Bruce Feldman calls Dan Campbell the 'dream candidate' for Texas A&M

Texas A&M‘s search for its next head coach is underway, and coaches from across the football world have been thrown into the hat as potential names for the Aggies to consider.

One name that stands out above the rest is Detroit Lions head coach and Aggie alum Dan Campbell. It almost seems too good to be true, which is why college football insider Bruce Feldman considered whether this rumor has any real traction.

“I think if you’re a Texas A&M diehard, your dream candidate is the guy who’s got the Detroit Lions rolling,” Feldman said on the Rich Eisen Show. “He’s a Texas A&M guy. Every time you see a minute of Dan Campbell in a locker room scene, talking to his team, you’re like, holy cow, that guy. That’s the guy who should be the head coach here, but he’s also the guy who may have [the Lions] make a playoff run. The timing is awful and you’re not getting them to leave, so he’s out.”

Campbell was a tight end in College Station from 1995 through 1998 before being selected in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft. Since retiring from football in 2009, his only coaching experience has been in the NFL and is well on his way to leading the Lions to its best season since he took over the franchise in 2021.

So, if not Campbell, then who?

“You have some other candidates. Dan Lanning, who has SEC ties and worked under Nick Saban and worked under Kirby Smart and is doing really well in Oregon,” Feldman continued. “I don’t think you could get him. I don’t think Kalen Deboer leaves Washington to go there, either.

“The guys I think are more realistic — Mike Elko, the head coach at Duke who was a former Texas A&M defensive coordinator, is really well thought of and has done a terrific job at Duke … I think Lance Leipold, he’s done a remarkable job at Kansas. Quite honestly, wherever he has gone, he has done an amazing job. He’s been no ties to the SEC, and maybe that would be a deterrent to some of them — but he’s a culture builder.”

Even if Elko and Leipold aren’t so-called sexy names in the coaching carousel, they’re proven coaches and while they aren’t coaching top-level Power Five teams, they’re more than capable of holding their own and blossoming at the helm of a program like Texas A&M.

“Once you get past that these are not flashy names, are not big personalities,” Feldman concluded. “The average college football fan doesn’t know who either of those guys are — but that shouldn’t matter.”