Five practices into fall camp, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko asked the media for a favor. It was a simple request.

“If we could stop referring to last year, I think that would be great,” Elko said. “I think we’re nine months apart now. I feel like every kid that comes in front of us gets four questions comparing this year to last year. Let’s just not do that. I think we’re way past that.”

If only it were that easy to put last year behind them. A&M had a season that can stick in your throat for decades. The media, however, came to Elko’s aid for a number of reasons. Most notably, the players gave decent responses. Plus, Elko’s tenure is in the honeymoon phase, a pretty good one, given that he is undefeated and ranked 20th nationally. There was no need to make something out of nothing. Or, in this case, point to a season we’d all like to forget.

The key point that should settle those questions for now were the players who were next available after Elko’s request. They included junior defensive back Will Lee III, a transfer from Kansas State, and junior defensive end Nic Scourton, a transfer from Purdue. Obviously, they wouldn’t get any questions about comparing last year to this year since they weren’t here. They were joined by sophomore linebacker Nana Boadi-Owusu, recently named the 12th man. He had a great story to tell, as did Lee and Scourton, the local hero from Bryan making a triumphant return.

Elko did himself and the program a favor by bringing three great student-athletes. About 48 hours after telling us to stop comparing apples to oranges, he brought us three of the best fruits in the orchard, and there’s more where they came from.

Remember, Elko played at the University of Pennsylvania and obviously took a lot of classes to make the most of his education. He is more than a coach. He is a teacher, and a good one at that. He is in complete control of a program that has made great strides on and off the field. In nine months, he has put the Jimbo Fisher fiasco behind him, which is impressive in itself.

That’s not to say he’s going to win a lot of games this year, or next year, or even the year after. He’s simply turned the program around after a dark year, which was no easy task. This program has underperformed since winning the Big 12 Conference title in 1998. I’ve written about too many of the last few years.

I remember back in New Orleans covering the Sugar Bowl game between the Aggies and Ohio State. I walked from the hotel next to the Superdome through the Mall, where there were thousands of maroon-clad fans. I wondered how long it would take for A&M to get back on its feet. Well, so far it hasn’t happened.

Elko will be the sixth coach to try to make A&M a championship program. Who knows how many six-pack abs the Aggies have lamented in a quarter century of waiting. Each failure has been harder to accept because expectations seem to keep rising. A&M gained national attention by hiring Fisher, who had won a national championship, but the Aggies only bought heartache.

This rollercoaster ride began in 2002 when decision-makers decided to fire RC Slocum. The project was put on hold when the Aggies beat first-ranked Oklahoma, but A&M lost to a bad Missouri team in second overtime the next week.

A&M hired Dennis Franchione so the Aggies wouldn’t have to talk about 2002.

Five years later, the Aggies turned to Mike Sherman to quickly get rid of Franchione and his infamous “VIP Connection,” a secret newsletter for fans, along with a disappointing 32-28 record, including a 19-21 conference record and an infamous 77-0 loss to Oklahoma.

The 2011 season under Sherman was just as painful, as a preseason top-10 team melted down to a 6-6 team heading to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Texas as the Aggies blew double-digit second-half leads five times, the last of which was a 27-25 loss to Texas when Justin Tucker kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired. Sherman kneeled on the sidelines looking like the walking dead. It was hard to forget.

An energetic Kevin Sumlin helped the Aggies put 2011 behind him when he advocated moving to the Southeastern Conference. Sumlin’s swagger was infectious. He even had a “swag copter” to fly recruits to campus. His tenure included Johnny Manziel’s magical Heisman Trophy season, a truly remarkable time. In retrospect, A&M lost two games that year despite having by far the best player in the nation surrounded by a number of good players. The Sumlin era essentially ended when A&M blew a 34-point lead in a 45-44 loss at UCLA early in the 2017 season. A&M probably should have listened to Regent Tony Buzbee and fired Sumlin when he returned from Los Angeles. But A&M let him finish the season, giving the Aggies more time to hire their man Fisher.

Fisher, like his predecessors, had his moments, including a 9-1 record in 2020, but that comes with a big asterisk because of COVID-19. More important was the $76.8 million severance package A&M had to pay to get rid of Fisher, who, while he was here, received a national championship plaque with a blank date. If ever there was a year or a coach to forget, it was Fisher and last year. As if the Fisher mess wasn’t bad enough, the Aggies flirted with signing Mark Stoops from Kentucky, who was once Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State. Stoops has a 63-65 overall record and 30-55 in SEC play. Fisher had a 45-25 record at A&M, including 27-21 in SEC play. That didn’t pan out, either. Maybe it’s because of this new bill, or maybe Elko leaked to his people that Stoops was being hired as A&M’s coach. The Aggies thought they had poached Andy Reid from the Kansas City Chiefs by hiring Elko instead of Stoops. And at a base salary of $7 million a year, he was a steal.

Elko spent the last nine months trying to find college football’s best offseason signing. He has methodically built A&M into a team that fans can get behind and commands the respect of the game. The Aggies are a slight favorite to beat seventh-ranked Notre Dame in the opening game. Partly it’s because of home-field advantage at Kyle Field. Partly it’s because of college football today, where so many teams play transfers, which creates uncertainty. But partly it’s because of Elko. Things have changed drastically since last year.

Maybe this time next year we’ll be asking the players and coaches a lot of questions about this year. That would certainly be refreshing.

Robert Cessna’s email address is [email protected].