COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No Texas A&M football coach ever had a better shot at making a good first impression than Mike Elko, who nevertheless said before Saturday’s opener that if he’d had his druthers, he’d have preferred a debut against something other than seventh-ranked Notre Dame.

The Aggies’ first 14 coaches broke in against the likes of Sam Houston, Southwestern, Trinity, Austin College, a half-dozen high school teams and the Houston YMCA.

Only six A&M coaches had the misfortune to start out against a ranked team, and, of those precious few, R.C. Slocum owned the lone W.

Still does.

Notre Dame denied Elko’s bid to match the patron saint of Aggie coaches when Riley Leonard led an 85-yard fourth-quarter drive for a 23-13 win over the 20th-ranked Aggies in front of 107,315, fourth-largest crowd in Kyle Field history.

“You deserved better,” Elko said in a public apology to the faithful.

“We didn’t give it to you.”

A&M’s upset hopes died when Conner Weigman’s fourth-and-2 pass was broken up and nearly became his third interception, which tells you what kind of night it was.

And if that didn’t, this did: Weigman lost his lunch at halftime.

“Just got a little sick,” is how Elko put it.

“Puke and rally.”

Nice.

Weigman’s struggles in his return from a broken foot in the fourth game last year will be a point for Elko to revisit this week. He completed just 12 of 30 passes for 100 yards, a couple of picks and a 54.7 passer rating. Couldn’t get in a rhythm, Elko said, adding they must find ways to make him more “comfortable.”

Of all the issues the new boss figured to face early, I’m thinking this wasn’t one of them. Then again, Notre Dame will present problems for a lot of teams this fall, and not just one under new management.

Previous administrations didn’t do Elko any favors. Jimbo Fisher, fresh off maybe the most ballyhooed/hooted contract in college football history, drew Northwestern State in his 2018 debut. Of course, the next week he got second-ranked Clemson and lost, 28-26. A harbinger of sorts. Under Jimbo, the Aggies were good but never quite good enough, a cardinal sin at those prices, not to mention in the merciless SEC.

Over the next five seasons, Jimbo had his moments. A 9-1 season in 2020 and an upset of top-ranked Alabama the next year come to mind.

But he never won more than nine games and alienated Aggies with fat wallets.

Having said that, if Weigman hadn’t gotten hurt, I’m not so sure Elko wouldn’t still be back at Duke. Before their starting quarterback’s injury, the Aggies were on their way to a 3-1 start. Weigman, who looked like the kind of quarterback that made Jimbo famous at Florida State, closed out last season with a 156.8 passer rating.

From that point, A&M won four of its last nine games, leaving Jimbo’s warts for all to see.

Elko won the job over Kentucky’s Mark Stoops — a clumsy bit of business, at that — because he’d been Aggie-tested as a former defensive coordinator and came up the Anti-Jimbo. He’s certainly likeable. Even his former Duke players couldn’t work up much of a mad against him when ESPN visited recently. The gist of the story was how Elko and Leonard, a former Duke coach and quarterback, would find themselves on the same field but different sidelines Saturday.

Elko maintained he’d rather have faced any quarterback than Leonard, listing so many admirable traits it wasn’t clear if he’d coached him or adopted him.

“I told him I loved him after the game,” Elko said. “I will be rooting for the kid for the rest of his life.”

Leonard took a little while to get things going, but, in the third quarter, he handed off to Jadarian Price, who cut to the left sideline and went 47 yards for the game’s first touchdown and a 13-6 lead. Notre Dame penalties (11 for 99 on the night) helped the Aggies pull even. A hands-to-the face moved A&M to the Irish 21, where Stanford transfer EJ Smith — Emmitt’s boy! — ripped off a 14-yard run to the 7. A pass interference penalty in the end zone put the Aggies at the 2, whereupon they took a battering ram approach to a 13-13 tie.

But Leonard, who finished 18 of 30 for 158 yards and rushed for 63 more, took all of the steam out of the crowd on a hot night with his 85-yard march in the fourth.

“We learned we have glimpses where we are a good football team,” offensive tackle Trey Zuhn said, “but we need to show we can strain every play, every drive to be successful.

“We beat ourselves, mentally and physically.”

As a former defensive coordinator, Elko was offended that the Aggies gave up 198 yards rushing. As a head coach, he should have been mad that he didn’t get the same considerations his predecessor did, and I’m not talking about the contract.

By the way: Jimbo revealed this week that he’s not just sitting on that $75 million the Aggies owe him. He’s co-hosting a show with a couple of his ex-players on SiriusXM. In the press release, he said, “I love talking about football almost as much as I love coaching.” We’ll take his word for it. Frankly, half of what he said I couldn’t follow, and the other half wasn’t worth the chase.

This is Elko’s job now, to have and to hold, at least for a while. Saturday was proof that he has his hands full. On the bright side, not every game will be as difficult. Next week, in fact, brings McNeese. It’s not the YMCA, but it’s the best athletic directors can do these days.

Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN

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