Exploring what doomed Texas A&M's pursuit of Kentucky's Mark Stoops, why Mike Elko fit better

On3’s Andy Staples and Pete Nakos watched as bewildered as the rest of the college football world, back when Texas A&M pivoted from Mark Stoops to Mike Elko.

It was a wild saga, as it was reported Stoops was close to leaving Kentucky for the Aggies, before the decision makers in College Station changed their mind and decided to bring Elko back to Texas A&M after a stint with Duke.

During the latest episode of The Andy Staples Show, the duo elaborated on what doomed Stoops taking over the Aggies, and why Elko was the better fit for the program.

“You had the trustees look at it and say, to hire Mark Stoops, who gets paid a lot of money, he’s almost at $9M a year at Kentucky. To hire him would require guaranteeing almost as much as they guaranteed Jimbo Fisher. That’s what they were trying to avoid,” Staples started. “So the Elko thing made a little more sense. … I also don’t know, my thing with Elko and Stoops, and maybe it’s not fair to Stoops, because with Elko we just don’t have as much information.

“But I would say that Elko, in his two years at Duke, seemed more willing to let his offensive coordinator cook than Mark Stoops has seemed, and he’s been at Kentucky now for 12 seasons. He’s never seen willing to let his offensive coordinator let it rip.”

Moreover, Nakos focused on how the Board of Trustees handled things, believing that the thought-process was Elko was a better sell to the fanbase than Stoops would’ve been.

“I guess the other thing too, that I think about, going back to the Board of Trustees, I think there’s a conversation there, ‘Can we really sell a Mark Stoops hire to this fanbase?’ Right? We just paid this much money to get rid of Jimbo Fisher, who was supposed to deliver a national title. They proclaimed it at the press conference. Then, Mark Stoops. That’s not a shot at Mark Stoops. What Mark Stoops has done at Kentucky has been extremely impressive. But I just think that they were looking for that home rune hire, who was really going to rally the fanbase and get the donors going. I think the Board of Trustees said Mark Stoops is not that fit,” Nakos added.

“Elko so far has done everything and said everything right. I do think that he came in with the right, and probably an understanding, having been at the place, of how to negotiate that.”

Mark Stoops is a tremendous coach in his own right, but it was Mike Elko who gets the chance to lead the Aggies in 2024. We’ll see how it works out for Elko back at Texas A&M in 2024, with expectations of winning placed firmly on his shoulders.