Texas A&M coach Mike Elko didn’t mince words after his team beat LSU on Saturday night to take the top spot in the SEC.

No. 14 Aggies beat No. 8 Tigers 38-23 sparked A&M after a quarterback change in the second half. After Conner Weigman was replaced by Marcel Reed, Texas A&M scored on four consecutive drives. Thanks to those scores and three interceptions by LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, A&M pulled away for a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter.

“This is a real program,” Elko said in his post-game press conference. “It’s not fake, it’s not some politician running this program talking fast and talking down to everyone. It’s a real program and for all the recruits out there, it’s a real place and if you want to be really good at football, it’s a really good place to be.”

Let’s be clear, Elko didn’t mention anyone by name in the quote above. But it’s easy to understand that this is a reference to the rather fast-talking former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher. Fisher was fired during the 2023 season despite earning over $70 million in buyouts due to the massive contract extension he signed following the 2020 season.

Fisher always rocked the Aggies’ star recruiting classes, but the on-field results didn’t match the stars in those classes. Other than a 9-1 season in 2020 that was impacted by COVID, the Aggies lost at least four games in each of Fisher’s seasons with the team.

Elko was part of Fisher’s roster during the 2020 season. The former Duke head coach coached Texas A&M’s defense from 2018-21 before becoming the head coach of the Blue Devils. After flirting with Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, A&M recruited Elko in the offseason.

Kentucky is 1-5 in the SEC this season after losing to Auburn at home on Saturday night. A&M, meanwhile, is 5-0 and has a pretty manageable conference schedule compared to the other teams at the top of the conference. While Georgia has games remaining against Ole Miss and Tennessee and LSU plays Alabama, the Aggies have games at South Carolina and Auburn before renewing their rivalry against Texas on the final weekend of the season. If A&M beats the Gamecocks and Tigers, the Aggies could have a spot locked in the SEC championship game before the Longhorns come to town.