BATON ROUGE, La. — No. 3 Texas A&M kept its College Football Playoff and SEC championship hopes soaring with a dominant 49-25 win over LSU on Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.

The Aggies trailed at halftime for the first time this season but ripped off touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half to blow the game open and prompt the home crowd to empty out early.

The loss almost assuredly knocks LSU out of the College Football Playoff race and turns up the heat on head coach Brian Kelly.

What this win means for Texas A&M and the CFP race

Texas A&M is 8-0 for the first time since 1994, when the Aggies started 8-0-1. This is the first time they’ve won their first eight games since 1992.

It was Texas A&M’s first win in Baton Rouge since 1994. They had not won in six tries at Tiger Stadium since joining the SEC in 2012.

For those who weren’t already taking the Aggies seriously in the Playoff race, it’s time to now. The Aggies won a shootout at Notre Dame, they’ve handled three SEC opponents at home with dominant defensive efforts and they survived a scare at Arkansas last week before dropping nearly 50 on the Tigers on Saturday.

With a rising star quarterback in Marcel Reed, elite receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, an experienced and proficient offensive line, a defensive front that applies relentless pressure and a special teams unit that can change the game in an instant, the Aggies check a lot of the boxes required of a national title contender.

How the Aggies won it

Reed gave LSU’s defense headaches with his mobility, just as he did a year ago when he came in in relief to lead a second-half rally in a 38-23 win over the Tigers at Kyle Field. He opened the scoring Saturday night with a mostly untouched 41-yard touchdown run.

Concepcion gave A&M a 14-7 lead with a 15-yard touchdown catch late in the first quarter, but a bevy of A&M miscues allowed the Tigers to shift the momentum. LSU blocked a punt for a safety and picked Reed off twice, once by A.J. Haulcy in the end zone and another time when a blitzing Mansoor Delane deflected a pass into the hands of linebacker Harold Perkins. The Tigers capitalized and carried an 18-14 lead into the halftime locker room.

But the Aggies cleaned things up and dominated in the second half. Reed engineered a nine-play touchdown drive to open the third quarter. Concepcion returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown. Freshman Jamarion Morrow and tight end Nate Boerkircher tacked on touchdown runs.

KC PUNTCEPCION pic.twitter.com/HKEUJRIBh5

— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) October 26, 2025

The A&M defense kept LSU at bay for most of the second half, racking up seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss on the night. There were multiple occasions in which A&M’s defensive front hit or hurried quarterback Garrett Nussmeier with just four rushers. And LSU’s run game, which garnered a respectable 68 yards in the first half, was nonexistent in the second. The Aggies held LSU to just two conversions on 13 third-down attempts.

What went wrong for LSU?

It has become a familiar sight for the Tigers this season: an offense that couldn’t consistently move the ball because of blocking issues up front, and a defense that couldn’t contain a mobile quarterback.

Fans booed throughout the game as the offensive struggles that showed up in losses to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt continued. The Tigers put together two lengthy touchdown drives, though one was aided by an unnecessary roughness penalty after the Aggies had gotten a third-down stop.

Freshman running back Harlem Berry looked shifty for the second game in a row, but he only got nine carries, as the LSU offense became pass-heavy, especially as the deficit mounted.

In the third quarter, injured linebacker and captain Whit Weeks was caught by ESPN cameras yelling at teammates on the sideline, appearing to use the word “embarrassing.” LSU fans would agree with that.

What’s next for LSU?

The Tigers’ remaining games include a trip to Alabama, Arkansas and Western Kentucky at home and Thanksgiving weekend finale at Oklahoma. No three-loss team has made a CFP yet, and LSU’s nonconference win against Clemson is not nearly as impressive as it looked to be in Week 1. The Tigers’ best win so far is either against South Carolina or a Florida team that has since fired its coach.

LSU students began a “Fire Kelly” chant when Texas A&M pushed the lead to 35-18 in the third quarter. The coach would be owed more than $52 million if he’s fired this year without cause. That would be the second-highest buyout committed to a coach in college football history, though it would be paid in monthly installments into 2031 and be offset by whatever Kelly makes at his next job.