Texas A&M's Mike Elko headed down Jimbo Fisher path after road loss to Missouri

Mike Elko following Jimbo Fisher's lead after ugly loss at Missouri

If Texas A&M fans are beginning to experience deja vu, who could blame them? Coming off a 9-1 record during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Aggies officials handed then-head coach Jimbo Fisher, already earning $7.5M per season, a 10-year, $90M extension, only to watch the program crater over the following three seasons. In 2021, Texas A&M finished 8-4, followed by a 5-7 record in 2022. Fisher was ultimately fired in November 2023 with two games remaining in the regular season.

That same month, Elko was hired as Fisher's replacement to a seven-year, $49M contract through the 2029 season. Less than two years later amid a CFP run, Texas A&M extended his contract by two seasons and raised his base salary by more than $4M per year, making Elko "one of the five highest-paid coaches in college football," per ESPN.

Texas A&M (3-3, 1-3 in SEC) already has more losses than all of last season, and with games remaining against No. 6 Alabama (5-0, 3-0 in SEC), No. 15 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 in SEC) and No. 1 Texas (4-0, 1-0 in SEC) may need road wins at South Carolina (3-3, 1-3 in SEC) and Oklahoma (2-2, 0-1 in SEC) just to reach bowl eligibility. 

There's plenty of blame to go around, but the buck stops at Elko. His quarterback, Marcel Reed, has gone through a troubling regression. On Saturday, the senior was 19-of-39 for 187 yards and two interceptions. 

NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein shared Reed's rough splits over his past eight games, which included Saturday's game through three quarters, with the quarterback averaging 5.8 yards per attempt while throwing six touchdowns and 10 interceptions during the span.

With Reed's struggles more pronounced by the week, it's fair to wonder how much of his previous success was attributed to former offensive coordinator Collin Klein, hired as Kansas State Wildcats head coach last offseason.

Kansas State is 3-1 under Klein and averaging 40.5 points per game, which ranked 19th in FBS entering Week 6. Quarterback Avery Johnson is having his best season, completing a career-high 66.2 percent of his passes for 910 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions while adding 291 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries (9.7 yards per attempt).

As bad as things are for Texas A&M, Elko should have plenty of time to figure it out. Fisher is owed $7.2M per year through 2031, per The Athletic, so no one in College Station should even be muttering the word "buyout," let alone seriously considering it.

Or maybe that was Elko's entire plan. If so, he's following his predecessor's lead to a T.