First, let me say that the Aggies fucking suck. Because their culture and approach to football sucks. Even when they recruit well, that culture infects the players and they get progressively worse the longer they're part of the program. 5-star recruits and good coaches will never view the school as anything more than a paycheck. They are country rubes who will happily buy snakeoil if it's pitched to them the right way. And the right way is anything that feeds their baseless sense of superiority. It's a bone-deep problem that will never really be fixed, only temporarily ameliorated.
Second, if I can /unjerk and take of my burt-orange-colored glasses, I think Elko is a good fit for their program. He is not a great head coach - everyone is wildly overrating his two seasons at Duke, which can largely be explained by Riley Leonard, weak competition, and low expectations for the program. He's not Snyder at KSU or even Fitzgerald at Northwestern. He's an average coach who managed to get a basketball school to play competent football. That's a commendable feat, but not an indicator of high quality or long term success. He is a good defensive mind and a decent recruiter. Despite his personal slovenliness* he has always struck me as more or less having his act together. I don't think he's going to cause some massive scandal for their program, nor do I think he is going to piss off too many people in the AD. So, altogether, I rate him as a fine coach. Competent enough on the field and not a complete dumpsterfire of a human.
But I think the best thing Elko can do for A&M is raise the floor and keep the program "respectable" until their financial woes lighten up. And I think Elko knows that to, and you see it in his recruiting. He's looking for FCS and G5 players who will value A&M as an opportunity. The blue chip prospects will always treat A&M like everyone else does - as a paycheck. A place where they're willing to play if A&M pays them enough. But those players never give a shit. They'll never buy in or play hard.** Elko needs to bring in enough "hungry" players from the lower level who will buy into the Aggie bullshit because it's the best shot those players will ever have. Plus, those players are all A&M can afford at the moment. Once Elko has enough of those guys in the program, he can (potentially) end up with a team who at least cares about winning. They won't be talented enough to win championships, but they might be good enough to catch a great team napping and sneak their way into some better than average seasons. But those will be few and far between. I think 8-4 seasons are exactly what they'll keep getting under Elko and I think that's best he'll ever be able to do. He's an 8-4 type of coach and they're spiritually an 8-4 type of school, so it should be a good fit.
But that's the trap that Aggies can't see. If they get the talent needed to win championships, they'll end up with a team full of individuals that are only there for the money. To get a team of players who work together and actually care about winning, they've got to bring in a lot of OKGs*** who don't have the talent to play anywhere else but are willing to work hard and develop. In other words, A&M is a middle-tier development program. But if that's the case, why doesn't A&M perform as well as schools like Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, Kentucky, ISU, etc.? A&M has more money than them, they should be better. The reason is that A&M refuses to accept that it's a middle-tier development program. Schools like Oklahoma State know who they are and they play to those strengths. Elko is a perfect coach for that kind of program. But he won't work out at A&M because they can't let go of the fantasy that they're a top tier program. They won't actually commit to being a development program which is what they need to do in order for Elko to actually succeed.
Why is that an immutable quality at A&M? See my first point. The fans and boosters are too easily duped. As soon as they achieve any level of success, they start to believe that success should be the norm and open the door to coaches like Jimbo and players like Evan Stewart, who are happy to part these proverbial fools from their money. Even if they end up with an RC Slocum, eventually they'll convince themselves that they deserve better and fire his ass for another snakeoil salesman. It's the same thing that happens when some asshole wins the lottery - the money is just fucking gone within a couple of years.**** Because the reasons why he's an asshole didn't suddenly disappear just because a ton of money suddenly fell in his lap. A&M can have all the goddamn money in the world, it won't stop them from being A&M and it won't fix their problems as a program. I almost feel bad for Elko. It's a sisyphean task ahead of him and he does not have the BMI or the blood pressure for that kind of stress. He'll get them to perform at a reasonable level in light of their inherent limitations, and they'll hate him for it.
* I know we like to talk about the man like he's a fat drunk, mostly because he is, but I won't do that here. Glass houses and stones, etc.
** The entire '22 class makes this clear. That is a perfect example of what happens when a school like A&M tries to build a roster like Bama, but they don't have a guy like Saban to tame those egos.
*** a/k/a bread, but like wheat bread so it's kinda good for you.
**** Not assholes like the people on here. Y'all are assholes but not the specific kind of asshole I'm talking about. I'm talking about some jobless Jethro with a suspended license and 5 kids he can't support. I'm sure y'all could blow some lottery winnings as well as Jethro, but for different reasons. "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." - George Best