Tell Me About Texas a&m

[YGIFS 19,449]

1 minute ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Football players at A&M are expected to take the same courses in chicken as the rest of the students.

I don't know very much about poultry:

 

[BurntOrange&White 39,665]

 

 

[Leanderman 2,268]

I expected a bigger response for the Elko hire by the gomers

[Deej 76,568]

Do we a have the grand total it cost aggy to fire Jimbo and hire Mike Elko? How many millions did it cost to get...*checks notes again*...Mike Elko to coach them?

[Surly Bevo 24,696]

1 hour ago, Duane Moore said:

I guess for $42 million you have to demean yourself like this

 

The comments on this tweet are gold

[Deej 76,568]

1 hour ago, Nicole44 said:

Not a bad haul for them. 

At least his daughters are safe.

[F250 28,691]

30 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I don’t know man, I got no problem with sark making 8M for a top 12 finish. 

That's G6 and aggy level achievement shit.

 

[Deej 76,568]

2 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

The comments on this tweet are gold

Waiting for the right side of that line to collapse under Elko's weight.

[Deej 76,568]

51 minutes ago, F250 said:

Probably not. A million dollar bonus for finishing in the top 12 is ridiculous.

 

Bjork figuring it out after the contract was signed.

The committee should put them at 12 every year just to run up the aggy bill. 

"5-7? You're in!"

[Jasper_Jester 356]

$7M a year...I guess Sarkisian just got a raise.

[Tex Pete 20,181]

10 minutes ago, Deej said:

Do we a have the grand total it cost aggy to fire Jimbo and hire Mike Elko? How many millions did it cost to get...*checks notes again*...Mike Elko to coach them?

"They shoulda never gave you aggies money!"

 

[Beau Vine 54,004]

 

[Vermin 3,042]

[FWD 297]

 

 

 

[Nicole44 22,027]

 

Pretty decent photo gallery of last night’s and today’s Elko related events here: https://theeagle.com/gallery/gallery-coach-mike-elko-arrival-and-welcome-celebration/collection_fb815f1e-8d78-11ee-8430-f3785d7a8268.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_TheEagleAggies#15

but GD this one photo fucking cracks me. It is the look on Bjork’s face:

 

[Vermin 3,042]

1 minute ago, Nicole44 said:

 

Pretty decent photo gallery of last night’s and today’s Elko related events here: https://theeagle.com/gallery/gallery-coach-mike-elko-arrival-and-welcome-celebration/collection_fb815f1e-8d78-11ee-8430-f3785d7a8268.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_TheEagleAggies#15

but GD this one photo fucking cracks me. It is the look on Bjork’s face:

 

He just couldn’t bring himself to don the maroon jacket. He already has a foot out the door on day 1.

[BurntOrange&White 39,665]

14.2 million being spent on HC salary through 2030, amazing.

 

[LTtxfan 48,980]

31 minutes ago, Deej said:

Do we a have the grand total it cost aggy to fire Jimbo and hire Mike Elko? How many millions did it cost to get...*checks notes again*...Mike Elko to coach them?

From Football Scoop...

"For those doing the math at home: Texas A&M  will pay Fisher slightly more money, and for longer, to not coach the Aggies than they'll pay Elko to coach them."

 

https://footballscoop.com/news/details-of-mike-elkos-contract-at-texas-a-m

Edited November 27, 2023 by LTtxfan
They left out not 😂

[Nicole44 22,027]

1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

14.2 million being spent on HC salary through 2030, amazing.

 

So there was this show on HGTV where people buy islands—some of these are like $5-10 million. You could buy one for this. Also, their boosters/BMDs have got to be livid. I mean that’s just incredible. It should be going to do more about bat guano and rabies awareness and improving other things around the facility and NIL money. That’s just one year of a Holgo buyout. SMDH. 

[n64ra 1,078]

1 minute ago, Nicole44 said:

So there was this show on HGTV where people buy islands—some of these are like $5-10 million. You could buy one for this. Also, their boosters/BMDs have got to be livid. I mean that’s just incredible. It should be going to do more about bat guano and rabies awareness and improving other things around the facility and NIL money. That’s just one year of a Holgo buyout. SMDH. 

Would you rather have an island or a 7-5 coach? C'mon

[Jasper_Jester 356]

7 minutes ago, Vermin said:

He just couldn’t bring himself to don the maroon jacket. He already has a foot out the door on day 1.

I don't think DXL has maroon on the racks, that has to be a special order color.

[Vermin 3,042]

1 minute ago, n64ra said:

Would you rather have an island or a 7-5 coach? C'mon

How about a 7-5 the size of an island?

[Lhorn 4,886]

7 million per year PLUS incentives?  And that’s 1/2 of what you are actually paying (factoring in Jimbo).  Must be nice spending other people’s money.

[El Squared 1,793]

3 hours ago, Deej said:

 

Correct. It is not possible that anyone is friends with Liucci. 

FCB could be, particularly in a bus station bathroom.

[dcar00 14,036]

so is it 77M+42M+11M+whatever buyouts are for current assistants?

$130 Million+

[horn_of_the_morning 978]

37 minutes ago, Deej said:

At least his daughters are safe.

[LTtxfan 48,980]

Under Mike Elko, Texas A&M is going to take the stairs

Gone are the custom cowboy boots, the TBD national championship plaques and the $75 million guaranteed contract. In are a "blue-collar mentality" and a little bit of competitive humility.

ZACH BARNETT      59 MINUTES AGO

This time around, there was no ceremonial pair of cowboy boots. There will be no national championship plaque with the year to be filled in later. And there will be no $75 million, fully-guaranteed contract.

Texas A&M's dismissal of Jimbo Fisher and its hiring of Mike Elko, his former assistant, as his replacement was many things, but most of all it was an admission that building a championship program was more than just hiring a coach who'd done it before and assuming the rest would take care of itself.

"We are not going to talk about it anymore," Elko said Monday, "we are going to be about it."

"I say this to my players all the time: there is no button you push to get to the top of college football," he said later. "There's a stair that you have to climb every single day to accomplish what you want to accomplish."

In the two weeks between the firing of Fisher and the hiring of Elko, Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork said he spoke to 30 coaches and more than 25 ex-players -- some of those, like Lions head coach Dan Campbell, are both -- which, he said, "helped crystalize the identity of the ideal candidate."

However, the most instructive activity Bjork and his team undertook, as he recounted Monday, was a research project that studied how each national champions in the SEC are built. 

"The more you look at it, the simpler it gets. The majority of the winners have these things in common: a defensive-minded head coach, a championship-level culture, recruit and acquire elite NFL-type talent, play great offense and score a lot of points with a high-level quarterback," Bjork said.

Texas A&M's own history, the halcyon "Wrecking Crew" days of the 1990s under R.C. Slocum (himself a former A&M assistant before taking over the program), also led Bjork back to Elko. 

"When is Kyle Field at its best? When the defense plays at an elite level," Bjork said.

Elko's return is interesting because it's equal parts a fast-track hire and a slow-burn hire. He was the defensive coordinator when A&M recruited its record-breaking 2022 recruiting class, who now enters its junior season in 2024. No SEC schedule will ever be "easy" moving forward, but the Aggies avoid Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Oklahoma in 2024. Their toughest games (Notre Dame, LSU, Texas) are all at home. With the Playoff expanding, there's no reason A&M shouldn't, at minimum, be part of the conversation this time next year. 

"We will become the absolute best version of ourself as quickly as possible, because the best version of Texas A&M football wins the national championship," Elko said. "The best version of Texas A&M football, our way, wins the national championship." 

At the same time, what are fair expectations for a program whose lone national title came in 1939? Whose last conference championship came in 1998? How much time should a program that's 12-12 over the past two years spend talking about national championships? 

"We also embrace who we are right now, where we need to work and where we need to improve to get where we want to go... No one will hand us anything -- not in this conference, not in this country, not in this era of college football. We're going to have to go out and get it. We're going to have to understand that there are no shortcuts to success."

Texas A&M will take the stairs under Mike Elko, and they'll do so in tennis shoes, not custom cowboy boots. 

 

[blutow 222]

The lack of clarifying language on those incentives is surprising.  Maybe this is just the summary and that detail is elsewhere?  Maybe the intent is to only get paid for the highest accomplishment, but it reads as if he gets a 10.5m (cumulative) bonus for winning the national championship.  That's certainly how I'd interpret it if it was my comp plan.  I'd be curious which way it goes.  Honestly, a national championship is probably worth much more than $3.5m (and not likely to be paid frequently if at all), so I suspect it's cumulative.  It doesn't look like a terrible contract, obviously a much better than what they get themselves into with Jimbo.  

[DixonHur 11,228]

42 minutes ago, Deej said:

At least his daughters are safe.

Not if they wear wool

[BurntOrange&White 39,665]

5 minutes ago, blutow said:

The lack of clarifying language on those incentives is surprising.  Maybe this is just the summary and that detail is elsewhere?  Maybe the intent is to only get paid for the highest accomplishment, but it reads as if he gets a 10.5m (cumulative) bonus for winning the national championship.  That's certainly how I'd interpret it if it was my comp plan.  I'd be curious which way it goes.  Honestly, a national championship is probably worth much more than $3.5m (and not likely to be paid frequently if at all), so I suspect it's cumulative.  It doesn't look like a terrible contract, obviously a much better than what they get themselves into with Jimbo.  

I'm pretty sure that's just a cheat sheet for it. Probably clarifications in the actual contract but who knows with the ags.

[Pancho 44,487]

 

You…seriously didn’t already know this?

 

[bad_teammate 13,132]

As much as I want to believe that this is a $17.5M contract, I think it's this...

Playoff: +$1M
Quarters/SEC Champ: +$500k
Semis: +$500k
2nd: +$500k
NC: +$1M

$7M base
$10.5M max w/ NC

[dcar00 14,036]

This is the gold from Bjork

"The more you look at it, the simpler it gets. The majority of the winners have these things in common: a defensive-minded head coach, a championship-level culture, recruit and acquire elite NFL-type talent, play great offense and score a lot of points with a high-level quarterback."

no shit dude.  you have 1 of 6. good luck.

 

[TOR 5,374]

1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

the College Station/Bryan metroplex?  

 

[Carl Spackler 3,461]

7 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

However, the most instructive activity Bjork and his team undertook, as he recounted Monday, was a research project that studied how each national champions in the SEC are built. 

"The more you look at it, the simpler it gets. The majority of the winners have these things in common: a defensive-minded head coach, a championship-level culture, recruit and acquire elite NFL-type talent, play great offense and score a lot of points with a high-level quarterback," Bjork said.

It's simple.  So simple.  

Yet aggy has never even sniffed winning the SEC, and the last time they won a NC was just after Hitler invaded Poland. 

[Wiler77 1,558]

8 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Texas A&M's own history, the halcyon "Wrecking Crew" days of the 1990s under R.C. Slocum (himself a former A&M assistant before taking over the program), also led Bjork back to Elko. 

Yes, that and the fact that everyone else turned them down and BMDs and fans rejected his 6th choice of a middle-of-the-road 7-5 SEC coach.  When your last choices are Elko or a 38 year old position coach, that led Bjork back to Elko.

[ousux 5,587]

I was thinking that no way they include the milkmen in the ceremony, and there they are. Never change aggy.

Staying on brand, good good. Not a good idea to alienate the old army gomers who will be emptying out their retirement accounts and grandkids college funds to pay for this shitshow.

[El Squared 1,793]

No one knows how simple things really are, except….agge…

[Constant 6,722]

They practically hired Kirby Smart. 

[DixonHur 11,228]

9 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

This is the gold from Bjork

"The more you look at it, the simpler it gets. The majority of the winners have these things in common: a defensive-minded head coach, a championship-level culture, recruit and acquire elite NFL-type talent, play great offense and score a lot of points with a high-level quarterback."

no shit dude.  you have 1 of 6. good luck.

 

Uh, it's actually easier than that...the majority of SEC championships over the past 10 years have had 1 thing in common.  Nick Saban.

Edited November 28, 2023 by DixonHur

[blutow 222]

5 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

As much as I want to believe that this is a $17.5M contract, I think it's this...

Playoff: +$1M
Quarters/SEC Champ: +$500k
Semis: +$500k
2nd: +$500k
NC: +$1M

$7M base
$10.5M max w/ NC

Yeah, I don't know.  Even if $17.5m is the payout for an NC year, that's not a dumb number.  Shit like that drives finance people crazy (because it's hard to know what to plan for), but the reality is that will be a very rare year and even if he's winning an NC ever few years that's $ well spent.  It's a way you can convince Elko he's making as much (or more) as the top guys without committing to pay him $10m/year+.  Under that plan, chances are his average annual salary would be well under $10m, even if he's getting into the playoffs frequently.  

[TrashMaster G 17,391]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

I'm actually surprised the contract isn't more in Elko's favor, tbh. Assuming Sark gets a raise, after he and Venables join the conference, that will likely make Elko the 11th highest paid coach in the conference. $1M more for a top 12 finish seems unlikely, but $8M likely wont be a "top 12" cfb salary. They must really be broke if thats all Sexton could milk out of them. Either that or they are funneling money on the side so that they don't look any dumber than they currently do. There will be worse contracts handed out this offseason would be my guess, so congrats aggy.

They had to leave themselves room for the inevitable raise/extension after Elko goes 9-4 with a bowl win over an opt-out depleted opponent.

[Mantis Toboggan, MD 1,499]

So their research project revealed that the best formula to win a National Championship was to:

1) have Nick Saban
2) have a dominant defense
3) have a great QB
4) have a bunch of NFL talent
5) have a dominant offense

They might be on to something. Sounds easy.

[utee94 15,746]

And they still don't understand they'll NEVER get past that me-first culture, when they're hiring mercenaries by dropping huge bags on a select few.  True NIL is more transparent and causes less turmoil on a team, but it's not in the ag culture to develop something solid and transparent from the ground-up.  They ALWAYS try to short circuit every process  by throwing giant bags of cash at them.

They ARE the culture problem.  They created it, they embedded it, they continue to cultivate it, and I don't see them ever having enough self-awareness to change any of that.

 

[dcar00 14,036]

1 minute ago, Mantis Toboggan, MD said:

So their research project revealed that the best formula to win a National Championship was to:

1) have Nick Saban
2) have a dominant defense
3) have a great QB
4) have a bunch of NFL talent
5) have a dominant offense

They might be on to something. Sounds easy.

and they didn't even need to consult/pay Korn Ferry.  Genius.

[Pam Cummings 9,582]

25 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

so is it 77M+42M+11M+whatever buyouts are for current assistants?

$130 Million+

Hurr

Durr

"Resources"

[Tex Pete 20,181]

11 minutes ago, Carl Spackler said:

It's simple.  So simple.  

Yet aggy has never even sniffed winning the SEC, and the last time they won a NC was just after Hitler invaded Poland. 

And: they were hiring someone else Saturday evening!

[Tex Pete 20,181]

7 minutes ago, blutow said:

Yeah, I don't know.  Even if $17.5m is the payout for an NC year, that's not a dumb number.  Shit like that drives finance people crazy (because it's hard to know what to plan for), but the reality is that will be a very rare year and even if he's winning an NC ever few years that's $ well spent.  It's a way you can convince Elko he's making as much (or more) as the top guys without committing to pay him $10m/year+.  Under that plan, chances are his average annual salary would be well under $10m, even if he's getting into the playoffs frequently.  

No. It’s dumb. This is a HC with 2 years of experience, taking a job at an also-ran in the toughest football conference. 
 

It’s dumb. 

[BurntOrange&White 39,665]

2 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

No. It’s dumb. This is a HC with 2 years of experience, taking a job at an also-ran in the toughest football conference. 
 

It’s dumb. 

Said coach was carried by a QB too.

[orangebird 1,079]

41 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

 

Pretty decent photo gallery of last night’s and today’s Elko related events here: https://theeagle.com/gallery/gallery-coach-mike-elko-arrival-and-welcome-celebration/collection_fb815f1e-8d78-11ee-8430-f3785d7a8268.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_TheEagleAggies#15

but GD this one photo fucking cracks me. It is the look on Bjork’s face:

 

Bjork has the look of a guy who just came out of the boss's office after an all-morning chewing-out.  Probably because that's exactly what happened.