Elko confident Aggies will be at their best in CFP

After two-plus weeks of waiting, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko is happy to be back in game week mode.

“It’s great to be in the game week prep,” he said Monday. “Sometimes when you get into these extended absences it just feels like it’s forever away. So for us to be able to go in today and enter the team meeting and talk about it’s game week, we’re into our normal game week, our preparation, game week routine.”

The Aggies (11-1), for the first time, are in the College Football Playoff. Their matchup with Miami won’t happen until Saturday morning, giving Texas A&M exactly three weeks since their last game. During his comments to the media, Elko explained that the chance to get a break in was a positive but the team needed to ramp up their practice tempo early.

“I think that was a priority, to get rested, get refreshed. You want to go into the playoffs fresh and ready to roll,” he said. “Obviously, then, you want to kind of get back into practicing at a speed and pace and tempo that you need to so you can go out and play. It’s always challenging coming off of a bye week. This is coming off of two consecutive bye weeks. So we want to make sure that we’re practicing at a tempo that allows us to go out and play the game the way we want to, and I think we’re doing that.”

Even though new Kansas State head coach Collin Klein will remain with Texas A&M through the CFP, Elko has already hired a replacement for both Klein and departed defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. The hires were internal: wide receivers coach Holmon Wiggins will be the offensive coordinator in 2026, while Lyle Hemphill will take over as defensive coordinator Saturday. The Wiggins hire was announced by Elko at the start of his press conference.

“I think he’s extremely intelligent. I think he’s very bright. I think he’s got a great offensive mind,” Elko said of Wiggins. “He obviously played a big role in what we’ve done around here on offense at this point. He’s spent a lot of time under some really good offensive coordinators over his career, and I think just sees the game in a way that’s very compatible with how we want our offense to run. I think it makes a lot of sense.”

Hemphill, who joined the staff this year after a season as the defensive coordinator at James Madison, has worked with Elko several times in the past and understands what Elko wants from his defense.

“(Hemphill’s) a guy that obviously has a lot of familiarity with what we do systematically. Has been very successful as a defensive coordinator. Was really, really successful at James Madison two seasons ago and has been really helpful behind the scenes in what we’ve been able to put together this year. I just think that one kind of made a lot of sense,” Elko said.

The first opponent for the Aggies in the CFP will be 10th-seeded Miami (10-2), who will visit Kyle Field Saturday (11 a.m., ABC/ESPN). When asked if anything stood out about the Hurricanes after a week of film study, Elko quickly replied, “Yeah, talent.”

“(Miami’s) extremely talented, very athletic. Defensively, they’re very long. They’ve got a lot of players that can run and hit. They’re very good on the front. And then offensively, just a very explosive group of skilled athletes that can make a lot of plays in space,” he said.

Elko said the Hurricanes’ approach on both sides of the ball shows the traits of a team coached by Mario Cristobal.

“(They’re) very physical. They try to really control the line of scrimmage. You can see his demeanor and his mindset and how they play. They’re a big, physical, powerful team. They’re going to be very aggressive in how they come after us,” Elko said.

The Miami offense centers around veteran quarterback Carson Beck, who was second in the nation in completion percentage (74.2%) while throwing for 3,072 yards, 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Elko said the former Georgia quarterback — who has never played against Texas A&M — poses a major challenge to the Aggie secondary, which finished 21st nationally in pass defense.

“(A) really talented kid. Obviously has a lot of experience playing in these types of games, played in these types of venues. So he certainly will come in and I’m sure be very comfortable,” Elko said. “An elite arm talent, (he has) the ability to make throws all over the field. I think he sees the game really well. He’s played a lot of college football and is certainly a seasoned quarterback that’ll be a big challenge for us.”

One of the reasons for Beck’s high completion percentage is Miami’s desire to get the ball out of his hands quickly. When asked how best to defend such a system, Elko said the best way is to apply pressure.

“I think you want to impact him, and I think impacting the quarterback is always critical. So you start with kind of what they do well and then you’ve got to try to create ways to impact and affect that,” he said. “Some of that is trying to get him to hold the ball a little bit longer to give your rush a chance. Some of it is trying to take away some of the initial reads and looks, how you disguise things.”

Elko said that A&M’s appearance in the CFP is an indicator that the program is moving in the right direction, but they don’t want an invitation to the big event only to leave early.

“We’ve said this on this podium. We’ve said this a lot behind the scenes. We didn’t ‘just’ want to make the playoffs. That’s obviously the first step,” he said.

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