After swinging and missing on Dave Aranda, it appears Jimbo Fisher has his Plan B. According to a report Thursday from Billy Liucci of TexAgs, Notre Dame's Mike Elko is close to becoming the Texas A&M defensive coordinator.
Brian Kelly has confirmed the move.
Elko recently completed his first season at Notre Dame, a year that saw the Irish lop nearly a touchdown a game off their scoring defense average, part of a turnaround effort that saw Notre Dame jump from 4-8 to 10-3. Ironically, Elko's last game at Notre Dame saw his defense edge out Aranda's defense as Notre Dame beat LSU 21-17 in the Citrus Bowl on Monday.
Prior to Notre Dame, Elko spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Wake Forest, five seasons as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Bowling Green.
Elko's salaries at Notre Dame and Wake Forest were not public record, but, per USA Today, he made $97,000 as Bowling Green's defensive coordinator in 2012 and $130,000 in 2013. Expect Jimbo Fisher to pay him just a bit north of that.
Here's what Kelly had to say on defensive coordinator salaries just last week.
"If you're looking at the defensive coordinators that are out there today, and you look at what they're being paid, it's ridiculous," Kelly said. "The money is crazy and the length of contracts that are being thrown at you. You look at it that way, you're probably going to catch somebody's eye early on in the process, and I'm not saying that it happened or it didn't happen, you can put two and two together."
A Penn graduate, Elko has spent the formative years of his career on the East Coast, working at Stony Brook, Penn, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Fordham, Richmond and Hofstra before joining Dave Clawson's staff at Bowling Green.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.