This is the most significant college football coaching carousel in recent memory, with several major programs looking to make a new head coaching hire. But it appears none of those schools will be hiring
Mike Elko. As first reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, Texas A&M and Elko are finalizing a contract extension that would make Elko one of the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the sport.
Elko’s current contract pays him $7 million per year, with several incentives that could take that number much higher. The new contract, per Dellenger, will up that guaranteed amount significant, more closely aligning the contract with other top deals across college football.
With jobs like Penn State, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State and more already open, there will no doubt be some prominent hires coming soon, which means schools are more motivated than ever to lock their guy up if they are confident in his future. It’s why you’ve also seen Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and SMU’s Rhett Lashlee agree to new deals at their current schools. With the Aggies currently at 9-0 and sitting at No. 3 in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings, Elko is as deserving as anyone on this list of inking a more lucrative contract.
This should put to rest what little speculation there was that Elko was interested in leaving Aggieland, and allow his team to lock in and focus on their goals of getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.
