Photo by: Evan Pilat/Texas A&M Athletics
Robinson Meets Media at Weekly Press Conference
Nov 13, 2023 | Football
Click the photo above to watch as interim head coach Elijah Robinson met the media at Monday's weekly press conference. A transcript is available below.
Howdy. Just first like to say, I want to give all thanks to Coach Fisher, what he's done for myself and my family, and just the preparation that he's helped me with to one day be in this position. I want to also thank (Director of Athletics) Ross (Bjork) and everyone in Aggie nation for just allowing me to be the guy to help with the transition and lead these young men for these next few weeks. And I'm really thankful for that.
When you meet with the players like you did yesterday, how was that for you and what do you tell them in that situation?
The first thing I gonna say is this. The players are the most important people in the program. I think the biggest thing is understanding what are they're going through and what are they thinking, okay? And addressing that first. And the biggest thing is this, man. This is a brotherhood. And we're going to play for each other. We'll do everything for each other. Everything should be built off of love and trust. Because when you love somebody, you do what? You sacrifice. And when you trust somebody, you what? Allow them to tell you the truth. So that's the biggest thing for us is the brotherhood and playing for each other.
Can you just take us through the last 24 hours for you, the emotions of your relationship with Coach Fisher, but also the opportunity?
Yeah. So started off in the morning, obviously the news had broke. And again, you never can take what you see on the media for truth until you talk to somebody directly. I had an opportunity to meet with Ross. It was a great meeting. It was welcoming and let me know the situation and ask me to kind of lead this thing as we transition for this next month or so. And I was honored to do that. Had an opportunity to meet with the players and just let them know that I'm here for them. The rest of the staff is here for them, and we're going to do what's best for them. And those guys handled it really well. I think the leadership of our team is going to keep this thing going the right way. I think they really enjoyed last week, having all those fans in the stadium, and the way they played, they enjoyed that. And we're going to try to continue that as we move forward.
How difficult is it for you to imprint the way you want to go through things at the end of a season with just so much time left? And what is going to be your style?
The biggest thing I'll just say is that the players are the most important. So we're going to do things that's going to allow those guys to have fun, play with juice and energy, and just understand it's going to be okay, you know? So whatever that is, as a staff, we're going to come together and make sure that we make the adjustment that needs to happen for those guys to enjoy these next few weeks and to play as well as possible.
Do you foresee Max (Johnson) being able to play this week? And if so, how do you decide, after what Jaylen (Henderson) did, who will be the starting quarterback?
Well, I'll tell you this. Coach Petrino has a great resume and I trust and believe in everything he decides to do moving forward with the offense, whether Max is available or not or Jaylen's available or not. I trust, of course, between I'll do the right thing for these players and for this program to make sure that we're in the best situation to win.
Would you apply for this head coaching position? And the second part of that, if there was another coach brought in, would you want to remain here at Texas A&M?
This has been the place I've been the longest outside of my alma mater. And when me and my family moved here, we fell in love with being here. My wife loves it here. My kids love it here, and so do I. So I'm not looking to leave Texas A&M, I would love to be here.
At the end of the day there's a game to play Saturday, I know it's Monday but how prepared do you think the guys will be to step on the field 11 a.m. against ACU?
Like I said we have a unique group of guys. We have a great leadership group. And those guys are going to round them up. They'll get 'em ready to go and we'll prepare the same way and we'll be ready to go on Saturday. I think it starts with practice today. It starts from the team meeting and making those guys understand what's the standard and how we'll go about things. They'll be ready on Saturday.
Were you surprised at all when Ross approached you and just kind of the way this went down?
You know, you never plan for these situations. You never think about it or plan for these things to happen. So the biggest thing was not being surprised. I think you're surprised anytime someone asks you to do such an important job at a great institution like Texas A&M. I was just more so grateful, more than anything. And when he asked me to lead this group of guys, I was excited to do so.
What was kind of your first order of business in your mind that you had to kind of tackle once you were named interim coach?
Get in front of our players. Check on our players and see where they were and make sure that we gave them every support they needed for this transition. That's the most important thing.
Can you talk a little bit about the players' reaction when you spoke to them, what your message was and how they're feeling about your new leadership and taking over the rest of the way?
The biggest thing I've tried to do since I got here was not just have a relationship with the defensive line. I've tried to make sure I had a chance to reach out to every position group and just have a relationship with as many guys as possible. So when we talked to the team, we addressed them about the transition, I thought those guys handled it really well. Those guys embraced me. I those guys were not just happy about everything that happened, but they understood that what happened, happened. I think they're ready to move forward as far as saying what's next. And that's the mentality they had. I'm forever grateful for every guy in that room and the way they embraced me after the news broke.
Coach, you mentioned a couple of things. My guess is you've probably made a pretty long list of priorities and things that you have to do this week. What are a couple or three other things near the top of that list?
Firstly, I think is the biggest and most important thing is spending time with our guys. Not letting those guys be idle by themselves going through things, and finding support for those guys. Then the next thing is reaching out to the parents and making sure the parents understand that during this transition that the coaching staff is going to do everything possible to make sure our guys are in the right space be prepared to be successful. So really it's just our players and the parents and giving them some understanding of what's going to happen next.
Why did you get into coaching? What was the draw of the profession and how would you describe yourself as as a coach?
Okay, so that's a really good question. Did I grow up wanting to be a coach? No I didn't. I had all my eggs in one basket, just like every other young man that probably come from a single-parent home. My plan was to use football to be a savior to my family. My plan was to go play three years, right? Go to the NFL and take care of my family. Unfortunately that didn't happen. God had different plans for me. I think it first happened with the tragedy of just a career-ending injury. And during that process I was kind of lost with what was next for me. I had a head coach and a position coach that thought highly of me. I thought I was going to take a job in marketing, but I got a phone call about coming back and being a GA. Through my process of being a GA, I realized that I was making more of an impact being a coach and being around young men and making them understand that, you know, one day that dream may not come true of playing at the next level. But there's still other avenues and ways that you can still live your dream, make a living for yourself, be an impact people's lives, and take care of your family. So I think I got that coaching bug when I got that opportunity. And how about describe myself? I love recruiting guys with a story. I love making an impact in guys' lives, making sure I have a relationship with these guys off the field and on the field, and just pour in to these young men. These guys are looking for leadership roles. They're looking for role models, and I think this is the best way to do it as a coach.
Ross said he picked you because of the relationships you have with the players. Why are the relationships so important to you?
I think it's about being yourself...You look yourself in the mirror every day, you've got a choice to make. Remember where you came from, remember who you are, and be yourself. And these kids are smart. They understand what's genuine, they understand what's not. And the moment you try to be something that you aren't, I don't think they open up to you. You be yourself with these young men, they'll open up to you. They'll allow you to pour into their life. That's what I focus on every day. How can I be an asset to these young men? Because the blessing is not hey, you get me to coach you. We're blessed to coach these young men. And the moment you understand that's the main thing, that we're blessed to be in their lives, you'll always be successful in this business.
Other than your wife and children, who are a couple of the first people you contacted and said hey, I'm interim coach?
I didn't contact anyone. You know, the moment the news broke, we went and hit the ground. And like I said Ross has been a great help to me as we transition. The biggest thing for me was how can I get in front of these players and what do we need to do to make sure we prepare to put these guys the best situation to be successful? I still haven't returned every text or phone call yet. Outside of my wife, my mother's really important to me, dear to me. I didn't talk to her until 11 o'clock at night as I was driving home and she still had no idea what was going on. My mother's not on Twitter. (Laughter)
This is a results-oriented business. But what can you teach these 18- to 22-year old kids that are on your team about life and and and how we have stumbling blocks and how it can make them into better men?
If it was easy, everybody would be doing all these young men are doing. If it was easy, at our 2 o'clock team meeting a lot of people would be in those seats. It's not easy. And these guys are constantly being pulled and grabbed from different avenues, things I didn't have to worry about as a player. They have everything where they can see what people think of them, from social media to family to friends, tell them who should be and when it should happen. That puts guys, not our guys, but it puts a lot of young men in the microwave mindset that it's supposed to happen overnight. I think what this sport does and what our position as coaches are there for is to teach these guys to control what they can control, and really put your trust into the guys next to you, play for each other, believe in each other, and everything will work out. But like I said, these guys are put in a situation where they're supposed to be doing things on a time schedule, and it's not like that. That's not how life goes. You live life one day at a time. You control what you can control and you're steadfast. And that's the biggest thing.
Are you having to divide time between preparing this team to play and talking to guys about remaining here? And if so, is that difficult having to find time to do both?
Well, I haven't had any conversations about guys looking to leave. The most important thing is what's next, and what's next for us is this team meeting at 2 o'clock, having practice later on today and preparing for a team looking to come in here and get a win off of us. Controlling things one day at a time. We haven't had guys come in my office talking about leaving, but if that happens, we'll have the conversations. I think the biggest thing, I talked about it earlier, was the brotherhood, and people are not in a rush to leave a brotherhood when it's real, you know? So the biggest thing is keep pushing to those guys that they're playing for each other. Being there for each other. And controlling what you can control.
Have you talked with Jimbo?
We had text exchanges. It was more so myself just reaching out and telling him thank you for the opportunity he gave me, and allowing me to be a part of the staff back in 2018 and forever grateful for the opportunity he gave me.
Would you seek any advice from him at this point?
With Coach Fisher, over the years of being with him, I took notes every day of everything he said, sitting in staff meetings. He's a very knowledgeable coach, a great person. And I took lots of notes of everything he said.
From your perspective, over the last two years, all the close losses...what's missing as Jimbo would say in the inches? What's missing and how do you correct it?
Every day you're fighting for the inches. That's real. And just to show you, we have a group of guys in that room that are doing everything possible to get over that inch, to gain that inch. And our job as a staff moving forward is to prepare our guys get that inch, and understanding complimentary football. Defense playing for the offense. Special teams playing for each other. So we're going do everything possible to make sure our guys can do what's necessary to get that inch.
You guys already have a player announced that he's in the transfer portal, and with it kind of being an open window, what's sort of your plan or are you going to kind of check with each individual player? And what's your sense of where everyone's kind of at in that regard?
When these guys decided to come to school here, I think it wasn't just about football. They understand what this place can do for them for the rest of their life. The one thing we always preach was it's not a 4-year decision. It's a 40-year decision. So I'm just going encourage those guys that, listen. No matter what the football part of this thing is, think about your life. Because you won't play this game forever. And like they say, Aggies take care of Aggies, and I would not be looking to run out of this place understanding that for the rest of my life, I'll be taken care of.
You mentioned maybe going into marketing before you got called into coaching. How close were you to taking a job back in that time?
I had no idea what marketing was. I had a buddy that just got drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and he wanted to start a business and he asked me to come help him do it. So I just knew I needed a job. So that's all I know about it.
When you got into coaching, was there any coach or coaches you modeled yourself after or looked up to and said, Hey, I can do it this way or that way?
I can go back to Little League, you know, to all the coaches that made an impact in my life. I stand on their shoulders. From Little League, that was playing the father figure for me, to high school, to even in college. My college coach was Larry Johnson who's now at Ohio State. He was a great mentor of mine. And even from my Little League, with Coach Orlando, and high school, with Coach McBride, coach Kevin Ross who's now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers...I was blessed to be around some really good coaches and great men that poured into my life not just as a player, but as a person. And I think they made the biggest impact on me.
As we've watched you in practice, You're the only coach I've seen that goes up against 300 pound guys and you're in the trenches, they're banging on you in the pads. All the players see that too. Has that just created more of a bond?
Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm smart by doing that or not, but I know when they know they get a chance to go against me, there's a little bit extra happening in that deal. So I think that's their chance to get back at me, and it does create a good bond. We have fun with it. I pay for it the next day when I wake up. But that's just always been my style of coaching. Until I'm not able to do that anymore due to whether age or I may not be in shape, I'm going to do that as much as possible.
Elijah Robinson Press Conference
Howdy. Just first like to say, I want to give all thanks to Coach Fisher, what he's done for myself and my family, and just the preparation that he's helped me with to one day be in this position. I want to also thank (Director of Athletics) Ross (Bjork) and everyone in Aggie nation for just allowing me to be the guy to help with the transition and lead these young men for these next few weeks. And I'm really thankful for that.
When you meet with the players like you did yesterday, how was that for you and what do you tell them in that situation?
The first thing I gonna say is this. The players are the most important people in the program. I think the biggest thing is understanding what are they're going through and what are they thinking, okay? And addressing that first. And the biggest thing is this, man. This is a brotherhood. And we're going to play for each other. We'll do everything for each other. Everything should be built off of love and trust. Because when you love somebody, you do what? You sacrifice. And when you trust somebody, you what? Allow them to tell you the truth. So that's the biggest thing for us is the brotherhood and playing for each other.
Can you just take us through the last 24 hours for you, the emotions of your relationship with Coach Fisher, but also the opportunity?
Yeah. So started off in the morning, obviously the news had broke. And again, you never can take what you see on the media for truth until you talk to somebody directly. I had an opportunity to meet with Ross. It was a great meeting. It was welcoming and let me know the situation and ask me to kind of lead this thing as we transition for this next month or so. And I was honored to do that. Had an opportunity to meet with the players and just let them know that I'm here for them. The rest of the staff is here for them, and we're going to do what's best for them. And those guys handled it really well. I think the leadership of our team is going to keep this thing going the right way. I think they really enjoyed last week, having all those fans in the stadium, and the way they played, they enjoyed that. And we're going to try to continue that as we move forward.
How difficult is it for you to imprint the way you want to go through things at the end of a season with just so much time left? And what is going to be your style?
The biggest thing I'll just say is that the players are the most important. So we're going to do things that's going to allow those guys to have fun, play with juice and energy, and just understand it's going to be okay, you know? So whatever that is, as a staff, we're going to come together and make sure that we make the adjustment that needs to happen for those guys to enjoy these next few weeks and to play as well as possible.
Do you foresee Max (Johnson) being able to play this week? And if so, how do you decide, after what Jaylen (Henderson) did, who will be the starting quarterback?
Well, I'll tell you this. Coach Petrino has a great resume and I trust and believe in everything he decides to do moving forward with the offense, whether Max is available or not or Jaylen's available or not. I trust, of course, between I'll do the right thing for these players and for this program to make sure that we're in the best situation to win.
Would you apply for this head coaching position? And the second part of that, if there was another coach brought in, would you want to remain here at Texas A&M?
This has been the place I've been the longest outside of my alma mater. And when me and my family moved here, we fell in love with being here. My wife loves it here. My kids love it here, and so do I. So I'm not looking to leave Texas A&M, I would love to be here.
At the end of the day there's a game to play Saturday, I know it's Monday but how prepared do you think the guys will be to step on the field 11 a.m. against ACU?
Like I said we have a unique group of guys. We have a great leadership group. And those guys are going to round them up. They'll get 'em ready to go and we'll prepare the same way and we'll be ready to go on Saturday. I think it starts with practice today. It starts from the team meeting and making those guys understand what's the standard and how we'll go about things. They'll be ready on Saturday.
Were you surprised at all when Ross approached you and just kind of the way this went down?
You know, you never plan for these situations. You never think about it or plan for these things to happen. So the biggest thing was not being surprised. I think you're surprised anytime someone asks you to do such an important job at a great institution like Texas A&M. I was just more so grateful, more than anything. And when he asked me to lead this group of guys, I was excited to do so.
What was kind of your first order of business in your mind that you had to kind of tackle once you were named interim coach?
Get in front of our players. Check on our players and see where they were and make sure that we gave them every support they needed for this transition. That's the most important thing.
Can you talk a little bit about the players' reaction when you spoke to them, what your message was and how they're feeling about your new leadership and taking over the rest of the way?
The biggest thing I've tried to do since I got here was not just have a relationship with the defensive line. I've tried to make sure I had a chance to reach out to every position group and just have a relationship with as many guys as possible. So when we talked to the team, we addressed them about the transition, I thought those guys handled it really well. Those guys embraced me. I those guys were not just happy about everything that happened, but they understood that what happened, happened. I think they're ready to move forward as far as saying what's next. And that's the mentality they had. I'm forever grateful for every guy in that room and the way they embraced me after the news broke.
Coach, you mentioned a couple of things. My guess is you've probably made a pretty long list of priorities and things that you have to do this week. What are a couple or three other things near the top of that list?
Firstly, I think is the biggest and most important thing is spending time with our guys. Not letting those guys be idle by themselves going through things, and finding support for those guys. Then the next thing is reaching out to the parents and making sure the parents understand that during this transition that the coaching staff is going to do everything possible to make sure our guys are in the right space be prepared to be successful. So really it's just our players and the parents and giving them some understanding of what's going to happen next.
Why did you get into coaching? What was the draw of the profession and how would you describe yourself as as a coach?
Okay, so that's a really good question. Did I grow up wanting to be a coach? No I didn't. I had all my eggs in one basket, just like every other young man that probably come from a single-parent home. My plan was to use football to be a savior to my family. My plan was to go play three years, right? Go to the NFL and take care of my family. Unfortunately that didn't happen. God had different plans for me. I think it first happened with the tragedy of just a career-ending injury. And during that process I was kind of lost with what was next for me. I had a head coach and a position coach that thought highly of me. I thought I was going to take a job in marketing, but I got a phone call about coming back and being a GA. Through my process of being a GA, I realized that I was making more of an impact being a coach and being around young men and making them understand that, you know, one day that dream may not come true of playing at the next level. But there's still other avenues and ways that you can still live your dream, make a living for yourself, be an impact people's lives, and take care of your family. So I think I got that coaching bug when I got that opportunity. And how about describe myself? I love recruiting guys with a story. I love making an impact in guys' lives, making sure I have a relationship with these guys off the field and on the field, and just pour in to these young men. These guys are looking for leadership roles. They're looking for role models, and I think this is the best way to do it as a coach.
Ross said he picked you because of the relationships you have with the players. Why are the relationships so important to you?
I think it's about being yourself...You look yourself in the mirror every day, you've got a choice to make. Remember where you came from, remember who you are, and be yourself. And these kids are smart. They understand what's genuine, they understand what's not. And the moment you try to be something that you aren't, I don't think they open up to you. You be yourself with these young men, they'll open up to you. They'll allow you to pour into their life. That's what I focus on every day. How can I be an asset to these young men? Because the blessing is not hey, you get me to coach you. We're blessed to coach these young men. And the moment you understand that's the main thing, that we're blessed to be in their lives, you'll always be successful in this business.
Other than your wife and children, who are a couple of the first people you contacted and said hey, I'm interim coach?
I didn't contact anyone. You know, the moment the news broke, we went and hit the ground. And like I said Ross has been a great help to me as we transition. The biggest thing for me was how can I get in front of these players and what do we need to do to make sure we prepare to put these guys the best situation to be successful? I still haven't returned every text or phone call yet. Outside of my wife, my mother's really important to me, dear to me. I didn't talk to her until 11 o'clock at night as I was driving home and she still had no idea what was going on. My mother's not on Twitter. (Laughter)
This is a results-oriented business. But what can you teach these 18- to 22-year old kids that are on your team about life and and and how we have stumbling blocks and how it can make them into better men?
If it was easy, everybody would be doing all these young men are doing. If it was easy, at our 2 o'clock team meeting a lot of people would be in those seats. It's not easy. And these guys are constantly being pulled and grabbed from different avenues, things I didn't have to worry about as a player. They have everything where they can see what people think of them, from social media to family to friends, tell them who should be and when it should happen. That puts guys, not our guys, but it puts a lot of young men in the microwave mindset that it's supposed to happen overnight. I think what this sport does and what our position as coaches are there for is to teach these guys to control what they can control, and really put your trust into the guys next to you, play for each other, believe in each other, and everything will work out. But like I said, these guys are put in a situation where they're supposed to be doing things on a time schedule, and it's not like that. That's not how life goes. You live life one day at a time. You control what you can control and you're steadfast. And that's the biggest thing.
Are you having to divide time between preparing this team to play and talking to guys about remaining here? And if so, is that difficult having to find time to do both?
Well, I haven't had any conversations about guys looking to leave. The most important thing is what's next, and what's next for us is this team meeting at 2 o'clock, having practice later on today and preparing for a team looking to come in here and get a win off of us. Controlling things one day at a time. We haven't had guys come in my office talking about leaving, but if that happens, we'll have the conversations. I think the biggest thing, I talked about it earlier, was the brotherhood, and people are not in a rush to leave a brotherhood when it's real, you know? So the biggest thing is keep pushing to those guys that they're playing for each other. Being there for each other. And controlling what you can control.
Have you talked with Jimbo?
We had text exchanges. It was more so myself just reaching out and telling him thank you for the opportunity he gave me, and allowing me to be a part of the staff back in 2018 and forever grateful for the opportunity he gave me.
Would you seek any advice from him at this point?
With Coach Fisher, over the years of being with him, I took notes every day of everything he said, sitting in staff meetings. He's a very knowledgeable coach, a great person. And I took lots of notes of everything he said.
From your perspective, over the last two years, all the close losses...what's missing as Jimbo would say in the inches? What's missing and how do you correct it?
Every day you're fighting for the inches. That's real. And just to show you, we have a group of guys in that room that are doing everything possible to get over that inch, to gain that inch. And our job as a staff moving forward is to prepare our guys get that inch, and understanding complimentary football. Defense playing for the offense. Special teams playing for each other. So we're going do everything possible to make sure our guys can do what's necessary to get that inch.
You guys already have a player announced that he's in the transfer portal, and with it kind of being an open window, what's sort of your plan or are you going to kind of check with each individual player? And what's your sense of where everyone's kind of at in that regard?
When these guys decided to come to school here, I think it wasn't just about football. They understand what this place can do for them for the rest of their life. The one thing we always preach was it's not a 4-year decision. It's a 40-year decision. So I'm just going encourage those guys that, listen. No matter what the football part of this thing is, think about your life. Because you won't play this game forever. And like they say, Aggies take care of Aggies, and I would not be looking to run out of this place understanding that for the rest of my life, I'll be taken care of.
You mentioned maybe going into marketing before you got called into coaching. How close were you to taking a job back in that time?
I had no idea what marketing was. I had a buddy that just got drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and he wanted to start a business and he asked me to come help him do it. So I just knew I needed a job. So that's all I know about it.
When you got into coaching, was there any coach or coaches you modeled yourself after or looked up to and said, Hey, I can do it this way or that way?
I can go back to Little League, you know, to all the coaches that made an impact in my life. I stand on their shoulders. From Little League, that was playing the father figure for me, to high school, to even in college. My college coach was Larry Johnson who's now at Ohio State. He was a great mentor of mine. And even from my Little League, with Coach Orlando, and high school, with Coach McBride, coach Kevin Ross who's now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers...I was blessed to be around some really good coaches and great men that poured into my life not just as a player, but as a person. And I think they made the biggest impact on me.
As we've watched you in practice, You're the only coach I've seen that goes up against 300 pound guys and you're in the trenches, they're banging on you in the pads. All the players see that too. Has that just created more of a bond?
Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm smart by doing that or not, but I know when they know they get a chance to go against me, there's a little bit extra happening in that deal. So I think that's their chance to get back at me, and it does create a good bond. We have fun with it. I pay for it the next day when I wake up. But that's just always been my style of coaching. Until I'm not able to do that anymore due to whether age or I may not be in shape, I'm going to do that as much as possible.