South Brunswick's Mike Elko finds success as Duke's head football coach

Mike Elko has been a college football coach 24 years, having stops along the way at programs like Notre Dame and Texas A&M. A head coach for the first time, at Duke University, he has come a long way since his start as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook.

The 45-year-old has come even further since his days growing up in South Brunswick. Raised in a trailer park with his parents, he not only played three sports at South Brunswick High School but also studied enough to get accepted at the University of Pennsylvania.

His achievements peaked this season as he led the Blue Devils to an 8-4 record. Wednesday, they face the University of Central Florida in the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

Since 1994, the program has had just five winning seasons. The past three seasons have been 3-9, 2-9 and 5-7.

This season’s losses were by eight points at Kansas, by three to North Carolina, by two at Pitt and in overtime at Georgia Tech.

An 11-1 record would have been worthy of National Coach of the Year honors, but 8-4 and second-place in its division were enough for Elko to be selected as Coach of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Not bad for a rookie.

“I don’t know if I’m surprised that the rookie coach did this well,’’ Elko said in a phone interview last week. “Obviously when you take a job and they were 3 and 9 before you got there, and scores as lopsided as they were, you certainly don’t go, ‘I absolutely know we’re going to win eight and not get blown out ever.’

“But as you start to recognize the type of kid you have, the quality of the kids you have, you start to feel it come together. There was anticipation that we were capable of doing something pretty cool. That, and I think the confidence grew. We had some early success, won some games, lost some close games, which I think still built confidence and we were able to put together the season that we did.”

No surprise to Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson, who had Elko on his staff 12 years; programs including Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green and Wake.

“Mike was recommended to me,” Clawson said. “I think he was 23. I was very impressed in the interview. He had good knowledge of football, he was very confident and I could tell how bright he was. I hired him as linebackers coach.”

Elko was hired as Clawson’s Defensive Coordinator at Bowling Green five years later, then held the same position for three years at Wake Forest.

“He is very direct in terms of establishing expectations from players,’’ Clawson said. “He’s very demanding, but he does a good job explaining what’s expected up front so his players aren’t surprised by his expectations. Mike’s a good friend. I’m really proud of him, and I’m not at all surprised at his success.”

Elko, who played quarterback on a high school field named after his great uncle Michael, was a defensive back at Penn. His uncle, a football and jayvee baseball coach at South Brunswick, died suddenly during a baseball practice.

Two years into the U. of Penn Elko knew he wanted to be a coach. Majoring in U.S. History, he thought if nothing else he could be a high school football coach and teach U.S. History.

But his first job was out in Long Island at Stony Brook, in 1999. He would marry his college sweetheart, and he and his wife Michelle have three children. Son Michael is a freshman at Northwestern, son Andrew is a high school sophomore and daughter Kaitlyn is in middle school.

Dad now works in Durham, NC. And his new job is nothing like the others.

“Certainly, football is why I’m here, and what I’m best at,” Elko said. “But you have to get involved in so many different parts of the University, to this community, this program, to do it the right way and grow every aspect of what we’re trying to get accomplished down here. And so, from marketing, to interior design as you redesign buildings, to alumni relations, to every other thing that could come along with that. You’re just spread in a lot of different ways.”

Then there’s the coaching thing.

“I think I’m direct. I’m a straight shooter. I think people respect the honesty and approach I have, how I do things,” he said. “I think players have always understood that I was hard but fair, and would certainly develop them and maximize who they were on and off the field.

“That’s the Jersey roots. Right? I’m a Jersey coach through and through.

“As an assistant, you get to a point to where you have ideas but there’s a level of frustration that you don’t have the ability to implement everything that you want to implement. When you become a head coach there’s a feeling that, ‘Okay, now I can really put my hand print and how I want things to go and how I want to practice.’

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, I don’t have to answer to anyone when it comes to building the program the way we want.”

Despite having coached at Wake Forest and now Duke, Elko hasn’t acquired a southern accent. No sir, y’all.

“I’ve lived in enough places that the only place I can call home is Jersey. But I can say it’s a lot warmer than Middlesex County,” he said with a laugh. “So come on down.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: South Brunswick's Mike Elko finds success as Duke's head football coach