Mike Elko raves about Taurean York's preparation: 'He has all the makeup of a coach'

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko knows a thing or two about elite defensive football. A former safety, he has worked with safeties and linebackers extensively throughout his career. So he knows he’s got something special when he trots out veteran linebacker Taurean York.

York has been one of the SEC’s best, starting 26 games over the last two seasons. This year he’s having something of a breakout campaign, though his last two seasons were plenty good in their own right.

So what makes Taurean York so special? Elko had a detailed answer Wednesday on an SEC teleconference call.

“Yeah, I think it’s probably two things,” the head coach said. “I think, one, he has tremendous natural instincts. He’s been playing the linebacker position for a really long time, and that’s becoming more rare and rarer. Nowadays you see a lot of college linebackers be in position swaps: ex-running back, ex-safety. With Taurean he’s been a kid who’s played linebacker for a really long time, so I think that helps with his natural instincts.

“Then from a preparation standpoint he’s unlike anybody that I’ve ever been around. He’s as good as I’ve ever seen in terms of his film study, his quality of preparation, his ability to watch tape and process through ‘here’s a call, here’s my reads, here’s what I’m seeing’ as opposed to just watching tape. Sometimes a lot of kids are just watching it and not really getting a ton out of it. I think he’s really, really effective with what he gets out of film study, and he puts in a lot of time into his film study.”

So far this season Taurean York has logged 34 tackles, 3.0 tackles for a loss, a sack, three quarterback hurries and a pass breakup. He’s had two games with double-digit tackles already.

But it’s the cerebral piece that impresses Elko so much. York sees the game the way few others his age do.

“Yeah, he’s expressed to me his interest in coaching at some point in his life,” Elko said. “Hopefully after a long and successful NFL career. But I think he has all the makeup of a coach, to be honest. There’s a lot of similarities between him and I when it comes to like seeing the game at a young age. It comes really easy to him. It makes a lot of sense to him. He’s a much better player than I ever was. But at a really young age he understands football at a really high level. I think he’d make a phenomenal coach.”

Taurean York will get a chance to put his best work on tape yet again this weekend against Florida. The Gators are coming off a big win over Texas and riding into town with some momentum.

The game will kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. The game will be carried on ESPN.