Playing Nice: Texas A&M

Previewing LSU-A&M with our friends from Good Bull Hunting

Somehow someway LSU vs. Texas A&M is a battle for first place in the SEC. I know, I’m just as surprised as you are. Even more surprisingly, since neither LSU nor A&M have a conference loss, the winner of Saturday’s game will have a wide open path to getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship and likely the College Football Playoff. It’s arguably the biggest, most consequential LSU-A&M game….ever? and to help get us ready we turned to Robert Behrens from our Aggie sister site Good Bull Hunting. Give him a whoop or thumbs up or whatever it is they do in the comments

A&M, like LSU, lost a marquee season opener but have reeled off six straight wins, including a 41-10 ass kicking of Mizzou at home a couple of weeks ago. What’s been the reason for the turnaround?

I think the biggest reason is this team just settling into the scheme and culture of a new coaching staff and improving week over week. This was never going to be a team who was a finished product out of the gate, so it’s been encouraging to see the performance on the field trend upward like we’d hoped it would.

In particular, some gaps in run defense that reared their head in early games seem to have been rectified, the offensive line feels like they play better each week, and we’re starting to see A&M WRs get separation and make plays (which was a big concern early on).

The team is not without flaws, and we continue to see some up and down performances week to week, but they’ve overcome those flaws and continue to win, and have played their way into a game with more stakes than any A&M game in recent memory (as sad as that may be).

In your opinion, what’s the biggest change from Jimbo to Elko? And why did the Jimbo thing go sour at the end?

I actually think the problems with Jimbo’s scheme were a bit overblown, but it sounds like he just really struggled with the daily ins and outs of running the program: focusing on the small details, holding players accountable, etc. Jimbo is an old school coach, and I think the modern role of a coach with media availability, managing NIL, the transfer portal, etc. just wasn’t built for him. Combine that with some poor assistant coaching hires, and you have the recipe for things to go badly, which they did.

The one thing Jimbo did well was recruit. And while you can nit-pick about roster construction at certain positions (secondary in particular), he did leave a lot of usable pieces for the new coaching staff. And when you put talented players in a program/scheme that better utitlizes them, you have the recipe for rapid improvement. Early returns seem to indicate that’s what is happening at A&M.

Conner Weigman missed last season’s A&M-LSU game. What do LSU fans need to watch out for from the Aggie QB?

Weigman has had a bit of an up and down year. The Notre Dame game was a disaster, where he had happy feet and was wildly inaccurate. He then was hurt for several games and came back against Missouri with perhaps the best performance of his career, finding open receivers with pinpoint accuracy all game long. Then last week against Mississippi State was a bit of a mixed bag. While Weigman was accurate save for a handful of passes, he threw it to places where the defender was in prime position for the pick several times. He had two INTS on the day and could have had a couple more. But it was his first road game of the season, and as silly as it sounds, I do wonder if so much maroon and white on the fields threw him for a loop.

The bottom line is this: Weigman flashes his five-star pedigree with excellent pocket presence and elite accuracy. He’s also more mobile/elusive than he’s given credit for. When he’s playing his best, A&M will be very tough to beat. But he’s also shown us enough of “not his best” to wonder which of those we’ll get on Saturday. With a game that has many “X” factors, his performance may be chief among them.

A&M kinda sorta had their hands full against Mississippi State in Starkville last weekend. Did the Bulldogs find something that LSU could expose this weekend?

Michael Van Buren definitely made things difficult on A&M, and there was something to A&M playing down to the opponent. But this was also a game in which everything went MSU’s way and they still lost by double digits. A&M lost the turnover battle and committed more penalties, had multiple 30+ yard runs called back, let MSU score right before halftime to keep things close and gave them the ball in the red zone in the fourth quarter.

A lot of that was self-inflicted wounds, and it led to a performance that wasn’t particularly impressive. But coming off a bye, on the road, with the LSU game looming, I can’t say it was all that surprising. I do think you’ll see a much crisper A&M performance this Saturday.

This might sound crazy but I’m really grateful that neither SEC Nation nor Gameday is in town for what’s clearly the biggest game of the weekend. Does that kill the buzz even one iota or will Kyle Field still be raucous?

I know most A&M fans are glad that Gameday isn’t in town, because honestly we haven’t fared well when they are. Now I’d tell you that A&M’s Gameday struggles have a lot more to do with the caliber of opponent than which pregame show is in town, but nonetheless, I don’t think anyone is sweating them not being there. LSU is always one of the bigger games on the calendar, and it’s obviously as big as ever given the stakes in this one. Whoever wins this one is suddenly the lone SEC undefeated team remaining, so A&M fans will pack it to the rafters and do all we can to make an impact on the game.

Oh and apparently that includes wearing black (for the team and fans).

At the risk of sounding premature, will Aggie fans start booking their hotel in Atlanta if they win this weekend? Because A&M has a very favorable schedule after the LSU game, especially if they can stay undefeated in conference play. There’s no Georgia, no Bama, no Tennessee, no Ole Miss. There’s of course that end of year game against Texas, but the path seems wiiiiiiide open to make it to the SEC Championship with a win over LSU.

The team can’t afford to look ahead like that, but fans sure can. And yes you’re right, if A&M can pull off the win this weekend, I definitely think you’ll have folks start eying Atlanta and Playoff destinations (even if that’s a bi premature). A&M would be entering November controlling their own destiny for the first time since joining the SEC. At South Carolina and at Auburn wouldn’t be cakewalks, but they would be games where A&M is favored, and it could set up the possibility of A&M vs Texas deciding who goes to Atlanta when the two teams face off on Nov. 30. Or heck, it could even mean those two teams play each other in College Station knowing that they’ll face one another again the next week either way (which to be honest, would be a lot less fun).

But either way, it’s just exciting as a fan to still have this much to play for. Whoever loses on Saturday will still be very much in the SEC race, but it’s undeniable that the winner puts themselves in the driver’s seat

I think A&M and LSU are pretty equal teams but this game’s in College Station, not in Baton Rouge. Is location alone enough to be the difference maker? And how do you see Saturday playing out?

I tend to think this game will be the biggest test for both teams thus far. Obviously we’ve both lost a game, but both sides probably also think that game would play out differently if it were played today.

I do think you can’t overstate how big home field advantage is in this one. A&M has NEVER won an SEC game at Death Valley, and LSU hasn’t won at Kyle Field since the Obama Administration. While the strength of our teams differ, I definitely agree that when it comes to overall quality, they’re very much on par with one another, and I could see the comfort of Kyle Field pushing the Aggies over the top.

With regard to how the game plays out, I think Nussmeier will have some success (the A&M secondary is a bit vulnerable to the downfield attack), but the A&M pass rush will do enough to make him uncomfortable and force some ill-advised throws that could turn the game.

For the A&M offense, I think we get the “good” Conner Weigman, or at least enough of him to keep LSU honest. And if that’s the case, I think Le’Veon Moss continues his dominant play out of the backfield and is the MVP for the Aggies in this game.

While it could certainly go either way, give me A&M in a close one, 27-24.