Elko makes his return to Aggieland

Eschewing the maroon blazer and Aggie cowboy boots, Elko went instead with an A&M hat and maroon tie at his introductory event. He also ditched much of the coachspeak and platitudes that are part of events of this type and got straight to the point.

"My vision for this program is very simple. We are going to build the premier football program in the country," he said. "We are not going to talk about it anymore. We are going to be about it."

To "be about it," Elko explained, would mean a lot of hard work and dedication to the things that are difficult, that "suck" and go on when nobody's looking.

"We can't just say we want to be something. We can't just say we want to arrive somewhere. We've got to be committed to all the work that it's going to take from today until we kick off next September of doing that," he said. "And there's a lot that goes into that. There's culturebuilding. There's camaraderie. There's connecting with the players. There's the players connecting at a greater level with each other. There's strength and conditioning. There's development. There's so much that goes into winning football games in the fall, and those are the things that we have got to start taking pride in."

Elko built one of the strongest defenses in the SEC during his time at A&M, but the Aggie offense frequently struggled in the constraints of Jimbo Fisher's offensive scheme. Elko said there would not be a repeat performance of that during his tenure.

"We are going to find a way to play explosive offense. We're going to be part of the modern era. We're going to be able to switch up tempos. We're going to be able to utilize our personnel," he said. "I do think there's a bluecollar toughness that comes from having a great defense that stands the test of time. But if you can't score points, you won't win games enough to be where we want to be."

With a week until the opening of the transfer portal and less than a month until the early signing period, Elko will have his hands full with two tough tasks while also assembling a coaching staff. He said that he will have to count on some of the people already in the Bright Center and "on what Texas A&M represents."

"We are going to have to try to move 100 miles an hour at a very precise direction," he said, "and sometimes that's really hard to do, but we got to make sure we spend an awful lot of time here in the next three days trying to identify that, so when we do hit the road running on Friday, we're going in the direction we need to be going."

Elko was asked about the status of interim head coach Elijah Robinson, who served as Elko's defensive tackles coach for four years. A&M's new coach made it clear he wants Robinson to remain on his staff, which most expect will happen.

"Elijah will certainly be a priority, and getting him to stay here is a huge priority. That process has already begun," he said.

During his introductory comments and his press conference, Elko made overtures to the Texas High School Coaches Association, saying that his staff would work hard to expand relationship's with the state's high school football coaches -- a key element to successful recruiting.

"We're in the state of Texas. And the state of Texas is the elite football state for high school football in the country, right? So we have got to make sure that we are taking our time and going in and seeing the coaches, spending time with the coaches," he said. " I think one of the biggest things as a great football-playing university in this state is we have to provide access. We have got to be welcoming to the high school coaches. We have got to get them to see how we are running this thing so that they can go back and breathe confidence about what's happening here at Texas A&M."

With his plans for rebuilding the team and expanding recruiting laid out, Elko described his ultimate goal.

"We will become the absolute best version of ourself as quickly as possible, because the best version of Texas A&M football wins the national championship," he said.