After LSU’s win over Oklahoma in the final game of the 2024 season, Brian Kelly made a statement.
“We’re taking receipts,” the LSU coach confidently stated, “and we’ll see you at the national championship.”
But after eight games, Kelly’s proclamation for 2025 already has fallen flat. LSU dropped its third contest of the year Saturday against Texas A&M, losing 49-25 despite leading 18-14 at halftime.
The victory was Texas A&M’s first in Tiger Stadium since 1994 and LSU’s most lopsided loss to the Aggies since 1991.
“The football buck stops with me, and I have to take a good, hard look at what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it,” Kelly said after the game Saturday, “both from a personnel standpoint and from a coaching standpoint.”
The Aggies scored 35 unanswered points in the second half. Texas A&M found the end zone on its first three drives and scored a fourth touchdown on a 79-yard punt return from KC Concepcion.
After a somewhat promising opening 30 minutes, the night turned into an embarrassment for LSU. The only team in Baton Rouge on Saturday with a shot of reaching the College Football Playoff was No. 3 Texas A&M.
“Our fans are disappointed, like any fan base would be, whether here at LSU or any other school,” Kelly said. “The head coach, it stops with the head coach, and so that responsibility falls with me.”
The Aggies ended with 426 total yards and 224 yards on the ground. Quarterback Marcel Reed finished with just 202 yards passing, but, like last year, he proved to be a problem with his legs, with 108 yards on the ground.
As Texas A&M accomplished whatever it wanted on offense in the second half, LSU’s attack sputtered. The Tigers had 14 yards in the third quarter. They had -4 yards on the ground and just one first down in that same time span.
Fifth-year senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier exited the game with less than six minutes left to play after getting sacked for the fifth time. As sophomore Michael Van Buren replaced him, Nussmeier threw his helmet down in disgust on the sideline.
Van Buren found redshirt sophomore wide receiver Kyle Parker for a touchdown on the drive, but the only thing the score accomplished was making sure the loss wasn’t LSU’s most lopsided home defeat since 1999 against any team other than Alabama.
“I’m an LSU Fighting Tiger till I die,” LSU fifth-year senior linebacker West Weeks said. “So every chance I get to represent those three letters on my chest, I’m going to come in every single day, I’m going to work my tail off, and I’m going to bring everybody else around with me.”
Two game-changing interceptions gave LSU the lead heading into halftime.
First, with Texas A&M on the doorstep of the end zone with 7:38 left in the opening half, senior LSU safety AJ Haulcy intercepted Reed’s pass and returned it 25 yards.
Thanks in part to an unnecessary roughness penalty on third down that kept the ensuing drive alive, LSU turned Reed’s interception into six points. Nussmeier hit senior wide receiver Barion Brown for a 41-yard reception that set the Tigers up in the red zone before Harlem Berry found the end zone four plays later on a 7-yard carry.
The score gave LSU a 15-14 lead despite kicker Damian Ramos missing the extra point. Berry’s run was the second touchdown of his career as he finished the half with eight carries for 56 yards.
But despite the strong first half, Berry had just one carry the rest of the night.
“I think if we had come up with a stop or didn’t have the punt return (for a touchdown),” Kelly said, “I think we would’ve saw more balance (between the run and the pass) from that perspective.”
The second interception came on the Aggies’ next drive. Senior cornerback Mansoor Delane batted Reed’s pass into the air, and redshirt junior Harold Perkins caught it for the pick.
LSU failed to capitalize on the error with a touchdown, but Ramos made a 30-yard field goal to hand the Tigers an 18-14 advantage at the half.
LSU finished the half with 189 total yards and won the time of possession battle. Nussmeier completed 13 of 20 passes for 121 yards, but he was also sacked twice.
“I would just be giving you lip service right now if we weren’t going to be committed to getting this football team better and having them have better outcomes than tonight,” Kelly said when asked about LSU’s struggles in pass protection. “Our fan base should be upset.”
The Tigers punted on their first drive but found the end zone on their next one, thanks to a touchdown pass from Nussmeier to sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green that tied the score at 7-7.
LSU surrendered a touchdown on the Aggies’ ensuing drive, but freshman safety Jhase Thomas blocked Texas A&M’s punt on its next drive, batting the ball through the end zone for a safety to cut the LSU deficit to 14-9.
It was LSU’s first blocked punt since Micah Baskerville accomplished the feat against Southern in 2022, which was Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge.
For LSU fans, that was a year filled with hope and positivity about Kelly’s tenure. Now, three years later, those same fans chanted for his dismissal before Saturday’s loss had come to a close.
“That second half was unacceptable at any level,” Kelly said, “and I’ve got to figure out the ways that we can get our football team to play better football consistently.”
LSU is off next weekend, then faces Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 8.