Urban Meyer to Ohio State was a grand slam hire.

As a Notre Dame fan, I think this is a great hire for Texas a&m. I was disappointed when he left Notre Dame to go be the coordinator for the aggies, and I've been impressed with what he has done at Duke with limited resources

I wanted Mike elko from start. I wanted him as our head coach when he left to duke. I think he’s a great fit for us at A&M.

If you put Mike Elko, and Mark Stoops in a room could you tell them apart?

This is a hire that makes a ton of sense for Texas A&M, he just needs to go out and keep a lot of those big name guys that they recruited from jumping into the transfer portal.

Congratulations to Mike Elko

Last time an SEC school hired a coach that overachieved at Duke it worked out very well.

Elko is a good damn hire.

You didn’t mention Jimbo Fisher as a Grand Slam hire 😂 He is a championship winning coach…and A & M landed him…then fired him still owing him $73million guaranteed.

As an Aggie, I dont understand going to get the consistent 1 or 2 runner up in the East. Thank goodness for the Elko flip. Your right, not flashy, but this guy fits the culture of Aggieland.

Love this show. Love you Josh. You guys make so much sense and keep college football as wonderful as it is.

A&M needed a solid coach who could hold onto the current talent while cleaning up the cracks in the program. If we can get a solid OC Elko could have immediate success here

Tier 1 doesn't mean you get your pick of any coach but 1st pick of the available candidates. Out of the available coaches and open positions I think (as an LSU fan) A&M got the best available candidate that fit their program.

Coach Mike Elkins is very solid football coach, and that’s what A&M needs.

There were many Tennessee fans feeling underwhelmed with the Josh Heupel hire, yet now, most will tell you he was the right hire and has the Vols trending upward for years to come. Don't let this 8-4 season fool you after 11-2 last year. Most knowledgeable fans knew that this year was going to be a down year, but 8 wins in a down year is remarkable. I say this to back up Josh's point that Mike Elko is not a splash hire, but he could turn out to be a grand slam hire and with the talent A&M has this could be a quick turnaround whereas Tennessee is still trying to build a solid roster thanks to Jeremy Pruitt's train wreck 3 years.

Congrats to Texas am and Elko thats a great hire!

This is why I listen to Josh. He’s detailed oriented & I appreciate that

Nailed it. This is a good, not great hire. A solid base hit. Maybe he can stretch to extra bases. Welcome aboard Coach Elko. Happy to have you.

I think Mike Elko was a good hire. He recruited well at A&M. The players love him and I think he’ll do a good job

He absolutely killed this segment damn💯

Big thing with Elko is he recrutied a good chunk of the players and brought in Elijah Robinson. Hopfully he makes E-Rob the DC, finds a good Olinr coach and looks into OC. He was ny pick from the get go and good to see him back at A&M

Elko has been my number one from the start. The guy can coach football and winning fixes everything. Ross Bjork hired Schloss and now Elko. Let's play ball!

As a TN fan we a take limbo jimbo in Knoxville as a recruiting coordinator or some but idk if we rlly want him coaching anything too much

What happened to " I'm happy at Duke ? " Duke gets a good coach to bring them up in their conference football standings and they lose him just as fast. What these coaches don't understand is if you bring success to Duke football, and that means you aren't expected to turn them into national football champions like the basketball program, you as their football coach has it made for life probably, without all the high heat do or die pressure. Choices in life. Jump into the fire Tex A&M will light under you Coach Elko. I'm sure your contract won't have the financial oversights your predecessor had. Enjoy the heat, it's hot in Texas.

Legendary gig'em

If he doesn't beat LSU, Bama, Utexas, Okleedoklee and Georgia.. they're gonna fire his butt. LOL.

Great comments...an a great hire hire for A+m....welcome back to the meat grinder...the only other grand hire you were talking bout ..long ago..which of course is not now....but would have been Lou Holtz from Norte Dame-- to-- south Carolina..in tha day that was a big hire... Keep up the great work Josh...your much needed an allways keeping it real man....

Josh, two points for the discussion. Lincoln Riley did not make the strategic error when he was hired. USC did. Lincoln Riley has never recruited for the defense. Had USC skimmed his past, they would have realized this. Second point. Ohio State made a grand slam hire with Urban Meyer. Won two titles at Florida. Yes, he was not coach at Florida when he was hired.

Thank you for the level headed common sense analysis

How did we go from “there are names you wouldn’t believe available for this job” to “grand slam hires like that don’t happen”??? I’m confused Both are direct quotes from this show

Yeah Jimbo was supposed to be our flashy grand slam hire at A&M when we pulled him from FSU and now we're replacing him. We thought it was working after 2020 but turns out that swing for the fence kind of hire was a miss.

It’s a hire. You’re right…flashy is definitely NOT a serious football related point but I dare say a majority of Aggie fans (casuals) love the attention that come with Flash 🤷🏾‍♂️

I read the title and was so confused. I was like “I could’ve sworn I saw Stoops was confirmed as the coach,” and then realized I missed a big time news drop that it got overturned.

❤What a great video! Love “SEC Shorts!” ❤

My take on A&M's hire of Mike Elco is very positive. I've watched him coach a lot of games and have found him to be a great in game coach! He makes good adjustments on the fly that produces results. Some coaches cannot do that. He also is a great judge of talent!! I wish the team I pull for could have landed him. A & M will prosper the first season. They have the financing to recruit well and to work the portal. If Mike could take a team like he inherited at Duke and turn them into a legit competitor against anyone, then he should be able to turn A & M around quickly!! I hope the cupboard is not to bare. If it is, the portal should be a great help to find good seasoned players to start. Give him one good QB and he will win very soon. POMO One more note. Josh Pate is the very best at what he does. There isn't a close second to even think about! Keep it coming!

Great point on searching for “Grand-Slam” hires, they are rare and improbable. Go for hungry to win and able to build a coaching staff and program.

Thanks for bringing up Jim as a home run hire. He needs the good press he can get.

If it were up to me, I would fire the T A&M AD if he even considered Mark Stoops. Stoops is like Gundy, he's a good choice if all you want is a 7 to 8 win season. They get you to a Bowl Game but what does that mean anymore?

Congrats Coach Elko. 👍

I'm a two-school fan (which makes me part-pariah, lol) and follow Tennessee and TAMU. My wife is a Wildcat, and I've watched UK football very closely during the Stoops era. He has done some great things for the football team of this basketball school. I think that he is a great coach for the tools that he has been given, as he alluded to after the UGA game. I posted on TexAgs X my thoughts on Stoops and my hopes that he would do a good job if he came to TAMU, and my post was taken down. They had DEFINITELY decided that they didn't want Stoops, and they didn't want anything vaguely resembling support for Stoops to appear. Still, I'm excited for Elko. I think we are headed into brighter days. Gig 'em!

A&M is a premier college football program. Always liked them and hope for success with there new coach.

Kirby was very much a part of Alabama's championship teams and went on to take Georgia to a national championship game in his first 2 years on the job. Now he has that team going for their 3rd consecutive championship. Sounds like a grandslam hire to me.

I like Mark Stoops. I think he makes the best out of what he has at Kentucky. Even the middling teams of the SEC are consistently gonna have better players than him. IMO winning 10 games at UK is a an accomplishment.

Okay... this is the funniest one this year. "This quarterback drop back is brought to you by..." LMAO!!!

2:59 Gotta say, I’m of the same mindset as Josh here. Jimbo Fisher was most definitely a flashy hire. Look how that turned out😂😂

Urban Meyer was also a "grand slam" hire. He won at Florida before being hired at tOSU.

Way to go aggy. You always know how to keep us entertained with your incompetence. Who in their right mind pays one coach over $70MM to walk away then turns around and hires a guy that was 7-5 at Duke with a loss against what may be the worst P5 team in the country this year? Looking forward to the lulz with the upcoming AD search and the next HC search in a couple of year.

Great hire 👍

Elcko will do just fine. He will go 9-3 like those who have come before him.

Great hire

Hiring Jimbo Fisher WAS a grand slam hire… proving A&M can do it. It didn’t work out, but at the time, it was huge.

Jimbo won before TAMU.Urban won before OSU. Les Miles won before Kansas.

Kalen DeBoer turned out to be a home run hire at Washington. But I don't think anyone envisioned it at the time - certainly not nationally from a media standpoint

Pate always makes so much sense!

You missed a chance to actually highlight A&M to support your theory. The only other championship coach to be hired by a new employer that was not retired was by A&M with jimbo.

Nailed it again.

So Josh said A&M is a keystone program and they can get whoever they want - everyone disagrees - they hire MIKE ELKO - “KEYSTONE”

That’s crazy. Dude said he was excited about a Mike Elko press conference.

Brian kelley...won championships at grand valley st...succesfull at central michigan...took cincinnati to a new yrs day game...took ND to a national championship game.and the playoffs...and an seccg game in yr 1 at LSU

I would not be thrilled if I was an A&M fan.

So you're saying nobody wanted the Texas A&M job?

As a ND, not psyched to play aTm next 2 years

Even though Elko was A&M's 3rd or maybe 4th choice, this is the best hire they could have done. Not a bad hire, but whether he can get the Aggies back to national prestige is still up in the air, even with all the good players they have. Defense is already strong enough (also Elko's strong suit), but the offense is suspect (even with Petrino around).

You’re not going to convince me that Elko is sooooo much better than Stoops that the outrage shouldn’t be similar lol.

“Don’t give me Lincoln at Oklahoma, cuz he didn’t do anything there…” TRUTH!

Josh again with some of the best options in college football. Based.

Here’s what I know, Pate said 3 years ago that Texas A&M was a 10 win program and I just had to deal with it lol! You’ve been wrong about A&M all along, you’re still wrong about A&M today. Yes we all dunked on you.

Look, as a Duke fan I'm sorry to see Elko go, but we'll hire another good coach. I'd love to see someone come up who has won at the G5 level. Now, for Elko. A &M hired a good coach. He'll be a consistent seven to eight game a year winner. And that's about it. But I don't see him winning championships. Just look at the neighborhood he's in. Gonna be tough. But I do see them becoming more consistent!

I don’t think it’s that the grand slam hire doesn’t exist. It’s that we never really know who it is.

He will be good for now

Great Hire!!

Coaching at Duke is not the same as coaching at A&M. This will not go well.

Jimbo. He was a grand slam hire - championship coach. They had him. And they couldn’t do it.

Congrats Texas AM, you stopped your school from hiring Mark Stoops and instead hired “mark stoops but with fewer accomplishments”

unreal. he's 7-5. Flash no flash. love the new T-shirt color looks great on ya.

Grand Slam Hire: Chip Kelly at UCLA when the deal was made. Didn't turn out to be grand slam results, but it was a huge signing at the time.

Just a thought: Jimbo Fisher was a "grand slam" hire when he came to A&M. Had a championship and everything.

Pick a fit? Like Sark at Texas?

Told ya.... thats the perfect coach for A&M

All this. All this. And yeah, you could lump Jimbo into the Grand Slam hires that didn't work out all the way.

Aggies now "What a great hire, I think he is a great fit" Aggies in three to four years "He's got to go, that sorry Son of ****** can't win a game". Typical of now days see it in business its all about instant satisfaction. 🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

Mike Stoops, to me, would've been a great hire for Texas A&M. We'll see with this one. Texas A&M has to be patient with him for about three years to make serious noise in the SEC.

Right on point. As a Texas fan I remember being somewhat "Eh" when they hired Sark. So glad I was so wrong about him

Have a couple question marks but he should be a solid hire. Whether that’s good enough for Texas A&M remains to be seen. I also think that the jury’s still out on a couple guys Josh mentioned because of a small sample size.

Urban Mayer to OSU, Jim Harbaugh to Michigan, Erickson to USC, some back in 90s Holtz and Spurrier but failed.

Reminds me of when FSu fans thought we where getting Bob Stoops after Willie. Norvell has seemed to work out well for us.

Was waiting for Riley...Am a USC guy but correct,,

You give stoops that talent and money and he would rock it.

Don’t know why but would love if Gary Patterson were to get the call from Elko to run the defense at A&M. That would be lethal.

Grand Slam Hire: Bobby Petrino at Arkansas when he dumped the Falcons to go there. If it wasn't a grand slam hire, the media wouldn't have been roasting him over it as much as they did.

Grand slam hires. Alabama hired Saban, South Carolina hired Spurrier (maybe South Carolina hiring Holtz). Florida hiring Meyer. Perhaps UCF hiring Malzahn However, I agree the idea of Grand slam coaches is rare. DZ

To be fair, multiple people claimed Schiano knew about Sandusky's antics, so us Tennessee fans revolting about his hire had more gravitas than A&M fans just not liking Stoops' face.

So A&M pulls a Tennessee and has a revolt against hiring Mark Stoops because he wasn't a big enough name coach, so they instead go out and hire basically the same person in the same situation, just without a decade of head coaching experience in the SEC and years of proof that his ability to get a basketball school to play pretty good football wasn't just a one off wonder season. totally makes sense. yes I know he was there a few years ago and helped "recruit" that #1 recruiting class, but anyone could (legally) buy a # 1 class when you have a blank check from a bunch of oil barons.

Stoops wouldve been a good hire. He has done an amazing job for Kentucky, considering its a basketball school with low expectations and a ceiling on its football program.

Now they have to pay $76 million to Jimbo and you can be assured that Elko required a high buyout in case A&M decides to ditch him. Mistake to fire Jimbo.

So much for that Athletic article from October with his wife saying, we're not going anywhere, money isn't everything, we're just getting started at Duke.

"Grand slam" hires: Successful: Nick Saban at Alabama Urban Meyer at OSU Jim Harbaugh at Michigan (not in the playoffs tho) Incomplete: Brian Kelly at LSU Mario Cristobal at Miami Meh/bad so far: Lincoln Riley at USC Chip Kelly at UCLA Fired: Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M Rich Rodriguez at Michigan (seriously, look it up!)

"I'm hearing names out west for this job." lol

Does seem like having a defensive background as a Defensive Coordinater helps. Kirby, Nick, Dan Lanning, Brent Venables etc. Yes? Offensive not so much Lincoln, Jimbo, Josh. At least not so far.

Since when was Texas A&M on the same tier one real estate as Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, or Ohio St? Sure those programs don’t have a fake military, but they have a continuous HISTORY of football relevance.