Mike Elko’s past brings a potential advantage for Texas A&M heading into his first time back in Notre Dame Stadium since 2017

Texas A&M HC Mike Elko heads into his Notre Dame return with a lot of optimism based on experience

Ryan Roberts — National College Football Writer
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For the first time since the 2017 season, Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko will be returning to South Bend this weekend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. A beloved figure to Fighting Irish fans as the former defensive coordinator during that 2017 season. Despite just one year in that position, Coach Elko rebuilt expectations for the Notre Dame defense after the Brian VanGorder era ended horribly, and also brought Clark Lea with him in the process. 

The presence of Coach Elko set off a chain reaction of tremendous defensive coordinators for the Fighting Irish, going from him, to Coach Lea, to Marcus Freeman, and then to Al Golden. That is quite the run of excellence, and fans are hopeful that Chris Ash will be spoken about in a similar way eventually. Elko helped make defense cool again in South Bend. 

While he is returning as an opponent this time, and has every intention of helping the Aggies come away with a victory, you can bet there will be a warm welcome for Elko from the fanbase initially. He brings a lot of energy around this Texas A&M program, and they could be the best team that Notre Dame will play the entire regular season. They are at least in the conversation. 

Potential advantage for Coach Elko 

Even though it has been eight years since Coach Elko has coached a game in Notre Dame Stadium, his familiarity with the campus, facilities, fanbase, and a typical gameday could be a huge help to his Aggie squad. In total, Coach Elko has coached for or against the Irish ten different times in his career, and eight times in South Bend overall. 

During the 2017 season, his only as the defensive coordinator for the Irish, Notre Dame suffered just one loss at home. That was against the Georgia Bulldogs and freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, managing to beat the Irish by a score of 20 to 19, another typical big game loss under Brian Kelly. 

Teams that Notre Dame beat at home during Coach Elko’s one season included Temple, Georgia, Miami (OH), USC, NC State, Wake Forest, and Navy. Most of those contests weren’t overly close either. 

That 2017 season wasn’t actually Coach Elko’s first time coaching in South Bend. He had previously served as the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest under head coach Dave Clawson from 2014-16. The Demon Deacons had played Notre Dame during the 2015 season, and the Irish managed to come away with a 28 to 7 victory against Elko. 

In the eight games that Coach Elko has coached inside of Notre Dame Stadium, his team has managed to go 6-2 overall. His defenses have allowed just 17.9 points per game in those eight contests, only twice allowing 20 points or more. The most came in that game with Wake Forest. 

Some will say to themselves, “2017 isn’t the last time that Notre Dame has seen Coach Elko though.” You are 100 percent correct! The Irish have actually seen their former defensive coordinator in each of the last two seasons.

In 2023, they faced off against Elko on the road while he was the head coach of Duke, coming away with a 21 to 14 victory over the Blue Devils. Notre Dame also beat Texas A&M 23 to 13 last season down in College Station. 

In total, Elko has seen the Fighting Irish at home from multiple vantage points. While there will be some debate about to what degree that matters, we should all be able to agree that it certainly doesn’t hurt his chances. 

How much does it matter? 

In the end, Elko’s experience in Notre Dame Stadium won’t be an advantage in a vacuum when compared to head coach Marcus Freeman. Freeman has seen quite a few more game days at this point. It can’t, however, be understated how important it can be for his Texas A&M squad. That familiarity can only help to create some internal optimism. 

When you go into these tough road environments, the visiting teams can become anxious just based on the unknown. Not being able to control your own environment is unsettling. Not being familiar with your surroundings, the process, the format of the game day, and having to endure the travel process, can all be a lot to deal with over a couple of days. 

With Elko’s past, perhaps the Notre Dame home field advantage isn’t as big as it would be with a less experienced head coach. You can bet that Elko will be giving his team as much insight as possible to prepare for that environment, and everything else that goes into playing there.

At the end of the day, the winner in Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night will most likely be the better team, not the one that has all the advantages. You should expect Coach Elko to have his team ready, and mentally prepared as well as one can expect. It promises to be a great game in Elko’s return.

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