SEC Football This Week: Mike Elko Era Begins With Watershed Win Over LSU … Like Jimbo

Texas A&M cornerback BJ Mayes turned the LSU game around as much as QB Marcel Reed did Saturday in College Station, Texas. (File Photo).

If first-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko goes on to great, consistent success with the Aggies and gets that filthy rich – yet usually vastly overrated football program – its first national championship since 1939, or even close to it, he will undoubtedly always look back on the night of October 26, 2024, at Kyle Field.

No. 14 Texas A&M 38, No. 8 LSU 23.

Or this score, Texas A&M 31, LSU 6 … over the last 21 minutes and 49 seconds after LSU led 17-7 midway in the third quarter.

It was one of the Aggies greatest comebacks in history. A&M trailed Oklahoma State 19-7 entering the fourth quarter in 1997, but outscored the Cowboys, 15-3, for a 22-22 tie at the end of regulation and won 28-25 in overtime. In the 2013 Peach Bowl, the Aggies came back from 38-17 down at halftime to beat Duke, 52-48.

The Aggies trailed Arkansas, 14-0, midway through the second quarter in 2022 in Arlington and won 23-21. But that team finished 5-7 with a loss to Appalachian State and was the beginning of the end for coach Jimbo Fisher, though he upset No. 5 LSU, 38-23. He was fired the next season after a 6-4 start.

“We just showed the Elko Era is really what’s going on for real,” Texas A&M cornerback BJ Mayes said after the win over LSU.

The victory left the Aggies as the only undefeated team in Southeastern Conference play at 5-0, which is A&M’s best start in its SEC history that began in the 2012 season.

“We them,” Mayes said of the unprecedented start and sole possession of first place in usually the nation’s best football conference. “That’s how I feel. They didn’t think we were going to win today. Ain’t nobody said we were going to win, but we knew. So, we just showed the world that we them.”

If, that is, the No. 10 Aggies (7-1, 5-0) win Saturday at South Carolina (4-3, 2-3 SEC), which is a dangerous team.

The last time Texas A&M had such a significant win in the first season of a new “era” was when Fisher’s No. 18 Aggies beat No. 8 LSU, 74-72, in seven overtimes in one of the longest games in college football history at just under five hours. The Aggies were so happy with the win in the season finale that the final score appeared on their bowl rings for a 52-13 win over North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl that same season.

Then, A&M unveiled commemorative cups of the 74-72 win over LSU for its season opener the next season against Texas State.

Unfortunately for Fisher and the Aggies, they went 8-5 and 4-4 in 2019 while LSU was winning the national championship, including a 50-7 win over A&M. Fisher upset No. 1 Alabama in 2021 to become the first Nick Saban pupil-turned-head coach to beat him, but he finished that season 8-4, won more than eight games once with nine and won just 11 in his last two seasons.

So A&M may hold off on the rings and the cups for now.

“No, honestly no,” Elko said when asked if the win felt surreal in his first season. “Not with all of the things we have to fix to take this thing where we want to go.”

Asked what it feels like to be 5-0 and in first in the SEC, Elko said simply, “That we have a big game next week. That’s what I told the guys. The price of this is you have a target on your back.”

After South Carolina, New Mexico (3-5) and a trip to Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC), a much bigger game than LSU awaits at Kyle Field with No. 6 Texas (7-1, 3-1 SEC) on Nov. 30.

Elko can thank the Reed Option, courtesy of backup quarterback Marcel Reed, who took over the game in the third quarter after replacing starter Conner Weigman. But he also praised BJ Mayes, who set Reed up with his two third quarter interceptions of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.

“As the second half wore on, and the game got leveled and us in the lead, they (the Tigers) became one-dimensional,” Elko said. “That’s the benefit of stopping the run. Even though they got to 400 yards passing, he (Nussmeier) has got to stand back there and deal with these kids teeing off and just speeding his clock up. And it results in two turnovers. That’s really the story of the game.”

LSU’s BLOWN LEADS

-The Tigers’ second half disaster was their worst since a No. 4 LSU team led No. 10 Tennessee, 24-7, with 9:36 to go in the fourth quarter in 2005 behind an offense coordinated by Jimbo Fisher. The Vols and a previously struggling quarterback transfer from LSU named Rick Clausen tied it, 24-24, against Bo Pelini’s defense to end regulation. Tennessee won it, 30-27, in overtime in LSU head coach Les Miles’ home debut.

-In 1994, unranked LSU led No. 11 and 9-0 Auburn, which was 20-0 since 1993, by a 23-9 score early in the fourth quarter before five interceptions by Jamie Howard as head coach Curley Hallman and offensive coordinator Lynn Amedee inexplicably let him keep passing into good coverage. Three were pick sixes as Auburn won 30-26.

-In 1988, No. 9 LSU led at No. 18 Ohio State, 33-20, with less than five minutes to play, and somehow the Buckeyes won 36-33.

It was the Tigers’ fourth loss since SEC play began in 1933 after leading by 10 or more at halftime. The previous three were Georgia over LSU in Tiger Stadium at homecoming, 24-17, in 1978, Arkansas beating LSU, 21-20, in 2002 in Little Rock, and the 30-27 Tennessee win in 2005.

SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic said LSU’s loss broke the nation’s longest active win streak in college football of teams ahead by 10 or more at the half at 104 straight.

SEC SATURDAY SCHEDULE

No. 19 Ole Miss at Arkansas, 11 a.m., ESPN.

Vanderbilt at Auburn, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network.

Maine at Oklahoma, 1:30 p.m., SEC Network.

Florida at No. 2 Georgia, 2:30 p.m., ABC.

Massachusetts at Mississippi State, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network.

No. 10 Texas A&M at South Carolina, 6:30 p.m., ABC.

Kentucky at No. 7 Tennessee, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network.

OPEN – LSU, Alabama, Texas.

THE GUILBEAU SEC POLL

1.Georgia (6-1, 4-1)

2. Texas (7-1, 3-1)

3. Texas A&M (7-1, 5-0)

4. Tennessee (6-1, 3-1)

5. LSU (6-2, 3-1)

6. Alabama (6-2, 3-2)

7. Ole Miss (6-2, 2-2)

8. Vanderbilt (5-3, 2-2)

9. Missouri (6-2, 2-2)

10. Arkansas (5-3, 3-2)

11. Florida (4-3, 2-2)

12. South Carolina (4-3, 2-3)

13. Oklahoma (4-4, 1-4)

14. Auburn (3-5, 1-4)

15. Kentucky (3-5, 1-5)

16. Mississippi State (1-7, 0-5)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I saw the quarterback. He looked at us. Then he cocked back, and I’m like, ‘No way, he’s going to throw it, because you see me right here (on the receiver). Ain’t no way he’s going to throw that.’ But (expletive deleted), he threw it. And the rest is history.”

-Texas A&M cornerback BJ Mayes on his first of two interceptions in the the third quarter off LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier on Saturday in the Aggies 38-23 win.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK II

“This is a real program. It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BS-ing everybody. This is a real program. For all the recruits out there, this is a real place. And if you want to be really good at football, this is a really good place to be.”

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko discussing his program and previous coach Jimbo Fisher after beating LSU Saturday night.

BS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“In the postgame, I was asked to kind of give a synopsis on how we sell culture to our program (not exactly). In doing so, I made a statement that seemed like a very benign (incorrect) statement that somehow managed to be taken as a shot directly at people (It was at one person.) I have nothing but respect for Coach Fisher. I’m the head coach at Texas A&M because of Coach Fisher. I appreciate who he is and everything that he’s done. And for anybody in the media to think that that’s what I was doing post LSU is, I mean it’s asinine.”

-Texas A&M coach Mike Elko at his press conference on Monday.

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