Duke football: Elko happy with team as season set to begin

As his team prepared for their season-opening game with Temple, first-year head coach Mike Elko met with the media earlier this week during a press conference posted to goduke.com. He did not mince words when speaking about the goals for Duke football,

"“We’re not going to ever sell our goal short. Our goal is to go to a bowl game. Our goal is to beat our in-state rival. Our goal is to play in the ACC Championship. That’s our goals and we’re not going to change them.”"

Elko and his staff have been working to change the culture and attitude of the Blue Devil program since taking over in early December of last year. He has been around a couple of very successful programs in his twenty-plus years of college coaching and understands what it takes for a team to reach the higher levels of the sport. Elko is happy with what he’s seen from his team so far,

"“I’m really excited with where we are. I think we’ve made a lot of strides in eight and a half months, and we’ve made a lot more during training camp. I think our guys are working extremely hard. They’re obviously excited to go out Friday night and showcase everything that they’ve done and kind of put a new taste in the fans mouth and where we’re going as a program.”"

Although the Duke football boss says new coaching staffs don’t really know what they have until the third or fourth game of the season, everyone is looking forward to getting started against Temple,

"“I’m just excited to get out there and really play somebody. I think our guys are really fired up for this one and looking forward to it.”"

Elko is very conscious of restoring the Blue Devils to respectability and giving fans and alumni something to be proud of,

"“Intangibly I’d just like to see us go out and really value the opportunity to be Duke football players. I think if we do that, there’ll be a level of competitiveness and a level of fire that we’ll play with. I think our fans and our alumni base will really appreciate that.”"

Some coaches get too caught up in looking perfect and are not happy even with a win. Elko has a simple answer to what defines a successful first game for him,

"“If we have more points than them (Temple).”"

I love that answer and you should to. He doesn’t care about looking stylish, just win. That’s all you want to do when you’re coming off a 3-9 season and have won just ten games in three years. Elko is looking for a win against Temple any way his team can get it.