Watch: Mike Elko Introductory Press Conference
Nov 27, 2023 | Football
New head football coach Mike Elko and Director of Athletics Ross Bjork met the media on Monday afternoon. Watch the press conference or read the transcript below.
Mike Elko, Ross Bjork Press Conference Transcript
ALAN CANNON: Coach, would you like to open with an opening comment?
COACH ELKO: Sure. Just real simple, sometimes you have got to travel a lot of lengths to get on this podium to talk to you guys. You guys have been asking to talk to me for years. Here I am. Here's your opportunity. Fire away. (Laughter)
Q. I remember one time, I said, "See you next week," and you said, "No, I will see you next year."
COACH ELKO: I do remember that.
Q. We have seen what you can do on defense here. What are your plans for the offense?
COACH ELKO: Obviously, to everybody, that's the million-dollar question. What I tell people is this: We are going to find a way to play explosive offense. We're going to be part of the modern era. We're going to be able to switch up tempos. We're going to be able to utilize our personnel.
I think in this day and age, you have got to be able to be very multiple and very adaptable in what you do on offense. I think people get caught up in these words like they mean everything. "Oh, we got to be spread" or "We got to be pro style." And at the end of the day, we've got to be a group that knows how to attack defenses, get the ball in our playmakers' hands, and allow them to be successful.
Q. Coach, is there anything that you -- for lack of a better way to put it -- learned in the last two years about being a head coach that maybe you didn't know before?
COACH ELKO: Oh, gosh. How much time do you have?
Listen, I think the opportunity to get out and lead an organization is critical, and I will forever be thankful to the people at Duke for giving me that opportunity. To President [Vincent] Price, to AD Nina King, and that entire group of players.
Listen, I'm here now, and sometimes those words sound a little bit off, but I mean that.
I think you learn how to lead men in every aspect of the program. I think you learn how to lead coaches. I think you learn how to develop and implement an offseason program, and how that kind of can equip your team to do great things during the season.
The organization that goes into managing the amount of people that are in a modern-day football operation, and then still making sure that you are doing the things you need to do from an X-and-O standpoint to make sure that the football product looks the way you want it to look.
So I think learning how to manage all of that, every year you do it, you should get better at it if you are self-evaluating yourself in the right way.
Q. You said earlier to the fans that you are tired of talking about winning a national championship. It's time to be about it. Just to talk about it a little bit more, what gives you confidence that you will be able to bring the Aggies their first national championship since the 1930s?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I just think when you look at what this program is capable of, what we've got to do is we've got to fulfill that potential. I think that happens with work. I think that was the message I sent to the players. That was the message I tried to deliver to the crowd.
We can't just say we want to be something. We can't just say we want to arrive somewhere. We've got to be committed to all the work that it's going to take from today until we kick off next September of doing that.
And there's a lot that goes into that. There's culture-building. There's camaraderie. There's connecting with the players. There's the players connecting at a greater level with each other. There's strength and conditioning. There's development. There's so much that goes into winning football games in the fall, and those are the things that we have got to start taking pride in.
It's easy to take pride in making big plays on Saturday in front of 110,000 people. Are we willing to do the things that we need to do when no one is looking so that we can have the results that we want come the fall?
Q. With so much to do over the next couple weeks, how do you prioritize that? And what does your next week or two look like? What is the order?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, it's an absolute whirlwind. I don't know that you prioritize. I think you just have to compartmentalize because there's so many things that have to get accomplished.
So the first thing is connecting with these players, getting one-on-one meetings set up with them, getting an opportunity to sit down with them, learn their story, learn who they are as young men. figure out the ways we can enhance the experience they are having here at Texas A&M.
There's a recruiting class that is going to sign really quick here, and trying to get on the phone with those guys and the families and the decision-makers with all of those kids, and making sure that we lock them into what we're doing and can convince them of the vision that we have here at Texas A&M.
Hiring a staff, right? Which will be a huge piece of this thing too, and trying to sort through that process and not rushing it, but making sure we efficiently and effectively get people in here that fit our vision and what we want to try to do and build.
And I think that becomes the priority between now and the first signing day, which is coming right around the corner.
Q. Coach, at what point were you approached about this opening? And how easy of a decision was this?
COACH ELKO: I will let you talk to Ross [Bjork] about all of the logistics of the process.
How easy? I think every decision is really easy and really hard. I think if you are true to yourself professionally, chasing this opportunity, coming to this great program, this great institution, you know, that's easy.
When you think about leaving relationships, leaving people, the strain and stress it puts on your family, that's really hard, right? And so as a coach, you are always kind of caught in this back-and-forth pull. And I'm very thankful that I have got a very supportive family that kind of backs me and backs my career, and the things that we want to do, to kind of chase my dreams to some degree. And that's ultimately what gets us here.
Q. Mike, you touched on offense, but do you still believe that defense wins championships when it comes right down to it?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I think it's probably a combination. I think if you look around it, at what has won national championships recently, I think there's a couple things that stand out. One, there's a toughness that's built within the program that obviously has to do with defense. I think every one of those teams at some point in the season has had to dig deep on defense and find a way to win a really important game.
But I think all of those teams have also been explosive on offense with really talented quarterback play. I think every single one of those teams has won a game, 38-35, 41-38.
I just think some of these teams in this conference have so much offensive fire power that there's going to be games you're going to get into and you're going to have to be able to match it.
So I don't know that you could ever say we're going to be one or the other. I do think there's a blue-collar toughness that comes from having a great defense that stands the test of time. But if you can't score points, you won't win games enough to be where we want to be.
Q. When you left this place, did you sense that this was a place you could return to one day? And what made Bryan-College Station such a special place for your family?
COACH ELKO: Obviously, listen, playing at Kyle Field is one of the most unique atmospheres in the country. When that place gets rockin', there's nothing like it. And what makes it even more unique is it's rocking every single Saturday. You saw that this year.
Regardless of record, regardless of how things are going, the 12th Man shows up and they show up and they support. When you have that, that makes it really special.
I got a chance to talk a lot about it, but the community here is really unique. The way they welcomed my family in the last time we were here. My wife, my kids, they all have a lot of connections in this community that we've stayed close with even in the two years that we were away. So in a lot of ways, it feels like you are coming home. It really does.
Q. And do you have a timetable for when you want to set up your staff? And is Elijah [Robinson] going to be a part of that?
COACH ELKO: Elijah will certainly be a priority, and getting him to stay here is a huge priority. That process has already begun. Obviously, him and I have a strong relationship from the last time we were here. Certainly going to do everything in our power to make sure that this is the place he believes is the right fit for him in his future moving forward.
In terms of the rest of it, I don't think you ever want to put a timetable on it. I think you want to do it as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible, but we have to get it right. We have to get the right people in this program to lead these young men. And that's from a coordinator perspective, that's from a position coach perspective, that's from a recruiting office perspective. We have to build this staff to match what we're capable of being. And as long as it takes to get that right is as long as it will take.
Q. Welcome back. Curious, what does a championship football player look like for you when you do recruiting? What is the profile of a guy that you are looking for?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I don't know that there's necessarily a profile. I think there are some intangibles that go into it. Got to find kids who love football. You have got to find kids who love the hard parts of the game of football. I think that's a huge piece of it nowadays, who is willing to really put in the work to become great.
And we've got to find kids that are capable of being first-round draft picks that three years later are first-round draft picks, right? And that's the unique part of recruiting in this modern era.
As much as talent plays an enormous role, and we're going to go out and identify the most talented players at their position across the country, I also think there's a level of intangibles that goes into what allows those great talented players to become extremely successful in the college level.
Q. Coach, you talk about having a blue-collar mentality with a modern feel. What are some other philosophies or necessities that need to be established to create championship-winning culture in College Station?
COACH ELKO: I think the first thing is just an accountability to this program, I think. I talked to the kids about this earlier in the first team meeting. We have to be about Texas A&M. We can't be about, you know, what I want to do to get a higher draft status. We can't be about what I want to do to get a better NIL deal. We have to be about what I can do to make Texas A&M great.
And through that come all of those opportunities. And if you look around at the programs that are doing it at a really high level right now, that's what's happening. They are doing the things they need to do to perform on the field as individuals and as a team. And it's leading to all of the things they want: High draft picks, NIL, all of the things that are really important to these young men.
And so it's just making sure the priorities are in the right place; that they are chasing the things that are ultimately going to lead to where they want to go.
Q. So obviously, 34-13 during your time at Texas A&M last time. The last two years have been a little bit rougher. When you come back to this job and evaluate, one, what do you think it kind of takes to get back to where you guys are? And what do you think you need to do to get to that next point?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I just think it's kind of replugging the kids in. I think when you look at what Elijah [Robinson] has done in the last two weeks, I think you have already started to see that process starting.
It's really hard when you have high expectations and you come up short, right? As hard as that is for the fans and as hard as it is for the people who support the program, it's even harder for the kids who put in all of the work and the coaches who put in all of the work.
So some of it is just recharging, providing a fresh perspective, some fresh leadership, direction, giving them something to rekindle that fire, and give them something to believe in moving forward, and then just holding them to that every step along the way.
Q. How do you plan to go about juggling the difficulties of the transfer portal next week and then early signing, when you are basically flying solo as you also try to assemble a staff?
COACH ELKO: If you have got any suggestions, I will take them. (Laughter)
No, listen, we're going to have to try to get some people in here. We will have to count on the professionalism of some of the people that are in the building. I will certainly talk to some of those guys about that. We're going to have to count on what Texas A&M represents.
And, again, we are going to have to try to move 100 miles an hour at a very precise direction, right? And sometimes that's really hard to do, but we got to make sure we spend an awful lot of time here in the next three days trying to identify that, so when we do hit the road running on Friday, we're going in the direction we need to be going.
Q. Only being gone two years, you probably had relationships with some of these guys you either coached or recruited. What was your message to them and their response? Did you maybe get to speak a little differently having those prior relationships instead of coming into a room maybe a little cold?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, it was probably a unique start to a first team meeting. There's not many times when you go into a first team meeting and 50 of the players come up and give you a big hug and welcome you back, right? And so I think the start was really unique. It was great to see a lot of those kids. Some of those kids that I have coached, some of those kids that I kind of watched on the other side of the ball, some of those kids that were part of the evaluation process and recruiting process but didn't actually get to see arrive on campus. And so that part was really good.
But then I think when you get up in front of them, all of that has to go away, right? Because it's about new leadership. It's about new direction. It's about establishing a new identity, and so you just start building the roadblocks for what that looks like.
And so as much as there is this continuity of guys that you have known and you have related to over the years, you know, there's still a job that needs to be done in building it to the level that it needs to get to, and you got to make sure you don't cut any corners in doing that.
Q. You mentioned Texas high school coaches and just how important they are to you. What was your relationship with them like when you were here? And how do you think you will be able to hit the ground running with those guys?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I think it's a multifaceted question. Recruiting has become so fast-paced and so global, you can't lose sight of where you are, right? And we're in the state of Texas. And the state of Texas is the elite football state for high school football in the country, right? So we have got to make sure that we are taking our time and going in and seeing the coaches, spending time with the coaches.
I was able to do that some, probably not as much as I maybe would have liked, but certainly able to do that some. And I think that's got to be a priority.
And then I think it's access. I think one of the biggest things as a great football-playing university in this state is we have to provide access. We have got to be welcoming to the high school coaches. We have got to get them around our building. We have got to get them to see how we are running this thing so that they can go back and breathe confidence about what's happening here at Texas A&M. And I think that's a big part of it.
As a head coach at Texas A&M, part of this is a responsibility to help build young coaches in this state, and a lot of that is the young high school coaches in this state. To be able to take time amidst everything in this crazy world of college athletics, I still think that is extremely important.
Q. Howdy, Coach.
COACH ELKO: Howdy.
Q. I got to go back and watch your introductory press conference at Duke a couple years ago this morning. And you talked about how each one of your stops, each school was like a puzzle, and you kind of had to figure out what pieces. So having seen this puzzle before, what pieces do you think are going to be important for us to win a championship?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I think every program is unique, right? And every situation is unique. And we play in the best football conference in the country. I don't think that's debatable. And so our recipe for success has got to be an ability to achieve under pressure, ability to hit those critical moments and make the right plays when the game is on the line, understanding situational football, because a lot of games are going to come down to the fourth quarter. I think those are some of the tactical elements that maybe make this conference a little bit different.
And then you just look at how large of a profile this program is and making sure you are doing a lot of time educating young men on everything that goes along with that, right? The pressures of being a Texas A&M Fightin' Aggie, the social media and how that plays a role and how these kids are able to perform.
I think there's different challenges that exist at each job. And I think identifying what they are, identifying how you can tackle them and equip our players to become the best they can become, I think that's just really important, no matter where you are.
Q. Kind of going off Chrissy's question from earlier when you talked about it's time to stop talking about things and time to start doing some stuff. In your opinion, what are some of the things that have been maybe talked about but haven't been delivered upon? And what are your plans for those areas to kind of take things over the top?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I think it's a natural reaction to want to accelerate the process of success, right? And so everybody wants to be a national championship program, right? And we certainly have everything that we need to be that, but a lot of that stuff is when you guys aren't looking.
A lot of that stuff is when we are in this building by ourselves, when we are in the indoor in February, when we're in the weight room in January, that's when you are building a lot of those things that ultimately kind of lead to what you guys see next fall.
And I just think that we have to embrace that part of football, and that part of football is not fun. It's not on social media. There's no fanfare with it. Nobody watches it and says, Wow, that's amazing! A lot of times, it just sucks and that's the reality of it.
But if you want to be good in the fall and you want to be competing for this thing at a really high level, there's a price you have to pay to get there. I think that's kind of what I mean when I say we've got to be about it. We've got to be about all of those things within the game of football that maybe don't get talked about, that equip us to go out and make the plays we need to make and be successful in the fall.
Q. Just kind of wanted to double back on that. Obviously, a lot of pressure with this job. How do you kind of internalize that and deal with that at the end of the season with such high expectations?
COACH ELKO: Listen, if you want to chase the highest prizes in this sport, it's going to come with high expectations and high pressure. There's no program out there that's capable of winning the whole thing that doesn't expect to win the whole thing every year. And so it's the price you pay.
And you embrace who you are. I think I embrace my process as a head coach. I think that's one of the things I told Ross [Bjork] in this process is I believe in who I am. I believe in my process for making decisions. We won't always make the right one but when we make the wrong one, we are going to identify it, we're going to evaluate it, we're going to fix it, and we're going to move forward and not second guess what we are doing and believe in who we are and know we have what it takes to build a blueprint for the best program in the country.
Q. Coach, what is the message as you get familiar with this team and really get to know the players? What are y'all talking about?
COACH ELKO: Yeah, I think the one thing is understanding that relationships is a huge part of it. And as we talk about all of those things that we're going to ask our players to do and all the hard stuff that players have to go through, they've got to believe in you. They've got to know who you are. They've got to know that you know who they are as young men. They've got to believe in what you are selling and what you are all about and, ultimately, it's going to get them where they want to go.
And all of that is relationships. And if you don't have relationships in this day and age -- we are way past the days where football players come into a program and the head coach can do whatever he wants and he's stuck and he can't go anywhere. You know, this is a relationship era, and that part of this is really important.
That starts this week, but it's an ongoing process, really from the time I start to the time this thing ends, that we've got to continue to build relationships every single day.
Thank you, guys. See you next year. (Laughter)
ROSS BJORK: That was part of his deal, he only had to do media one time a year. Are you guys okay with that? It's the modern era of college athletics.
Yeah, you don't want me talking about football. Questions?
Q. You talked about this being an incentive-based contract. Would you kind of discuss what went into the contract?
ROSS BJORK: I think with the CFP (College Football Playoff) expanding to 12 teams and, again, given where we are, given our resources, given the commitment to football, that if we have the right coach and the right plan, that we should be in the hunt every year for those playoff spots. So that's how we looked at it.
We know there's got to be a base salary, so that's what you see there. But then the rest of it is built off of making and earning your way through the CFP. And everybody we engage with -- Again, this is a little bit of a different shift, right? Not that we were trying to reset the market -- couldn't really necessarily do that. But if you hire the right person and they believe in themselves and you have the resources like we have here, that contract should be what it's all about. So that's how we approached it going into it.
Did everybody get a copy of it, by the way? Everybody get a copy of the financial terms? My CFO doesn't have a copy. We'll get it to Jeff [Toole].
Q. Obviously, a lot of attention, publicity on how things unfolded over the weekend. What can you tell us about what happened with the process with Mark Stoops and how we got from there to here?
ROSS BJORK: Yeah, well, look here's the thing, over last two weeks, when we engage with 30 -- up to 30 different coaches at varying levels, some were in person, some were Zoom, some were calls, some were through third parties, et cetera, there's going to be a lot of moving parts.
And as President [Mark] Welsh said, one of the things he learned going through this, it ain't over until it's over. So we wanted to make sure that we engaged with our final group of candidates as long as possible, right? So I don't know how all of that got out.
I respect Coach Stoops. He's been in the SEC a long time. I appreciate his statement.
But here's my job at the end of the day: What is in the best interest -- I said this two weeks ago, the best interest of Texas A&M? And the end result is what matters the most. Let's get it right.
So the process to me, with all the moving parts and all the candidates, to me that validated the choice even more, is we had a process that was very thorough. We talked to a bunch of people, given the fact that we had two weeks. And the process was fluid until the very end.
But that's why we had to get it right, and I think the process yielded the right result. And that's why we are here today and you are seeing that as Coach [Mike] Elko is unfolding his vision for the program.
Q. Ross, you talked about having meetings with over 25 coaches. What ultimately was the deciding factor to zero in on Coach [Mike] Elko being the guy long term?
ROSS BJORK: It's really those characteristics that I laid out on the stage earlier: Defensive-minded head coach, right? Recruiting elite talent. Having that mindset coming from the head coach position. I mean, just look at our league. Who are the two best programs right now? Who are they led by, right?
And so looking at that formula, understanding that we can recruit at the highest level, understanding that Coach Elko has been a part of top-five, top-ten recruiting classes here at A&M.
And then honestly, he's got a plan. And you can see by his demeanor, he's been equipped for this for a long time.
I remember calling the Duke athletic director (Nina King) two years ago next week. And she wanted to know, Is he ready? And I said he's been ready. If he's your guy, this is a no-brainer hire. And so the same analysis as we went through our process unfolded here.
Q. Ross, obviously, the last coaching contract that you guys handed out, ten-year at 95, completely guaranteed, no offsets, versus what you obviously present here today. What went into that and what went into also, obviously, kind of the different focus of this search versus ones in the past?
ROSS BJORK: Yeah, look, my comments have been, Let's do a comprehensive national search. That necessarily hasn't been the case, at least for the last four. Coach [R.C.] Slocum was promoted internally when he was hired. And that obviously yielded -- when is the last time we had a defensive-minded head coach? He's the winningest coach of all time. Again, that was a cool perspective of this.
Look, I just think that having a 12-team playoff, the incentive-based process of a contract, I think the market here in the SEC, we wanted to be fair in the market, but we also wanted to say, Hey, look, I think the landscape can change where you actually have to earn things. And if somebody believes in themselves, believes in their plan, they have the right approach, they'll earn it. And as you can see, you have a chance to be paid like a national championship-level coach. And that was the approach through the process, and those are all the conversations that took place.
Q. Ross, at what point in this process did you approach Mike [Elko] and then how long kind of was the turnaround of you presenting the opportunity and him agreeing to it?
ROSS BJORK: Yeah, look, we started the process Sunday night, on November 12th, right? And people think search firms pick the coach for you. That's not how it works. The search firm, their job is to understand the landscape throughout the whole year, not just during football season, not just when I call them on November 12th and say, Hey, okay, are you ready? Well, yeah, they're always ready.
So they understand the landscape. They understand who is movable. Coach Elko was on our list from the very beginning. And as the process unfolded, as the identity of what we really, really wanted and we thought was the right DNA of a program that wins, he obviously rose to the top.
There was engagement from the beginning. And like I said, everybody was active, and we kept that process going all the way through Saturday night and Sunday morning. And then we went and picked him up last night. I think you were out there at 2:00 a.m., right? You didn't get much sleep, like me either.
Q. You have talked about a lot of things that you liked about [Mike] Elko. But if you had to boil it down to the best thing about him from your perspective, what would you say?
ROSS BJORK: I think a humble but confident genuineness of this game -- Look, I played college football. I'm not a coach, but I'm a product of it. And if you know his story about his parents and how old his mom was when she had him. If you know how he grew up and where he grew up. If you know that he got into an Ivy League school when he maybe wasn't supposed to. If you know that story, to me, that's why he's a great coach and a great leader, is because of the beginnings and how he's worked his way through.
And so he talked about US Merchant Marine Academy defensive coordinator, no one has ever heard of it, Division III, and now he's at Texas A&M. That's a cool, humble, genuine story. And I think that's the qualities that we were looking for as well. Just a great person.
Q. President [Mark] Welsh suggested that there was maybe some misinformation out there about this whole process and everything. So with that in mind, I ask you, was Mike [Elko] your first choice? And if not, why not?
ROSS BJORK: Look, here's the thing. These things are fluid. And again, when you get down to crunch time and I just -- I felt that if we had the right group of finalists, I think this weekend was critical to get things done, right? Transfer portal opens up -- our transfer portal has been open, right? But we were done playing. The kids had the week off from any football practice.
I felt like, look, if we have a final group, then we need to activate that final group and let's zero in on who we think is the number one choice. And that's where it led.
And really, late Saturday night as everything -- I'm getting pinged as well, right? I don't know if you were part of the -- whatever you guys were tweeting out. I wasn't reading Twitter, believe me. We were focused on let's get it right.
That's really, again, all that matters and that's my responsibility, is let's get it right.
Q. Ross, it looks like the pool for assistants is pretty significant. Was that something that Mike [Elko] wanted, or was that something that you guys mutually agreed on?
ROSS BJORK: I mean, you talk about that through the process and let's make sure we understand what that includes. That includes -- the pool, I think, is listed at $11 million. That's actually less than what it was. And the thing is, we're going to have a plan of what the right staff makeup is, not just, Hey, we got to add this and we got to add this. It's, Here's the plan. Here's the number that works.
So it's all assistant coaches. It's all analysts. It's all recruiting staff. It's all operations staff within football. And it's the strength and conditioning staff. That's what that number is. That's what that number makes up, is the comprehensive nature of just the football.
But people like athletic trainers, equipment people, video people, they're not in that number. But that number is top eight in the country, top ten. So it's a very competitive number in the landscape.
Q. Did Mike [Elko] have a buyout in his contract at Duke? What about that? Who handles that?
ROSS BJORK: He does. I don't know if that was in that term sheet. Yes, we handle that. The institution handles his buyout.
Q. Do you want to say what that is?
ROSS BJORK: You know what? We are still confirming exactly. It depends on dates and everything like that.
Q. In your pool of candidates, how many were in that final pool of candidates?
ROSS BJORK: It's hard to say, honestly. People are still playing games. We went through the weekend. Like I said, we engaged with a bunch of Power 5 sitting head coaches, several Group of 5 head coaches, several NFL coaches, right? So it's hard to say exactly what the final group was, because things were fluid on Saturday. We were still hearing from people wanting to get in at the last minute, and so you had to filter all of that as well.
Q. Do you know how many you were in contact with on Saturday?
ROSS BJORK: It was more than five, let's put it that way, either me directly or our firm.
Q. I know you mentioned a little bit less on the assistant coaches pool. Was some of that shrinkage in the number with some of the buyout for Jimbo [Fisher]?
ROSS BJORK: No, it was being smart about what it takes to run the program, period. That's all it is. Let's be reasonable but competitive and be smart. That's all that is.
Q. Howdy, Ross.
ROSS BJORK: Howdy.
Q. So with the other coaches that you had in mind, you didn't necessarily have to get back. But once you chose Mike [Elko], did you get a chance to talk to Coach [Elijah] Robinson and tell him that a decision had been made?
ROSS BJORK: Absolutely. That's an important part of the process. I made sure that I personally engaged with Elijah throughout the whole process.
And really, it started the Sunday morning that I asked him to serve as the interim head coach. And my message to him at the time was I don't know where all of this is going to go. We are going to get started, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that he's here as long as he wants to be here.
So that process really started two weeks ago. We stayed in touch throughout the process. We stayed in touch throughout the weekend. I met with him last Wednesday and went over kind of where we were in the process. Perhaps we can get down to a final group through the weekend, and we'll stay in touch.
And so I talked to him a couple of times on Saturday after we got back from LSU. Talked to him a couple times on Sunday. I wanted to make sure that he knew not necessarily where we were going, but just, hey, Coach, I am going to keep you posted. We want you to be here. We want to make sure that there's stability from your standpoint. And like Coach said, that's the priority, that Coach Elko will now -- he'll handle that. We will support him behind the scenes.
Q. Ross, you talked about Coach [Mike] Elko has a lot of qualities that in some ways makes him a no-brainer. Obviously, his connections here. But I know y'all made a deliberate effort to cast a wide net and do your due diligence through all of these candidates. How did y'all navigate, I guess, turning the page mentally, just the human instinct of making sure we are vetting out all of these people with "Let's not over-complicate this, and let's not overthink this. If he's a good fit, let's not hold it against him. Let's lean into that."
ROSS BJORK: I think what was really cool is probably the first -- I'd say at least the first week of the process, you are hearing from people that are interested in us, too. I mean, we obviously had a list, and we want to be proactive in that list. But then it's, like, Oh, you heard about this person. You heard about this person.
So it actually helped validate what we all say, right? We think we can win championships here. We think we compete at the highest level. Other people saw that. Other people in the football world saw that. So in a lot of ways, then you check that.
Okay. How does your final group sort of stack up to what people are saying in the landscape? What we think the DNA should be of the program? And, again, that's -- the goal is to get it right and everything that Coach Elko has, it matches what we think are the ingredients.
So to me, that was a great process to learn the incoming, the outgoing, all the conversations. The former players were awesome. Like, talking to those guys, I mean, talking to Dat Nguyen or Ray Mickens or Johnny Football [Manziel]. He's the one that said -- Johnny Manziel is the one that said, We need to be an intimidating bully. He actually had another adjective, but I can't say that. But he's said, That's what we got to be.
And I'm, like, okay, that's pretty powerful coming from an offensive guy. So it just matched all the things that you are seeing unfold here in the last couple of hours with Coach Elko.
Q. Hey, Ross, so obviously you were here when Coach [Mike] Elko was here. You kind of saw as the program slipped at times after his departure. What do you think he brought to this program before, and what do you kind of hope that he brings now?
ROSS BJORK: Well, the way Coach [Jimbo] Fisher operated, he let Coach Elko be the head coach of the defense, which gave him, I think, a really good platform from a leadership perspective, how to run that side of the ball. To me, that's invaluable when you take the next step. You are sort of the CEO of the defense, if you will. So I think seeing that, I think, was really critical. Seeing how he ran it, seeing the intensity.
He was telling a story about when they would have team meals, when he was just overseeing the safeties as a position, but obviously the defense. They would go into the team meals on game day, and they would put their phones away, and they would actually have real conversations.
And then he would look around the room, and everybody else was kind of on their phones. And he's, like, that's the culture I want to have as a head coach. And obviously, he instilled that at Duke, which led them to great success the last two years, and that's what he will do here.
Q. Ross, are there any -- I guess what the plans are for the bowl game, as far as who the coaches will be, if Mike [Elko] will coach at all in the game or it will be Elijah [Robinson].
ROSS BJORK: Yes, Elijah will lead us through the bowl game as the head coach, acting head coach, interim head coach, however you want to describe that.
We know there might be some other movement, right, given the landscape in coaching. So who is coming, who is going, we will make sure -- we have some time to map that out.
Coach Robinson and I talked today about, Hey, let's get through this week. Let's see what happens. Does anybody else leave? Those things are all fluid.
But obviously, Coach Robinson will be the head coach for the bowl game. The coordinators will call it on offense and defense. And then if there's other movement, then you adapt.
And this happens all the time in coaching transitions. You see people kind of coming and going. I don't think Coach Elko wants to be the defensive coordinator for the bowl game. I think he's going to have other things that he's going to have to prep for. But obviously, we will do whatever we can to support our players to compete at the highest level, wherever we go, whoever we play.
