Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 PRESEASON 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: TEXAS A&M BY TYLER HORKA I magine telling Mike Elko and Ri- ley Leonard in August 2023 that they'd be adversaries on Aug. 31, 2024. They'd both have asked if you also believed the Earth is flat and upside down is actually right-side up. At this time last year, there just was not a world in which they could envi- sion having to go against each other in a collegiate capacity. Elko being Texas A&M's head coach and Leonard being Notre Dame's starting quarterback in a primetime Week 1 matchup with ESPN's College GameDay in town would have been a completely foreign and mesmer- izing conjecture. Elko was coming off orchestrating Duke's seventh nine-win season in pro- gram history and just the third since the conclusion of World War II in his first year as the head coach. Last September, Elko was bringing back his star quarterback, who ac- counted for 3,666 yards from scrim- mage and 33 touchdowns the prior sea- son. Of that total, 236 of the yards and 2 of the touchdowns came in Duke's 30- 13 victory over Central Florida in the Military Bowl. Elko and Leonard emotionally em- braced on stage in Annapolis, Md., while receiving the winner's trophy in a post- game ceremony. Smiles on their faces seemingly stretched from South Bend to College Station. They didn't look like a duo 12 months away from an unex- pected breakup. It more resembled the start of something special. Two more years of the same sort of celebrations. If only they knew. The following De- cember their unforeseen split became reality. On Nov. 27, Elko, a former Notre Dame and Texas A&M defensive coordina- tor, accepted the Aggies' vacant head coaching position that was opened by the dismissal of Jimbo Fisher. Leonard announced his intentions to transfer to Notre Dame a few weeks later on Dec. 12. The glorious 2022 season, one in which the Blue Devils came within one win of the program's all-time record, ended up being the best of Elko's and Leonard's working relationship. Leon- ard only played in seven games in 2023 because of various injuries, and Elko was out the door after a 7-5 regular sea- son before the Blue Devils suited up for the Birmingham Bowl. Just like that, it was all over. Memories, though, remained. They always will. When Elko made his SEC Media Days rounds at the Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas, he went through ra- dio row, a press conference with televi- sion reporters and various one-on-ones with big-name personalities without being asked the token question about facing Leonard. When he finally got it in a press con- ference with print reporters in the ho- Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT TEXAS A&M Date: Aug. 31, 2024 Site: Kyle Field in College Station, Texas Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET Television: ABC Series facts: Notre Dame is 3-2 against Texas A&M with two of those wins coming in the Cotton Bowl in back-to-back years, 1993 and 1994. The Aggies won the first meeting in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1988. They also won the most recent meeting in College Station on Sept. 29, 2001. Noting Texas A&M: The Aggies went 45-25 in Jimbo Fisher's six seasons as the program's head coach. They never reached a win total of double digits with the best of the half-dozen years being a 9-1 campaign in the COVID-shortened 2020 season … Texas A&M has not won a bowl game since that 2020 season … The Aggies return 11 starters, seven on offense and four on defense, from a team that went 7-6 last season with a loss to Oklahoma State in the Texas Bowl … A&M's prized possession in the transfer portal was Purdue's Nic Scourton, who led the Big Ten in sacks in 2023 with 10 … The Aggies also received a transfer from Bowl- ing Green edge rusher Cashius Howell, who had 9.5 sacks last season … Quarter- back Conner Weigman has only made eight career starts, but he has thrown 16 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in them; he's dangerous when healthy. MANO A MANO Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko and Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard meet again after two years together at Duke Elko and Leonard teamed up for one of the best seasons in Duke history in 2022, leading the Blue Devils to a 9-4 record. PHOTO COURTESY DUKE