"We looked at a depth chart magnet board and we had a lot of work to do to get where we wanted it to go before spring ball," he said Wednesday.

After signing 22 transfers and three high school commits in the weeks that followed, the Aggie football team looks very different today than it did on Jan. 2.

"I'm excited about adding pieces kind of at every position across the team," Elko said during his National Signing Day press conference. "We just wanted to go out and find value really across the board and I think we were able to do that."

The biggest name to sign Wednesday was 5-star athlete Terry Bussey of Timpson, who spurned a serious push from LSU to stick with his commitment to A&M. Elko said the versatile Bussey will used in a number of different ways when he joins the program.

"We're going to call him an athlete," Elko said. "There's not a whole lot this kid can't do athletically ... He's going to come in as a corner for sure, but we'll we'll certainly have a role with the ball is in his hands as a return game, as a guy that we can utilize as an offensive specialist some in certain situations and so I'm really excited for him."

One of the areas that underwent the most change in the offseason was in the secondary, with the Aggies added Bussey at corner and two safeties in the 2024 signing class, and adding five corners and three more safeties through the transfer portal. With A&M losing safety Demani Richardson and corner Josh DeBerry to the NFL Draft and one safety and two corners transferring out, Elko said the lack of depth was alarming.

"The secondary was way short from a number standpoint, where in my opinion, you would want a roster to be. And so we felt like in order to play football the way we want to multiple packages, multiple defensive groupings to be able to match up with some people. There were just a lot of pieces we needed to add to that, So it was obviously a priority," he said. "We identified some guys that we thought could add a lot of value for us and then we were able to land a really high percentage of that group ,from the transfers to Terry, and so I think now when you look at the depth chart in the secondary, you see a lot of options. You see a lot of versatility. You see a lot of different types of buying back there. A lot of guys have a lot of different skill sets."

The Aggies also revamped their receiver corps, adding transfers Cyrus Allen (Louisiana Tech) and Jabre Barber (Troy) to go with early signing period additions Ernest Campbell and Izaiah Williams. The final piece of the puzzle, along with Bussey, was added with 4-star receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman from Missouri City Ridge Point, who signed Wednesday.

Bethel-Roman initially seemed like a lost cause, as he signed with Arkansas during the early signing period in December. But a change in position coach led the speedy receiver to request a release from his national letter of intent, allowing him to sign with the Aggies.

"(We) kind of got involved with him in December, tried to get them over the line with us, couldn't, saw him open himself back up through the December-January period, we're able to get back involved with him," Elko explained. "I think he's got good size. He's got a big catch radius. I think he's a dynamic playmaker, really elite speed and so I think he's going to add something to our wide receiver room that we're really excited about."

The third signee of the day was offensive lineman Robert Bourdon from Collierville, Tenn., who had committed to Elko and offensive line coach Adam Cushing when they were at Duke. After the pair moved to A&M, Bourdon followed suit.

"We were able to get him out in January for a visit and able to get that one over the line. I think he's an extremely athletic offensive lineman, he's a lacrosse player has really good feet as a really big frame," Elko said. "I think he projects to be a really good offensive tackle for us and so we're really excited about that."