Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

AGinHI said:

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Seems to me we learned what the average unproven coach can accomplish with some decent players.



Which is about the same as more seasoned veteran coaches, one of whom won a national championship.

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But we are paying Jimbo, his assistants, Elko and his assistants about $175 million between last year's firing avd 2031 to learn this!!!

Ok, since this doesn't make sense as not sure that's apples to apples, I did waste some time (he lost to #2 Clem which we were robbed, lost to #1 Bama, beat #8 LSU, beat #13 Kentucky (beating a ranked team at home and it had been awhile before that), but lost to both MS schools). I think his 1st year was tougher as Aub and others were a better team than what we played this year.

Regardless, this article relives the first year hype a bit. Jimbo took a 7-6 team to 9-4 and did finish 2nd in the SEC West his first year, had a better November, dominating bowl win, finished in the top 25 and pretty much could debate the Clem game's outcome (played them til the end).

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25512289/jimbo-fisher-wild-first-year-texas-am

Not saying want Jimbo back(as it was time for him to go...even though it depleted money reserves), but we did not improve this year on any 'football' front (maybe on some offensive stats) and did a Nov-Dec nose-dive that was atrocious, didn't finish in top 25, lost to rival, and fell apart in a bowl game. Elko does not get a passing grade that's for sure.

Note, also thought it was weird that Jimbo was given credit for 'changing the culture' of the program in his first year.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tamu-football/10-best-things-that-happened-in-year-1-of-jimbo-fisher-era/

I was concerned in week one, when elko had no back up qb ready to play if Conner struggled,
After he made the change to reed in the lsu game I was feeling better, but the lack of adjustments down the stretch and my concern level is back to high.

I guess you think Gene Chizik is one of the ten best head coaches of the past 20 years too.

SteveA said:

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"
Not based on SOS"

Yeah, when teams like sc and auburn pad stats onnus, their ranking goes up.

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Y'all are pretty ridiculous. Just admit that there wasn't much difference between Jimbo and Elko's first years when you compare final record and strength of schedule.

2004FIGHTINTXAG said:

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SteveA said:

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"
Not based on SOS"

Yeah, when teams like sc and auburn pad stats onnus, their ranking goes up.

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Y'all are pretty ridiculous. Just admit that there wasn't much difference between Jimbo and Elko's first years when you compare final record and strength of schedule.

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Doesn't fit their narrative and would mean the "pumpers" were right.

agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

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His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

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*Until 2024

Justice Beaver said:

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agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

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His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

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*Until 2024

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False. It was our hardest SOS. Our easiest was 2022 or 2021.

Jimbo finished on a high note, Elko, collapsed. We are screwed, firing Jimbo was a mistake. Not having a plan for the next coach was a disaster.

Justice Beaver said:

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vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

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His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

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*Until 2024

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False. It was our hardest SOS. Our easiest was 2022 or 2021.

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You clinging to this narrative is absolutely hilarious.

Avoided: Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tenn
LSU & tu at home
Road games at 5-7 Auburn, SCar who hadn't beaten anyone yet, and an awful Miss State team.

But go ahead and parrot some meaningless ESPN metric to tell us all that 8-5 is acceptable.

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Never said it's acceptable but we also played the #3 and #5 teams plus you have to look at the entire schedule.

Only 2 of our SEC opponents finished with a losing record and 5 finished with at least 8 wins. Not to mention ND.

Just for examples sake last year 4 teams had a losing record and 4 finished with 8+ wins. With no great OOC opponent. Even if the top was more difficult the bottom was way easier. That's why the full.schedule is important and not just the top teams.

vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

---

His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

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*Until 2024

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False. It was our hardest SOS. Our easiest was 2022 or 2021.

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You clinging to this narrative is absolutely hilarious.

Avoided: Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tenn
LSU & tu at home
Road games at 5-7 Auburn, SCar who hadn't beaten anyone yet, and an awful Miss State team.

But go ahead and parrot some meaningless ESPN metric to tell us all that 8-5 is acceptable.

---

Never said it's acceptable but we also played the #3 and #5 teams plus you have to look at the entire schedule.

Only 2 of our SEC opponents finished with a losing record and 5 finished with at least 8 wins. Not to mention ND.

Just for examples sake last year 4 teams had a losing record and 4 finished with 8+ wins. With no great OOC opponent. Even if the top was more difficult the bottom was way easier. That's why the full.schedule is important and not just the top teams.

---

People dog Texas' schedule too despite it being No. 21 on ESPN and No. 19 on Sagarin (ahead of all the other CFP teams other than Georgia heading into the playoffs).

We both had hard schedules!

Elko did nothing to move the needle from last year. Very disappointed and surprised. His assistant coaching hires look like duds

Faustus said:

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vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

---

His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

---

*Until 2024

---

False. It was our hardest SOS. Our easiest was 2022 or 2021.

---

You clinging to this narrative is absolutely hilarious.

Avoided: Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tenn
LSU & tu at home
Road games at 5-7 Auburn, SCar who hadn't beaten anyone yet, and an awful Miss State team.

But go ahead and parrot some meaningless ESPN metric to tell us all that 8-5 is acceptable.

---

Never said it's acceptable but we also played the #3 and #5 teams plus you have to look at the entire schedule.

Only 2 of our SEC opponents finished with a losing record and 5 finished with at least 8 wins. Not to mention ND.

Just for examples sake last year 4 teams had a losing record and 4 finished with 8+ wins. With no great OOC opponent. Even if the top was more difficult the bottom was way easier. That's why the full.schedule is important and not just the top teams.

---

People dog Texas' schedule too despite it being No. 21 on ESPN and No. 19 on Sagarin (ahead of all the other CFP teams other than Georgia heading into the playoffs).

We both had hard schedules!

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tu had the 32 SOS before playing UGA in the SEC championship game. They had the 2nd ir 3rd easiest schedule in the SEC

2004FIGHTINTXAG said:

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Double Diamond said:

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Wasn't close to as good as year one under Jimbo.

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Uhhh…9-4 vs 8-5.
Jimbo won the bowl game. Only difference.

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Jimbo has less talent

W said:

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Year 1 comparison:

Sumlin --> 11-2 All Johnny

Jimbo --> 9-4 less talent

Elko ---> 8-5 disappointment

Sumlin finished his first year with 6 straight wins. Jimbo finished with 4 straight wins. Elko, um, yeah...

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just the facts for fun...

the 2012 offense with Johnny averaged 41.9 pts per game vs. FBS opponents

the 2011 offense with Tannehill averaged 39.2 pts per game vs. FBS opponents -- it was really good too

both offenses had many of the same players: Joeckel, Matthews, Swope, E-Z, C-Mike, and a few more

the 2012 team went 9-2 vs. FBS teams. The 2011 team went 7-6.

Johnny was a big reason why...

but so was the 2012 coaching staff that was better at game-planning, play-calling, etc.., than the 2011 staff

Nick Saban's first year at Alabama in 2007, 6-6 and people calling for his head on a platter. How'd that work out ?

Not suggesting Elko is Nick Saban. I am suggesting you can't tell a whole lot from Year 1 . Sumlin is another good example in the opposite direction

Frustrating and disappointing. Favorable schedule. Most high school coaches could've probably gone 8-5 this year. Concerned that it doesn't seem that many players improved this year or those that regressed. And our strength and conditioning was just "okay". As others have said, our vaunted DL disappeared the last 5 games. Lastly, game planning and game management was poor.

Elko would be getting less flak if we hadn't gotten lucky and beat FL, lsu, and mizzou…. Winning those gave everyone false hope and raised expectations. It was clear from the beginning we didn't have a good enough defense to win anything.

BrandonJ51 said:

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Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

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Huh? We started the season 7-1. We don't have time to wait for year 10 for 'the system to work'. 2 year max and move on. Given the way NIL is today, each year it's virtually a new team every year. You need a coach who has a system he can input immediately. Elko has one more year and then move on.

90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

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Clemson, Alabama, and LSU were all on that schedule. Throw in Kentucky which had a very good season that year as well.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

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Clemson, Alabama, and LSU were all on that schedule. Throw in Kentucky which had a very good season that year as well.

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LSU was decent and so was Kentucky. Clemson and Bama were great. Very similar to ND, tu, Missouri, South Carolina this year.

The schedules were very similar and when looking at ESPN SOS it has 2024 at #6 and 2018 #14 so also similar

Plain and simple, Elko had a worse 1st year than our prior 2 coaches. As Parcells said, "You are who your record says you are."

However, I don't tend to think that Elko was hired for the short term as many believe in their comparisons to Saban and Sark. I do think Elko has better long term potential for what is this new era in CFB. I still hope and believe that is the case.

The real cause of concern here is his coaching of the defense. This was HIS coordinator he chose to call HIS defense. All the losses (aside from tu) down the stretch the defense really can be held to blame. If Elko intervenes at least 1 or 2 times, we for sure win 1 if not 2 of the games.

If we don't see a significant improvement by early next year in the defense, I'm going to have some real concerns about things going forward.


As for all the people saying Sumlin and Jimbo were better overall coaches, it's really too early to tell but also stop living in revisionist history. Jimbo was fired because he couldn't keep up with modern CFB. Not necessarily his fault, but if you don't adapt, you die or retire (ie Saban)

Fishwrangler11 said:

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Plain and simple, Elko had a worse 1st year than our prior 2 coaches. As Parcells said, "You are who your record says you are."

However, I don't tend to think that Elko was hired for the short term as many believe in their comparisons to Saban and Sark. I do think Elko has better long term potential for what is this new era in CFB. I still hope and believe that is the case.

The real cause of concern here is his coaching of the defense. This was HIS coordinator he chose to call HIS defense. All the losses (aside from tu) down the stretch the defense really can be held to blame. If Elko intervenes at least 1 or 2 times, we for sure win 1 if not 2 of the games.

If we don't see a significant improvement by early next year in the defense, I'm going to have some real concerns about things going forward.


As for all the people saying Sumlin and Jimbo were better overall coaches, it's really too early to tell but also stop living in revisionist history. Jimbo was fired because he couldn't keep up with modern CFB. Not necessarily his fault, but if you don't adapt, you die or retire (ie Saban)

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Agreed 100%

I think Elko will fix the defense but we should see it within the first couple of games.

BrandonJ51 said:

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Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

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Ah, the now famous "Saban went 7-5 his first season" excuse. That one has been one of the more frequent excuses this year. Barely a drop in the bucket in the well that is reasons why A&M football sucks but it's been popular nonetheless.

Here's the problem with that excuse. Are the people tossing it about going to keep using it or does it quickly die off with season two already creeping up on us? After all Saban went 12-2 in season 2 and by season 3? Well, he won the whole damn thing.

So for those of you who are so happy to be able to use the "Saban went 7-5" excuse…. enjoy while you can. You'll be reminded of it in August when 25' starts up.

Wonder what the excuse of choice will be next season?

PanzerAggie06 said:

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BrandonJ51 said:

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Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

---

Ah, the now famous "Saban went 7-5 his first season" excuse. That one has been one of the more frequent excuses this year. Barely a drop in the bucket in the well that is reasons why A&M football sucks but it's been popular nonetheless.

Here's the problem with that excuse. Are the people tossing it about going to keep using it or does it quickly die off with season two already creeping up on us? After all Saban went 12-2 in season 2 and by season 3? Well, he won the whole damn thing.

So for those of you who are so happy to be able to use the "Saban went 7-5" excuse…. enjoy while you can. You'll be reminded of it in August when 25' starts up.

Wonder what the excuse of choice will be next season?

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And how many bad coaching hires won 7 or 8 games their first year?

Too many to count. Many of them were right here in Aggieland

Barnacle said:

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W said:

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Year 1 comparison:

Sumlin --> 11-2

Jimbo --> 9-4

Elko ---> 8-5

Sumlin finished his first year with 6 straight wins. Jimbo finished with 4 straight wins. Elko, um, yeah...

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Sumlin is the best coach we've had since Jackie. Let that sink in.

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Good Lord…..some of you people…..

Yep.

Saban went 12-2 season two.

Smart went 13-2 season two.

Meyer went 13-2 (FLA) and 12-2 (OSU) season two.

Sark went 8-5 season two and 12-2 season three.

Lanning went 12-2 season two.

De Boer went 14-1 (WA) season two.

Freeman went 9-4 season two and 10-3 season three.

Franklin went 7-6 season two and 11-3 season three.

Dillingham went 11-2 season two.

Recent history shows us the days of taking years to build success is a myth. It happens fairly quickly. While national championships might not be automatic these teams got competitive real fast. Elko clearly is back next year but he has to realize the clock is ticking. This isn't the 70s and 80s Mike…. you have to start winning next season or chances are the writing will be on the wall.

Justice Beaver said:

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vander54 said:

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Justice Beaver said:

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agracer said:

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90ags said:

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Won't take the time to look it up, but betting Jimbo played a harder schedule than Elko's first year.

---

His best season was 2020, which was also the easiest schedule A&M has had in the SEC

---

*Until 2024

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False. It was our hardest SOS. Our easiest was 2022 or 2021.

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You clinging to this narrative is absolutely hilarious.

Avoided: Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tenn
LSU & tu at home
Road games at 5-7 Auburn, SCar who hadn't beaten anyone yet, and an awful Miss State team.

But go ahead and parrot some meaningless ESPN metric to tell us all that 8-5 is acceptable.

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Thank you. I don't care what espn says, this was the most winnable SEC schedule we'll have for a long time.

PanzerAggie06 said:

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BrandonJ51 said:

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Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

---

Ah, the now famous "Saban went 7-5 his first season" excuse. That one has been one of the more frequent excuses this year. Barely a drop in the bucket in the well that is reasons why A&M football sucks but it's been popular nonetheless.

Here's the problem with that excuse. Are the people tossing it about going to keep using it or does it quickly die off with season two already creeping up on us? After all Saban went 12-2 in season 2 and by season 3? Well, he won the whole damn thing.

So for those of you who are so happy to be able to use the "Saban went 7-5" excuse…. enjoy while you can. You'll be reminded of it in August when 25' starts up.

Wonder what the excuse of choice will be next season?

---

Please stop doing apostrophes in years wrong.

It's not an excuse that Saban was 6-6 in his first yr at Bama, it's a fact . It's also a fact that they had people that wanted him gone. I think it's pretty clear that those people were ridiculously mistaken.

Agree with those that say with the portal it shouldn't take as long as it used to to turn things around as it did at that time however 1 yr is too short of an evaluation period. 2 yrs should be the minimum. Maybe 2 yrs is enough if you don't see clear progress but I'd lean towards 3.

GigEmReggie said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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BrandonJ51 said:

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Sark went 5-7 in his first year and Saban went like 7-6 or something. I don't understand why people think Elko should have dominated this year.

Did you watch the o-line last year? Our wide receiving core this year were a bunch of misfit toys from the transfer portal. Our only playmakers were at running back and both injured their knees. Our defense last year was not dominant at all.

Elko is not going to be able to contend until at least year 3.

---

Ah, the now famous "Saban went 7-5 his first season" excuse. That one has been one of the more frequent excuses this year. Barely a drop in the bucket in the well that is reasons why A&M football sucks but it's been popular nonetheless.

Here's the problem with that excuse. Are the people tossing it about going to keep using it or does it quickly die off with season two already creeping up on us? After all Saban went 12-2 in season 2 and by season 3? Well, he won the whole damn thing.

So for those of you who are so happy to be able to use the "Saban went 7-5" excuse…. enjoy while you can. You'll be reminded of it in August when 25' starts up.

Wonder what the excuse of choice will be next season?

---

Please stop doing apostrophes in years wrong.

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Please write in non-gibberish.

The strategy was hire Elko to retain Jimbo's recruits. Utter failure and losing four of the last five games showed the perennial "lack of depth" which is really just lack of development.

He should get until 2031 to cheaply run down his buyout and Jimbo's. The 5% discount for firing him early is fool's gold. But ride it out by overfunding NIL waiting for the House agreement to work out.