Mike Elko - Defensive Coordinator

[BobbyMac]

While $3-4M is silly to pay for Elko, I could definitely make the case why ND can and should pay more for it's football coaches than any school in the country. $10M for HC and $2M for OC / DC is not out of line.

 

[zelezo vlk]

While $3-4M is silly to pay for Elko, I could definitely make the case why ND can and should pay more for it's football coaches than any school in the country. $10M for HC and $2M for OC / DC is not out of line.

And special bonuses for line coaches. That's what I'd do anyways

 

[BobbyMac]

And special bonuses for line coaches. That's what I'd do anyways

Yep. Everyone's getting taken care of.

My recruiting director would make $2M... (what more would you expect from me?)

The recruiting office would be a 10,000 Sq/ft rotating gold penthouse placed on top of what is now called the Gug... which I would of course rename the Vinny Cerrato Center.

 

[Legacy]

Arguably, the defense is the difference between ten wins in 2017 and four wins in 2016 with seven losses by a touchdown or less. (Our only other loss was by eighteen to USC).

2016 - Total ave points given up - 27.8
FBS Winning (7) opponents - 23.9
Power 5 opponents (9) - 32.2

2017 - Total ave points surrendered - 21.5
FBS Winning (11) - 22.9
Power 5 (10) - 22.9

That Scoring Defense rivals the 2010-13 defenses (with 2012's D being outstanding)
2013 (22.4) with 26.1 given up against FBS Winning (9)
2011 (20.7) with 24.0 against FBS Winning (7)
2010 (20.2) with 21.0 against FBS Winning (11)
2012 (12.8) with 13.0 against FBS Winning (9)

Those Scoring Offenses were not as good as 2017's (34.2)
2013 - 27.2
2012 - 25.8
2011 - 29.2
2010 - 26.3

Over the last ten seasons, only 2015's Scoring Offense was as good (34.2) number-wise but played 7 FBS winning teams vs 11 in 2017.

Having the best Scoring Offense in ten years (tied with 2015) and having the best Scoring Defense except for 2012 (13.0) and 2010 (20.2) over the last ten years makes Kelly look like a very good HC. But kudos to Elko (and Chip Long) for such a great turnaround.

Point Differentials
2012 - 13.0
2017 - 12.7

 

[IrishLax]

With Aranda getting 2.5 mil to stay at LSU over Texas A&M I'm interested to see what happens here... would A&M make another run at him? Pay bump for Elko? These salaries are getting kind of crazy for a coordinator.

 

[NDRock]

With Aranda getting 2.5 mil to stay at LSU over Texas A&M I'm interested to see what happens here... would A&M make another run at him? Pay bump for Elko? These salaries are getting kind of crazy for a coordinator.

It's insane. A&M is not messing around

 

[IrishLion]

With Aranda getting 2.5 mil to stay at LSU over Texas A&M I'm interested to see what happens here... would A&M make another run at him? Pay bump for Elko? These salaries are getting kind of crazy for a coordinator.

It's insane. A&M is not messing around

LSU just set a new market standard for top d-coordinators, and it was arguably a terrible move, regardless of how good they think Aranda is.

You don't commit that much money to a coordinator, period. It's bad business, and it shows a lack of faith in the overall program IMO.

That will change now, thanks to LSU.

Swarbrick is gonna have to open up the pocket books to keep Elko after '18, if not now.

 

[Meatloaf]

With Aranda getting 2.5 mil to stay at LSU over Texas A&M I'm interested to see what happens here... would A&M make another run at him? Pay bump for Elko? These salaries are getting kind of crazy for a coordinator.

It's crazy. No coordinator is worth what Aranda is getting. That said, I do think Elko deserves a pay bump, just not something that would push his salary north of $2mm. I don't think we'd have to pay him as much to stay as A&M would have to pay him to leave, though.

 

[koonja]

Question - what is Elko's relationship with A&M? Why is he so rumored to go there?

Or is it just that there is NO relationship, and A&M has him #1 on his list, and they think they can get him?

 

[BobbyMac]

LSU just set a new market standard for top d-coordinators, and it was arguably a terrible move, regardless of how good they think Aranda is.

You don't commit that much money to a coordinator, period. It's bad business, and it shows a lack of faith in the overall program IMO.

That will change now, thanks to LSU.

Swarbrick is gonna have to open up the pocket books to keep Elko after '18, if not now.

It's not bad business when you got the money.

Another step towards the P5 leaving the NCAA and not sharing the the money they generate. More good business... for them.

 

[IrishLion]

It's not bad business when you got the money.

Another step towards the P5 leaving the NCAA and not sharing the the money they generate. More good business... for them.

It's bad business when you're LSU, and you were threatening to close for a period of time or else to shut down athletics because of state budget issues.

It's also bad business, regardless of how much money their football program has, because now they have insane money locked up between their head coach (a glorified recruiter) and d-coordinator (gone if the head coach is fired). That's unstable and irresponsible from a business perspective, IMO, because it takes away from the pot of gold they could offer the next guy.

 

[IrishLion]

Question - what is Elko's relationship with A&M? Why is he so rumored to go there?

Or is it just that there is NO relationship, and A&M has him #1 on his list, and they think they can get him?

I don't think there is one. A&M and everyone around the program believes that they get whoever they want, no questions asked, for some reason (It's the oil money. The reason is the oil money).

It's funny to see their reporters and boosters go silent on social media after getting told "no" by Aranda after having been told "no" by him and another coach already. They tried to pass it off like they were still on option one, even though this is actually their third go-round trying to get a d-coordinator this cycle.

 

[Meatloaf]

Question - what is Elko's relationship with A&M? Why is he so rumored to go there?

Or is it just that there is NO relationship, and A&M has him #1 on his list, and they think they can get him?

No relationship with the staff or any ties to Texas. A&M thinks they can just throw money at whoever they want and get them, which obviously is not the case.

 

[koonja]

I don't think there is one. A&M and everyone around the program believes that they get whoever they want, no questions asked, for some reason (It's the oil money. The reason is the oil money).

It's funny to see their reporters and boosters go silent on social media after getting told "no" by Aranda after having been told "no" by him and another coach already. They tried to pass it off like they were still on option one, even though this is actually their third go-round trying to get a d-coordinator this cycle.

No relationship with the staff or any ties to Texas. A&M thinks they can just throw money at whoever they want and get them, which obviously is not the case.

Got it. So A&M just really wants Elko.

I'm flattered. Other than that nothing to see here IMO, at least not this year.

 

[IrishLion]

Got it. So A&M just really wants Elko.

I'm flattered. Other than that nothing to see here IMO, at least not this year.

Idk, if A&M offers Elko $2.5M/year, I don't know if ND tries to match that. I HOPE they would... but that means bigger salaries for all the assistants, probably.

 

[Irish#1]

It's bad business when you're LSU, and you were threatening to close for a period of time or else to shut down athletics because of state budget issues.

It's also bad business, regardless of how much money their football program has, because now they have insane money locked up between their head coach (a glorified recruiter) and d-coordinator (gone if the head coach is fired). That's unstable and irresponsible from a business perspective, IMO, because it takes away from the pot of gold they could offer the next guy.

Yeah, how do you sell that now if you keep crying about funding drying up? A lot of that money may come from other avenues, but one could always counter that those other avenues should put that money towards academia.

A&M thinks that since they had a cute little run with JM that they are an elite program. They are in that second tier where they play good football and occasionally make some NC Top 10 noise.

 

[NDRock]

Yeah, how do you sell that now if you keep crying about funding drying up? A lot of that money may come from other avenues, but one could always counter that those other avenues should put that money towards academia.

A&M thinks that since they had a cute little run with JM that they are an elite program. They are in that second tier where they play good football and occasionally make some NC Top 10 noise.

Unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with that type of program.

 

[stlnd01]

Unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with that type of program.

At this point we’re well ahead of A&M. Irish #1 is being generous. They’ve had two ten-win seasons in the last 22 years. Have only finished a season ranked three times in this century (the lifetime of current recruits). They’re basically an 8-win, .500 in the conference middleweight.

They’ve got Texas to contend with in-state and Bama and LSU in their division. Yeah they’ve got loads of money and UT (and recent Texas upstarts) are down these days, but this’ll be a very interesting test case on whether a program can spend its way into elite status.

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

Honestly If i'm Notre Dame and Elko ever thinks about leaving I match what any team offers him, if he stays it will be because of him if we win a national title or not in the next 3-5 years

 

[snoopdog]

IMO Elko should be groomed to take over for BK in a few years.

Elston will not be the next ND HC, so make Elso asst HC and groom him now.

 

[NDRock]

At this point we’re well ahead of A&M. Irish #1 is being generous. They’ve had two ten-win seasons in the last 22 years. Have only finished a season ranked three times in this century (the lifetime of current recruits). They’re basically an 8-win, .500 in the conference middleweight.

They’ve got Texas to contend with in-state and Bama and LSU in their division. Yeah they’ve got loads of money and UT (and recent Texas upstarts) are down these days, but this’ll be a very interesting test case on whether a program can spend its way into elite status.

That surprises me. Would have guessed at least twice that number.

 

[NDdomer2]

At this point we’re well ahead of A&M. Irish #1 is being generous. They’ve had two ten-win seasons in the last 22 years. Have only finished a season ranked three times in this century (the lifetime of current recruits). They’re basically an 8-win, .500 in the conference middleweight.

They’ve got Texas to contend with in-state and Bama and LSU in their division. Yeah they’ve got loads of money and UT (and recent Texas upstarts) are down these days, but this’ll be a very interesting test case on whether a program can spend its way into elite status.

In the last 22 seasons ND averages 7.521739 wins per year and aTm averages....7.521739 wins per year. Yes they have the same exact number of wins over the last 22 seasons.

Post Lou Holtz (20 seasons): ND averages 7.43 wins per and aTm averages 7.52

BK era: ND averages 8.625 wins per and aTm in same time span averages 8.375.

I dont know if there is another program in the country that could be more comparable in the time frame you suggested.

 

[Irish#1]

In the last 22 seasons ND averages 7.521739 wins per year and aTm averages....7.521739 wins per year. Yes they have the same exact number of wins over the last 22 seasons.

Post Lou Holtz (20 seasons): ND averages 7.43 wins per and aTm averages 7.52

BK era: ND averages 8.625 wins per and aTm in same time span averages 8.375.

I dont know if there is another program in the country that could be more comparable in the time frame you suggested.

True, but where is A&M's storied history and NC's? Have we been elite since Lou left? No, but I look at a program on it's whole and not just the last 5 or 10 years. Even when they were going through a lengthy dry spell I considered Bama an elite program

 

[IrishAlum1997]

See ya Elko (and defense)

See ya Elko (and defense)

TexAgs message board reporting Elko to aTM... Damn, damn, damn....

 

[GrangerIrish24]

ummmm apparently going to A&M

 

[Crazy Balki]

....Whuh?

 

[Irish YJ]

not seeing anything on the interwebz

 

[IrishLax]

LOL

 

[NDRock]

ummmm apparently going to A&M

Yeah, once I saw Koon's post about "nothing to see here" I knew we were fucked.

 

[zelezo vlk]

not seeing anything on the interwebz

ISD's Twitter account retweeted somebody saying an official announcement will come shortly