The Texas A&M football program is a big winner even before Saturday night’s season opener against seventh-ranked Notre Dame. Things have been on the upswing for the Aggies since hiring Mike Elko nine months ago. He’s revamped just about everything about the program, including the image.
For more than a decade the bad outweighed the good with the Aggies regarding national news, but it’s been pretty much all positive since Elko’s arrival. The former Aggie defensive coordinator has instilled discipline and accountability. While Elko and his assistants were improving the players, others were telling the fans.
“I think you could market your program and substance,” Elko said. “I think if you look at what we’re doing on social media right now, we’ve been significantly more active. There’s been more posts.
I think there has been more creative content going out that’s all intentional.” Good news sells. “I think marketing our program is something you have to do in this day and age of college football, because your recruiting is still the lifeblood of what you're doing, and recruits live on social media, and so that’s a very intentional piece of our program,” Elko said.
“I don’t know if that goes in line with substance. It’s just what you’re marketing, and what we’re marketing this program to be about.” Social media has been busy with A&M ranked 20th in both the Associated Press and American Football Coaches Association’s Top preseason 25 poll.