Mike Elko is headed back to Texas A&M.
Elko and the SEC school reached an agreement to make him the next head coach of Texas A&M’s football program, according to ESPN.
An official announcement is expected to come within 24 hours.
Elko addressed the potential move to College Station with the Duke football team – where he’s coached the last two seasons – during a meeting on Sunday, ESPN reported.
The move comes after Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher on Nov. 12, a move that is expected to cost the university a record $76 million for the buyout.
Elko returns to A&M where he spent four seasons as defensive coordinator before taking the head coaching job at Duke in 2022.
His time at both schools culminated in plenty of success for both programs, which included serving as the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M during their 9-1 season in 2020, which included a trip to the Orange Bowl.
At Duke, Elko helped revamp the program in his two seasons there.
He turned around a team that had gone 3-9 the previous year and helped them go 9-4 and make a bowl game appearance in his first season.
The nine wins were the most Duke had recorded since 2014.
This year, Elko coached Duke to a 7-5 record and went 4-0 in their first four games of the season.
Among their seven wins, Duke shocked No. 9 Clemson with a 28-7 win in the first game of the year.
They nearly topped Notre Dame in the fifth game of the season, but quarterback Riley Leonard was injured toward the end of the game, impacting the rest of the season.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, who chose to stay with the Wildcats, Kansas’ Lance Leipold and Kansas State’s Chris Kleiman were all reported candidates for the Texas A&M job.
Elko will now be tasked with getting Texas A&M (7-5) headed in the right direction.
His previous stops have included Bowling Green, Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
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