We've seen some talented teams around Aggieland the last few years that have come nowhere close to meeting expectations -- football, I'm looking at you. It quickly came apparent that Jimbo Fisher had a problem on his hands in 2022, and he didn't do anything about it that year or the next. The bad culture in the Aggie locker room harkened back to the days of Kevin Sumlin and ended up sinking them both.

Across Wellborn Road, there has been no such trouble. Jim Schlossnagle has come in and built a good culture in the baseball program almost overnight -- and the results show it.

Schlossnagle has brought in transfers who have not only embraced the culture, but have become clubhouse leaders. The Rattlin' Bog was made popular by a transfer from -- gasp! -- Columbia.

The guys who were already on campus had stayed with it too. Kaeden Kent wasn't thrilled when he was pulled from the lineup in favor of Travis Chestnut when he slumped early in the season, but he stayed ready and drove in 7 RBI in the Super Regional when he was put back into the lineup after Braden Montgomery got hurt. Kaiden Wilson barely pitched this season, but he was ready for 2 big innings of relief on Sunday. Chris Cortez briefly entered the transfer portal last summer, but decided to stick around and work with new pitching coach Max Weiner -- and he has been dominant in the postseason.

The guys believe in their coach, the coach believes in the players and the players like each other. Their goals are all aligned, and that's led to Omaha twice in three years.

And that's what Mike Elko's looking to build across Wellborn Road.

Here we are, with at least two more games to be played in the 2024 season, and the Aggies are loading up for 2025.

We already knew that A&M would be building around All-American Jace LaViolette and freshman standouts Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell. Yes, that's just three players, but last year at this time, it was LaViolette and...who?

We know at least part of that answer already. Yesterday, A&M got the commitment of 1B/OF Matt Bergevin from Fairfield. Bergevin hit .287 with 18 HR and 59 RBI this past season, with an OPS of 1.044. He was the top hitter in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this past season, and would bring another power bat to the lineup.

They got even more good news tonight, when Penn 3B Wyatt Henseler announced he would forego the 2024 MLB Draft and stick with his plans to transfer to A&M for his final season. His former Penn teammate, Jackson Appel, did that this year with stellar results -- but Henseler may be a better hitter. The Ivy League player of the year, Henseler hit .360 with 22 HR, 56 RBI and a ridiculous OPS of 1.220. Henseler could move over to the other side of the diamond and play first next year.

A lineup that has LaViolette, Grahovac, Sorrell, Henseler and Bergevin in it will be very stout. And, if things hold true to form, the Aggies aren't done adding yet.

LaViolette, Grahovac and Braden Montgomery got the majority of the attention during the season, and rightfully so. But putting up 25 runs in two games against a pitching staff that had been at its best recently shows very clearly just how deep the Aggie batting order is. Grahovac is slumping. LaViolette's power numbers are down. Doesn't matter, everyone else is raking. Hayden Schott went 7-9 against Oregon; Appel had 5 hits. Everybody in the batting order scored at least once against the Ducks on Sunday night.

Montgomery's absence will be keenly felt; you don't replace an elite talent, you just fill the spot in the lineup. But the guy who filled that spot had 7 RBI. They can hit.

When the Aggies slumped down the stretch and in the SEC Tournament, they got away from what made them so good offensively: being patient, working counts and jumping on mistakes. It's pretty clear that problem didn't rear its ugly head against Oregon. A&M hitters walked 18 times in the two Super Regional games, including five times with the bases loaded (Ted Burton also got hit with a pitch with the bases loaded, driving in another run). They've got to keep doing that in Omaha.

There's not much doubt who will get the start against Florida. Ace lefty Ryan Prager will be on the bump, bad outing against Oregon notwithstanding. Hopefully, he can take the Aggies deep into the game and then turn things over to Evan Aschenbeck.

But who gets the call in game 2? My guess is that it'll be Justin Lamkin, the Sunday starter for much of the season. Schlossnagle avoided using him this past Sunday when the Aggies needed to hold the Ducks at bay, and that was an indicator (to me, at least) that Lamkin was going to start Monday in a third game if needed. Obviously, it wasn't.

The last time Lamkin got any serious work was the next-to-last game of the regular season, when he pitched 3 2/3 innings against Arkansas, giving up 2 earned runs while striking out 8.

When Jimbo was around, it seemed like the football program was separated from everything else on campus. Now that he's gone and Mike Elko is here, the three major men's programs appear to be pretty tight.

There were a lot of football players at basketball games this year (no shock, that's always been the case), but baseball players as well. Wade Taylor and Henry Coleman have been pretty regular attendees at Aggie baseball games, and Elko is at Olsen all the time. Coleman wasn't technically inside the ballpark Sunday night; he was out in Aggie Alley.

There's a level of mutual respect between all three teams that I don't know existed before. Maybe it did, but it's very clear now, as evidenced by this sign in the football facility Monday:

With the new scheduling system, the SEC is able to slot games well in advance for future football seasons. They released the first schedule today, and the Aggies came out on the very good end of the stick.

The Aggies will only play two games this season that start before noon: McNeese (11:45 a.m.) and Missouri (11 a.m.). The rest are either afternoon or night starts. Many are "flex" games, so they could be at either time. It looks like the networks have a pretty solid interest in A&M this year, but they're also taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach.

Still, dodging 11 a.m. kickoffs? I'm down.

One area where the Aggies have been a bit slow out of the gate has been at wide receiver, but they might be getting a little momentum there as far as 2025 recruiting goes.

Red Oak 4-star Taz Williams took his official visit last weekend and left College Station with the impression that it's A&M and everyone else. He's still got a trip to Michigan before his commitment date of July 13, so it's not over yet. But the Aggies look to be in prime position for Williams.

Kelshaun Johnson was supposed to be all Texas, and maybe in the end he will be, but the Aggie coaching staff thinks they've done enough to flip the script. He visits Texas this weekend, so we'll see if that stance holds through his trip there.

Galveston Ball S/LB Jonah Williams still has two official visits left, to Oregon and LSU later this month. But, after his official visit to A&M this past weekend, I feel really good about A&M's chances to land him. Oklahoma has been the primary competition, but right now they seem pretty resigned to the fact that he's going somewhere else.

Williams' commitment would be the biggest recruiting win for Elko since he returned to A&M, and it may not be all that long before it happens.

Make sure you check back later in the week, because I will be at the College World Series and will have plenty of content as the Aggies look to win their first national championship in baseball. And I may or may not have a Jello shot.