New Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko used to joke in interviews that as the defensive coordinator, he was responsible for 50 percent of the program. After two years doing the job as the head coach at Duke, he no longer makes that joke.
“You get into the head coach chair and realize the defense is like 5 percent of the program,” Elko said. “The magnitude of what it means to be the CEO can’t be understood until you’re doing it. You wear a lot of different hats in this role and the two years of doing it (at Duke) opened my eyes to what this job requires from me.”