Wake Forest HC Dave Clawson praises Elko's ability to scheme, work ethic

Key notes from Dave Clawson interview

• Jimbo is excellent. I was very glad A&M hired him and got him out of our league. He is a CEO. He’s an excellent offensive coach, but he also knows how to run a program. He knows how to recruit and is an excellent evaluator of coaches. He did a great job at Florida State, and if given time, I’m sure he’ll do a great job at Texas A&M.

• It’s hard for me to be objective on Mike. We worked together for 14 or 15 years. He’s the whole package. Mike is that unique blend of being extremely smart and extremely intelligent. But, Mike also very much has a blue-collar personality and a blue-collar worth ethic. He can relate to everybody. He’s a really good teacher.

• He’s really bright and thought out but doesn’t teach in a way that he speaks over people’s heads. He is very thought out in how he installs things, teaching progressions, he’s a good technical coach, but I also think he’s a very good evaluator. That’s what makes him an effective recruiter.

• Mike conceptually understands football. He understands leverage. He understands how offenses attack. I always thought that was Mike’s greatest strength as a defensive coordinator. He could really anticipate how he was going to be attacked.

• There were times that he would not practice against the other team’s number one play because he knew they wouldn’t run it against us. More often than not, he was right. One aspect of Mike is that he doesn’t waste practice time. He already plays the chess game before the game has started.