With a month left in the season, there’s only one team unbeaten in SEC play: Texas A&M. The Aggies made a midgame quarterback change from Conner Weigman to Marcel Reed and scored 31 second-half points to sprint away from LSU 38-23, handing the Tigers their first conference loss.
Texas A&M picked off LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier three times in the second half and erased a 10-point halftime deficit with an offense unleashed under the speedy redshirt freshman Reed, who finished with 91 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Here’s what you need to know about a night of wild momentum swings in College Station.
How Marcel Reed’s entrance changed the A&M offense
LSU sacked Weigman four times in the first two-and-a-half quarters, so head coach Mike Elko had to do something to relieve the pressure. It rarely felt like Weigman was comfortable in the pocket.
Reed’s entrance opened up a bevy of options for coordinator Collin Klein and the Texas A&M offense. Klein’s system feels as if it was designed for someone with Reed’s skills; Klein himself was a terrific dual-threat quarterback at Kansas State. The quarterback run game changes the math for opposing defenses, forcing them to account for an extra player.
Weigman is a great athlete, but he’s more of a scrambler than a natural downhill runner and thus a less natural fit for the offense. When Reed entered, suddenly there was more room to run at the line of scrimmage. When A&M went to the read option — which led to Reed’s touchdown run on his first snap of the night — and got into its full suite of pre-snap motions and shifts, LSU struggled to account for everything and the Aggies were able to get chunks of yardage on the ground.
Reed isn’t just a runner, though. His 54-yard completion to Noah Thomas in the fourth quarter was as good and as confident a throw as any quarterback made on Saturday night. Reed only threw the ball twice, but he was effective and accurate. After the deep shot to Thomas, A&M fans at Kyle Field chanted Reed’s name.
Reed led A&M to a road win at Florida and a neutral-site win against Arkansas. If A&M sticks with him moving forward, he will have earned the belief and confidence of his team and staff.
Mistakes cost LSU dearly
The Tigers played as solid a first half as you could ask for before falling apart in the third quarter. Nussmeier came out looking poised in the pocket, deftly navigated pressure and made decisive, accurate throws to lift the Tigers to a double-digit lead.
The third quarter revealed a completely different LSU team. Nussmeier threw his three interceptions, a would-be field goal attempt failed when a snap went off unsuspecting punter/holder Peyton Todd’s left shoulder, and LSU opened the second half with four consecutive empty possessions.
Texas A&M deserves credit for adjusting defensively, giving Nussmeier and the LSU offense different looks. But the lack of a run game is also a big culprit in LSU’s collapse. Neither Caden Durham nor Josh Williams could find room to run consistently, though Durham was a key factor as a receiver out of the backfield. If LSU could move the chains consistently on the ground, so much wouldn’t be placed on Nussmeier’s shoulders.
LSU’s advantage in this game was at receiver, as Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson won battles against the Texas A&M secondary with their big play ability. But some semblance of balance would have helped LSU stave off the Aggies’ comeback.
Texas A&M defense delivers
Elko and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman did a good job of changing up their looks in the second half, but give the A&M defensive front credit as well. Although LSU did a solid job of protecting Nussmeier early on and didn’t yield a sack in the first three quarters, A&M kept coming at the quarterback, forcing him into tough throws and decisions and prevented him from getting too comfortable in the second half. Finally, the pressure started to get home
In Elko’s first four years at A&M as Jimbo Fisher’s defensive coordinator, the Aggies could often lean on the defense for consistent, quality play. That’s becoming a staple of this 2024 team, too.
Texas A&M can smell history
After losing their season opener at home to Notre Dame, the Aggies are now in the driver’s seat to play for a conference title for the first time since winning the Big 12 in 1998, looking to remove themselves from the group of six SEC members that have never made it to Atlanta for the SEC championship game. The Aggies were picked to finish ninth in the SEC this summer, but first-year coach Mike Elko has pieced together the troubled program left behind by Jimbo Fisher and brought his penchant for early-tenure success to College Station.
Offensive coordinator Collin Klein has juggled an uncertain quarterback situation and leaned on the running game, while Elko has rebuilt a defense that was gutted by the transfer portal last offseason.
The Aggies haven’t won double-digit games since Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy season in 2012; before that they hadn’t done it since 1998. South Carolina, Auburn, New Mexico State and a season finale against rival Texas at Kyle Field are all that’s left on A&M’s regular season schedule.
In so many seasons over the past two decades, preseason hype led to midseason disappointment in Aggieland. Now, in a year that began with modest expectations, the Aggies are on track for one of the best campaigns in recent program history.
(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
