"I was thinking back through this a little bit, there will be a moment walking down the tunnel, for sure, where it hits you, kind of where you are and where you've gotten to in life. I think that will certainly be a little bit of a surreal feeling following the drums down the tunnel on the Kyle Field for the first time," he said Monday. "Outside of that, it's really you're just focused on helping these guys get the result that they want. It's about trying to find every angle you can, every every little detail you can, to pour into this game plan, to give them the best chance to be successful. And you really don't have a lot of time as a coach to just kind of sit back and think about those types of things. It's literally just head down and go."

The 20th-ranked Aggies will kick off at 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening against No. 7 Notre Dame before more than 100,000 people at Kyle Field and a national TV audience watching on ABC. Elko believes that the team's preparation to this point has been solid.

"I think we've had a really, really good fall camp. Happy with the progress that we've made across the board. Happy with where our team is, from a health standpoint, going into this week to get ready for this opener," he said. "I think we've gotten a lot done in terms of becoming more physical, getting better, improving, but also, you know, getting our guys to this week, helping you get ready to roll."

The Fighting Irish are an opponent Elko is familiar with, having played them twice while coaching at Duke and having been the defensive coordinator there before joining Jimbo Fisher's staff in College Station in 2018. Marcus Freeman, who held the same job in 2021 before becoming the head coach at Notre Dame, is someone Elko knows well.

"(Freeman) and I have known each other for a long time, going back to our days in the MAC when he was at Kent State and I was at Bowling Green, and we would cross paths in recruiting. And so defensive guys tend to follow each other in this profession, so (I've) certainly have watched him and watched his defense over the years, and he's a tremendous head coach," Elko said.

Freeman is not the only key character on the opposing side that Elko is familiar with. Quarterback Riley Leonard, who started for two seasons at Duke under Elko before transferring to Notre Dame this offseason, will start for the Fighting Irish.

"It's interesting and weird and not something I really want to do," Elko said of playing against Leonard. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for who he is, not just as a player, but as a person ... (He's) a true threat, dual threat quarterback, I think, who can hurt you both with his arm and with his legs, and so he presents a huge challenge in the backfield."

Like the Aggies, the Fighting Irish have significantly revamped their offense. Not only have they added Leonard, but former LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock has taken the same role in South Bend. Add in new faces at running back and receiver, and film study for the Aggies has been...eclectic.

"I think one of the unique things as you're watching film on openers, you're watching film from about eight different colleges as you get ready for this offense," Elko said. "You got Duke film on there, you got FIU film on there, you got Clemson film on there, you got Notre Dame film, you got LSU film."

The strength of Notre Dame's team, like A&M's is the defense. With one of the nation's top defensive lines -- again, like the Aggies -- Elko knows the challenge for his offensive line and running backs will be imposing.

"I think they don't give you a lot of soft surfaces to run the football. I think we're going to have to find some," he said. "We're going to have to make some with our offensive line. We're going to have to make some with our tailbacks. We've challenged them -- that's going to be the game a little bit. You know, some teams play you in these soft boxes where you have a lot of run angles and Notre Dame won't for the majority of the night. And so we're gonna have to get creative and how we create opportunities for our backs to get get some space and get going."

Coming out of the gate against a top-10 opponent has drawn national attention and a huge visitor list to A&M, but Elko knows it also eliminates any wiggle room for typical early season mistakes.

"You're going to have to come out of the tunnel opening night and execute at a really high level," he said. "You're going to have to play penalty free football. You have to play turnover free football. You're not going to have a lot of time to ease into this new program, these new systems that we're running, you're going to have to go out there opening night to fire on all cylinders. That's obviously the challenge we had to take on. And I think we've got it to the best of our ability."