggies football players made themselves available at Pro Day at Kyle Field on Tuesday, including defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson and running back Ainias Smith.
During media availability, both had more than kind words about new head coach Mike Elko during their interview sessions, shedding light on some of the issues the team might have been dealing with under former coach Jimbo Fisher.

Jackson praised Elko, saying, "He is one of the best hires in Texas A&M history."

Certainly, Jackson hasn't been around forever, but that's a significant quote from a significant player. But even more interesting for some outsiders - not so much from those around the program regularly - Smith thinks Elko injects something the program desperately lacked from the old regime.

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NoahAg said:

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infinity ag said:

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NoahAg said:

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Coach _______ Establishes Discipline In Texas A&M Football Culture

This is said about literally every hire.

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Jimbo too?
Sumlin too?

I think these 2 were the worst on discipline.

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Yes, w/ every new hire we hear "Coach ______ is really gonna shake things up this time!"

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shake things up is too general. I don't remember hearing anyone talking about discipline.

Each new leader shakes it up and provides a refresh. The challenge is when it either gets off to a rocky start due to inheriting a bad roster or just lack of attention to detail or when after 3 years there is no progress and players start to tune out the message. In both the case of Sumlin and Jimbo they allowed their programs to get stale by not hiring great assistants and after they each lost their S&C it went way off the rails. Elko inherited a loaded roster with talent, experience, and experience with playing together; capitalize on this and he can get us to the next level real quick.

AggieDub04 said:

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Moe 92 said:

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infinity ag said:

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NoahAg said:

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Coach _______ Establishes Discipline In Texas A&M Football Culture

This is said about literally every hire.

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Jimbo too?
Sumlin too?

I think these 2 were the worst on discipline.

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I don't recall anything specific about that narrative with Sumlin, but DEFINITELY Jimbo, too. "It ain't gonna be like it was!"

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Ancient offense aside, I think the team was tougher until Jimbo lost his SC coach to OU. After that his lack of discipline came through.

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The new "S&C" guy is where we really fell apart. Not only did we lose that intensity and edge as the memtal and physical training changed but nutrition changed to where our players looked slow, bulky, and injury prone. We lost discipline and accountability, clearly. Dont know what Jimbo was or his buddies (I mean coaches) or the support staff were doing during this obvious collapse.
Biggest things with Sumlin were his satff would stack positions while ignoring (lack of a better term) others leaving an unbalanced roster. The other issue was he kept changing offensive schemes so by year 6 his roster was a hodgepodge of players that fit various schemes, no real identity.

NoahAg said:

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Coach _______ Establishes Discipline In Texas A&M Football Culture

This is said about literally every hire.

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And I believe it for the last two coaches. The problem is they both lost it along the way and were never able to get it back. It is hard to tell for sure with Sumlin, as Johnny happened out of the gate, but Johnny doesn't happen if he doesn't have all the right pieces around him, and I do credit 2012 Sumlin for instilling the discipline to allow that (I also hold him accountable for losing it a few games into the season).

I also think Jimbo massively turned the culture around from where it was in 2017. 2018 should have been a throw-away year, with two years worth of Sumlin's lame duck recruiting. Instead, it was our fourth-best result since joining the SEC. In contrast to Sumlin, though, Jimbo kept that culture through 2020, and only seemed to throw it away for The Greatest Recruiting Class Of All Time.

Establishing quality discipline and culture is difficult, but it is even more difficult to maintain it.

Starts with recruiting the right players who are both skilled AND have clean records of behavior. I think KS and JF both failed there. Then when some kids acted up and misbehaved, they looked the other way possibly because they were doing well on the field. Example: JFF. Now see where he is today.

It is okay to go lower in skills/player rating but once you allow indiscipline and thuggery in, then it is contagious and the rot spreads. That is one of the reasons we have poor performance on the field even though we pull in the best classes.

Saban would not put up with the crap that KS/JF put up with.

You want players who are skilled AND have that dog mentality.

Fortunately or unfortunately, JFF was the best thing to happen to Aggie Athletics. Clean record? No. Slept-on underdog who was used to working hard? 100%.

KS' biggest mistake was his own arrogance in not making effort to retain Kingsbury.

I'm definitely not trying to undermine the message, but just saying that the proof is in the outcomes, and we don't have any yet.

There have been many coaches that were beloved but didn't win much.

NewEra2023 said:

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You want players who are skilled AND have that dog mentality.

Fortunately or unfortunately, JFF was the best thing to happen to Aggie Athletics. Clean record? No. Slept-on underdog who was used to working hard? 100%.

KS' biggest mistake was his own arrogance in not making effort to retain Kingsbury.

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JFF is a spike. But since he was so undisciplined, he flamed out quickly and he had no team around him to so to speak and everything fizzled out after he left.

If you want to win consistently, you have to have a team of good+ players, all working together for a common goal. We just had 1 great player, a few good players and many mediocre players and a locker room full of undisciplined thuggish unprofessional players and coaches who winked and enabled them all.

This. Sumlin and Fisher never said or showed anything about discipline. What little discipline there was was worse with Sumlin and non existent with Fisher.

levypantsEOY said:

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Gunny456 said:

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This. Sumlin and Fisher never said or showed anything about discipline. What little discipline there was was worse with Sumlin and non existent with Fisher.

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Bogus take. When Jimbo got hired, this entire board was rife with "what a huge get!! He's gonna make these kids accountable!! Clean out the raff and win a championship!!" banter.
Rinse repeat. Death, taxes, and zoo kool-aid.

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Show me people saying anything about discipline.
Yes, everyone thought we would win a championship.

GinMan said:

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infinity ag said:

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NoahAg said:

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Coach _______ Establishes Discipline In Texas A&M Football Culture

This is said about literally every hire.

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Jimbo too?
Sumlin too?

I think these 2 were the worst on discipline.

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'member when Jimbo quit playing DJ musicJ at practice? You 'member…
"Ain't gonna be like it used to be…"


Lather, rinse, repeat….

JUST WIN

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I thought the music was a good innovative idea to get people to enjoy practices and have some fun while working.

The problem with Sumlin was tolerating bad behavior from stars like JFF and other poor coaching decisions we all know about.

When Jimbo ripped up the night club carpet and threw out the disco ball everyone was sold he would be a no nonsense coach.

That extension ruined him and he was already on the decline offensively. Followed by poor staff hires.

I seem to remember "a real lunch pail type guy" being the ad nauseum phrase to use when Jimbo was hired.

NewEra2023 said:

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KS' biggest mistake was his own arrogance in not making effort to retain Kingsbury.

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Okay, so you're Sumlin. 32 yr old Kliff Kingsbury comes to you and says

"I've just been offered my first head coaching job at the school i love more than any other. Making a few million a year."

Let's hear your pitch to have him stay at A&M

One of

JFF had no team around him? Huh?

Best hire ever-Bear Bryant or Jackie Sherrill!!!!

I love how all you seasoned college coaches know exactly "what we want".

It's that easy, just go and get it man. I'm not sure what these clowns have been doing here for the last 30 years, but they ought to have given you guys a call.

Divining Rod said:

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NewEra2023 said:

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........
KS' biggest mistake was his own arrogance in not making effort to retain Kingsbury.

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Okay, so you're Sumlin. 32 yr old Kliff Kingsbury comes to you and says

"I've just been offered my first head coaching job at the school i love more than any other. Making a few million a year."

Let's hear your pitch to have him stay at A&M

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"We're ready to make you the highest paid coordinator in CFB. You and I are on the cusp of doing something that's never been done before. Tech will still take you 2 years down the road, only their offer will be higher and among other schools that'll want you. Let's make history first. Let's use this window to leave a football legacy that'll be remembered forever. You can't do that with the players at Tech."

NewEra2023 said:

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Divining Rod said:

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NewEra2023 said:

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........
KS' biggest mistake was his own arrogance in not making effort to retain Kingsbury.

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Okay, so you're Sumlin. 32 yr old Kliff Kingsbury comes to you and says

"I've just been offered my first head coaching job at the school i love more than any other. Making a few million a year."

Let's hear your pitch to have him stay at A&M

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"We're ready to make you the highest paid coordinator in CFB. You and I are on the cusp of doing something that's never been done before. Tech will still take you 2 years down the road, only their offer will be higher and among other schools that'll want you. Let's make history first. Let's use this window to leave a football legacy that'll be remembered forever. You can't do that with the players at Tech."

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Sumlin was making $5 million at the time. I am assuming Tech offered Kliff $3 million. We werent going to offer him $3 million and even if we did it would not have mattered. It is a great "in theory" exercise but come on. Plus, I am not sure Kliff would have won us a single game in 2013, maybe Missouri. The other 3 the defense was awful. We scored 40+ points ten games in a row in 2013, an NCAA record.

Kliff said it himself. So did JFF.

Not getting the right DC is also on Summy.

Jackson is smart enough to know that media personality and positivity help his draft status.
Player speak that help you get a roster spot 101.

NewEra2023 said:

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Kliff said it himself. So did JFF.

Not getting the right DC is also on Summy.

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Hindsight is 20/20 on that with Kliff. Regarding the defense, part of that laid at the feet of the previous regime, if memory serves me we had only about 18-20 guys that could actually contribute on defense in 2013. That is absurd to have such an empty cupboard in the SEC. Sure scheme or DC could have helped marginally but we didn't have the depth or the horses to make it work in year 2 of the SEC.

lol we say this every time. Let's wait and see before best anything ever