LSU and Texas A&M walked into SEC play with top-10 buzz and walked out with the same record: 2-1, 0-1 in the league, and plenty to fix before Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers, now No. 10 in the AP poll, took a 32-24 loss at Ole Miss last week after entering the game at No. 7.
The Aggies dropped from No. 9 to No. 23 after Kentucky came into College Station and left with a 31-21 win. Now both teams are staring at an early conference test that carries more than just one loss in the standings.
The winner picks up its first SEC victory of the season. The loser is left with a much tougher path in both the league race and the College Football Playoff picture.
LSU had a full week of buildup around coach Lane Kiffin’s return to the Ole Miss campus, then nearly turned the game around after falling behind 24-7. The Tigers battled back and had a chance to send it to overtime, but Sam Leavitt’s fourth-down throw in the final minute was picked off in the end zone.
“I think that they went through a lot,” Kiffin said of his players’ emotions last week, which he addressed with them as preparation for the Aggies began. “I told them, 'Hey, we've got to go out of here and regroup.' We've got to move on because we can't let that missed opportunity have to do with us losing another game.”
Kiffin said three games still isn’t enough for him to know exactly what kind of team he has.
“It’s our first year with everybody except for the couple (of players) that we coached a year ago at Ole Miss,” he said.
The Tigers also took a hit on the injury front against Ole Miss. Defensive back Dashawn Spears, one of the key pieces behind the nation’s No. 1 run defense at 33.0 yards per game, is done for the year with an ACL injury. Tight end Trey'Dez Green will miss multiple games with a knee injury, though he is expected back.
“Dashawn and Trey'Dez are extremely unique and unique in what we use them to do,” Kiffin said.
Texas A&M lost a major piece of its own when versatile wide receiver and return specialist Terry Bussey went down with a lower-body injury on the opening kickoff against Kentucky, ending his season. Without him, Mario Craver stepped up with a career-best 11 catches for 119 yards.
Mike Elko didn’t hide from the disappointment after Kentucky outscored the Aggies 21-0 in the third quarter and rolled up 408 yards despite running 30 fewer plays, 84-54.
“Obviously, (Saturday) wasn't up to the standard that we want it to be,” Elko said. “We've got a great opportunity this week to go on the road and play a top-10 team in an environment that's going to be electric, and we have to respond. That's what this program was built on.”
Elko, now in his third season, has a defensive background, and he pointed directly at that side of the ball after the loss.
“That was probably one of the worst defensive performances we've had in my tenure here,” Elko said. “I own that.
That's on me. We have a lot of pride in how we play defense here, and I think we will rise to the occasion.”
Texas A&M beat LSU 49-25 in Baton Rouge last October, a result that helped push Tigers head coach Brian Kelly out after LSU fell to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in SEC play. That firing eventually opened the door for Kiffin's arrival.
In Other News...
Texas A&M Already Has One Offensive Problem It Cant Ignore
Texas A&M is only into the 2026 season, but the offense already looks like a unit searching for itself. With new coordinator Holmon Wiggins trying to settle things down, the Aggies have not yet found a clear rhythm, and that uncertainty is showing in the way they move the ball. Marcel Reed has flashed the kind of big-play ability that can change a game in a hurry, but the same aggressiveness has also led to mistakes that stall drives and put extra pressure on the rest of the unit.
For the Aggies, the bigger issue is not just one quarterback decision or one bad series, but the lack of a stable offensive identity. Reed's passing can open doors, yet Texas A&M still needs its running game to do real work if the whole thing is going to function the way it should. Until the Aggies figure out what this offense wants to be and how it wants to win, every rough stretch will feel like a warning sign rather than an early-season hiccup. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Just Turned LSU Week Into A Pressure Cooker
Texas A&Ms trip into conference play got off to a rough start in College Station, where an unranked Kentucky team walked out of Kyle Field with a 31-21 win and sent the Aggies tumbling from No. 9 to No. 23 in the AP Top 25. At 2-1 overall and already 0-1 in league play, the margin for error has tightened fast for a program that entered the season expecting to stay in the national conversation.
Now comes a road date with No. 10 LSU, and it arrives with the kind of pressure that can reshape an early season in a hurry. The Aggies still have a demanding schedule in front of them, with multiple ranked opponents left to navigate, so the LSU game is less a standalone test than the first big response opportunity after a flat September stumble. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&Ms Kentucky Loss Revealed Who The Aggies Trusted Most
Texas A&Ms loss to Kentucky offered a pretty clear snapshot of how the Aggies are leaning as the season settles in. Over an unusually long offensive workload, only Marcel Reed and Mark Nabou Jr. were on the field for every snap, a sign of just how central both have become to the way this offense functioned. With KJ Edwards and Terry Bussey dealing with injuries, the rotation at the skill spots had to shift, and the snap distribution reflected a staff trying to keep the unit moving while leaning on the players it trusted most.
On the other side of the ball, the Aggies logged a sizable defensive workload as well, and the snap counts hinted at which players were carrying the biggest responsibilities in a game that stayed tight enough to demand answers from everyone. The full picture is still not completely settled, since some of the defensive data and grades remain under review by Pro Football Focus, but the usage itself already says plenty about where Texas A&Ms trust lies heading into the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]