Mike Elko explains why 'overreactions' running rampant on coaching carousel this cycle

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko had the unfortunate distinction of being the coach who put the final dagger into the coaching tenure of Brian Kelly at LSU. A former assistant for Kelly, it was a bittersweet 49-25 victory for Elko and his Aggies over the Tigers.

Elko joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday afternoon to discuss the state of his program. And naturally they touched on the coaching landscape.

“I have a ton of respect for Brian,” Elko said. “I told him this as we were talking in the pregame, he gave me my shot. When I was a defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, he was the one who hired me to Notre Dame. He was the one who gave me the opportunity to get on this stage, and for that I’ll be forever grateful for what he did for me and my family.”

Of course, Kelly was unceremoniously dumped by the Tigers after winning 34 games in a little more than three and a half seasons. It was a jarring firing for many in the industry.

For Mike Elko, it’s a reminder. He’s certainly not on the hot seat right now, with his Texas A&M team ranked No. 3 in the country. But he’s never all that far away, either.

“You never want to see coaches get fired like they are this season,” Mike Elko said. “It’s not good for any of us. If you have an ability to kind of step back and get out of your own ego, you can see that you’re always going to be at risk if this is how the world is going to be.”

Mike Elko also shed some light on why he thinks the coaching carousel has heated up so quickly this cycle. Already jobs at Florida, LSU and Penn State have come open, as well as numerous other slightly smaller profile power conference programs.

“It’s a challenging time,” Elko said. “I’ve said this a lot this year, I think college football’s having a really hard time adapting to the parity that is getting created by NIL and the transfer portal. I think you’re seeing a lot of overreactions across the country to that.”