The Texas A&M Aggies are no strangers to the firing of prominent head coaches, after firing Jimbo Fisher in 2023. That included paying the largest contract payout in college football history to secure a restart in college football and opting for Mike Elko to take over the reins.
Now, though, they played a role in getting one of the sport’s most well-known coaches fired in Brian Kelly, who was officially relieved of his role as of this morning. This comes after the Aggies dominated the LSU Tigers in their own stadium, 49-25.
They weren’t the only ones who contributed to the decision, but the Aggies were the final straw that ultimately brought the tower down.
For the Tigers, it’s been an established fact that playing in Death Valley, especially at night, is one of the most demanding environments in college football. That’s partly due to their fans, and also partly because of how the team plays with a bit of extra energy under the lights.
That was evident in the first half, when the Aggies entered halftime trailing for the first time all season, 18-14, and what looked to be a signature win in the Kelly era slowly turned into the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Nothing would go right for the Tigers in the second half, and the Aggies would rattle off 35 unanswered points, dominating both offense and defense. The issues culminated in the benching of Garrett Nussmeier with less than six minutes left in the game, when the Tigers would get a garbage-time touchdown to make it a 24-point game.
The problems weren’t just on the field either, with the 12th man turning Death Valley into a second Kyle Field. The Aggies’ faithful would take over their student section, making it their own, and even participate in the Tigers’ touchdown chants, mocking them even further. It was another night of Baton Rouge rocking with energy, except this time, the visiting fans were the ones supplying it.
No one is supposed to come to Death Valley and do that…but we did pic.twitter.com/vUmG239y3m
— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) October 26, 2025
They even did their saw ’em off tradition in the stadium, and when the game concluded, by the visceral noise coming from the crowd, and the singing of ‘The Spirit of Aggieland’, you would have thought that Elko and his team had just won in College Station, but they were the visiting team.
That was enough for the Tigers fans, including Governor Jeff Landry, who issued a statement on X regarding what happened in Death Valley. For the Aggies, it was another statement win, but for the Tigers, it was the final blow to a disappointing head coach.