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Notre Dame Football: Who Is Mike Elko?

SURPRISE! Mike Elko is not a caricature of a popular cult classic film. This is a great start.

By Joshua Vowles
Wake Forest v Duke Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

With the possibility of Mike Elko becoming the next defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, I’ve seen a lot of people asking, “Who is Mike Elko?”

Of course, everyone is looking for more than just the obvious answers about Elko. I went in search of the not so obvious answers, and to my delight... I didn’t have to look very far. Old BGS Godfather Jay, put together a table with all the stats you need and maybe even a few you don’t understand.

Take of it what you will, but after several long stares at the stats I have come up with a few thoughts.

  • Elko did more with less at WF.
  • Nothing screams BADDEST DEFENSE ON THE PLANET but neither did most of Diaco’s stats- and we would gladly take that.
  • Maybe this season’s stats at WF could have been better. They had some real live spy stuff going on. Tommy Elrod, was feeding info to opponents.
  • There is no real way to know what kind of recruiter Elko could be at a program like Notre Dame.
  • That 2012 defense at BG was nasty. Nasty for the MAC, which is a fairly offensive conference (all puns intended).

The Mike Elko File

Year School S&P+ Rk dFEI dFEI Rk dPPG dPPG Rk TURN INT FUM TFL Sacks Rush Y/G Rush Y/G Rk Rush YPC Rush YPC Rk Pass Y/G Pass Y/G Rk Pass YPA Pass YPA Rk Eff. Eff. Rk
Year School S&P+ Rk dFEI dFEI Rk dPPG dPPG Rk TURN INT FUM TFL Sacks Rush Y/G Rush Y/G Rk Rush YPC Rush YPC Rk Pass Y/G Pass Y/G Rk Pass YPA Pass YPA Rk Eff. Eff. Rk
2011 Bowling Green 38 -0.17 66 28.8 77 15 6 9 63 21 203.42 104 4.92 100 202.6 38 6.6 34 121.69 34
2012 Bowling Green 49 +0.46 25 16.8 10 22 10 12 88 38 106.54 12 3.35 14 190.1 13 6 13 112.37 18
2013 Bowling Green 74 +0.10 54 15.9 5 21 8 13 84 30 150.57 47 4.5 82 170.9 6 5.7 5 107.4 9
2014 Wake Forest 37 -0.04 61 26.4 60 19 6 13 86 28 182.67 83 4.38 74 186.6 12 6.4 21 122.61 47
2015 Wake Forest 60 -0.16 77 24.6 43 11 6 5 74 20 161.25 52 4.19 55 202.5 32 7.5 84 138.88 95
2016 Wake Forest 28 +0.32 37 21.8 20 25 11 14 81 37 155.92 50 4.05 44 214.2 47 7 46 122.79 41
Via Jay “BGS Godfather”

As far as ELKO WATCH is concerned right now, it is my understanding that an offer is on the table from Notre Dame but Elko is also being looked at by Florida and Oregon.

I have no idea how many assistants Elko would bring with him from Wake Forest, or who he may “let go” at Notre Dame. I have read in a few places that he plans on bringing at least one guy with him- but I have no insight as to who that may be at the moment.

Thought you guys might want to see this, so that’s why I put the table here instead of just a link. Numbers can tell a thousand tales, but they also have to be in the right context. At Wake Forest, I think he has done a pretty good job in a conference that likes to put points on the board. Wake is much smaller than Notre Dame and his talent pool hasn’t been as large as what he may get in South Bend. It looks like it would be a solid hire, and I’ll take a solid defense in a heartbeat.

EDIT:

Looks like an issue with the table format. (Some new stuff here on SBN). Rather than delete the table or mess around with it for a while, I’m going to drop a screen shot of the table. Again, this was found on the BGS Forum linked above).

Mike Elko
via Jay “BGS Godfather”

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