Eight-and-OH MY! Aggies rip off 35 unanswered points to pummel LSU

Click HERE to view Texas A&M’s postgame press conference.

Game #8: No. 3 Texas A&M 49, No. 20 Louisiana State 25
Records: Texas A&M (8-0, 5-0), Louisiana State (5-3, 2-3)
Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. — By the start of the fourth quarter, Death Valley had become Dearth Valley.

A mass exodus of LSU fans — frustrated by their coach, their offense and their eroding playoff hopes — didn’t hang around to see No. 3 Texas A&M put the finishing touches on a 49-25 Southeastern Conference football victory on Saturday night.

They’d seen enough.

They’d seen A&M quarterback Marcel Reed run 41 and five yards for touchdowns. They’d seen KC Concepcion return a punt 79 yards for a score. They'd seen Jamarion Morrow catch a touchdown pass and run for another score. They’d seen A&M rush for 224 yards and amass 426 yards of total offense.

They’d seen LSU held to 60 rushing yards and their quarterbacks sacked seven times for 49 yards in losses.

They saw A&M go from impressive to imploding to exploding.

They saw A&M, which once found ways to lose games, find an emphatic way to post its eighth consecutive victory.

They saw the Aggies hit the No. 20 Tigers (5-3, 2-3) square between the eyes in a dominating third quarter that changed the game.

SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network

Texas A&M outgained LSU on the ground in the second half 168 to minus-8.

The Aggies ran at will on 14 out of 17 plays, scored four consecutive touchdowns on scoring runs from Reed, tight end Nate Boerkircher, a 79-yard punt return from Concepction and a touchdown reception by Morrow.

It all started with a halftime speech from coach Mike Elko, who was obviously upset the Aggies trailed 18-14 at the break.

“I just told them, I said, ‘You’re the better team, but you have to play better football. If you don’t play better football, you’re going to let one slip away tonight,’” Elko said. “That’s honestly what I told them at halftime.”

Reed indicated Elko might have been more animated than he was letting on.

“Elko definitely said some things. I can’t really remember every detail. It was aggressive, though, for sure,” Reed said. “We were really just kicking ourselves in the butt in the first half.”

Their self-inflicted butt kickings included:

• An errant first-down snap caused an 11-yard loss.
• A blocked punt for a safety.
• A Reed pass was intercepted in the end zone.
• An apparent stop on third-and-18 was nullified by an unnecessary roughness penalty on Dezz Ricks that provided LSU 15 yards and a first down.
• An LSU 41-yard completion on the next play.
• A dropped interception that was in Dalton Brooks’ hands.
• Another Reed interception at midfield.
• A badly missed tackle by Will Lee III enabled Caden Durham to gain 28 yards to set up a field goal.

Because of those miscues, mistakes and missteps, the Aggies trailed despite rolling up 258 yards of total offense in the first half.

“Offensively and defensively, we were giving it up to them,” Reed said. “We knew coming out in the second half we were the better team.”

They proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt in the second half.

A&M ran on eight times during a nine-play drive for Reed’s 5-yard touchdown to open the second half.

The Aggies' defense then capped a three-and-out with DJ Hicks’ sack of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. Concepcion returned the ensuing punt 79 yards for a spectacular touchdown that staked A&M to a 28-18 lead.

“I told him, ‘You’re that guy,’” Reed said of Concepcion. “I haven't seen anybody be that explosive in the punt return game on my team. It’s fun to watch.”

The Aggies were just getting started.

Reed next hit Morrow with a 24-yard screen pass for a touchdown.

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

With four total touchdowns on Saturday, Marcel Reed has been responsible for 23 scores in 2025. Despite his two turnovers vs. LSU, he is establishing himself as a Heisman contender.

Then — after another brilliant Concepcion punt return — Boerkircher blasted into the end zone from a yard out to give A&M a 42-18 lead with 14:15 left in the game.

“Obviously, we went out, and we got a good start to the second half,” Elko said. “I think we got the momentum, and then the punt return really put us, and then we started to play from the front. I thought we had a big advantage at that point.”

While the offense flexed its muscle, the defense wrought damage. LSU managed just 14 total yards in the third quarter.

The Tigers did not manage a score until backup quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. threw a touchdown pass in the final minute.

What was left of the crowd erupted in applause at that touchdown. Of course, it was a mock cheer. The remaining crowd was almost all Aggies, who were gloriously celebrating A&M’s first victory in Baton Rouge since 1994.

Ending that dubious streak meant so much to those long-suffering fans.

Elko, though, doesn’t want them celebrating overcoming the past. He wants them celebrating the present.

“It’s not about the past,” Elko said. “We’ve got to stop worrying about the past, thinking about the past, talking about the past.

“I’m excited for what this team is doing right now. This team is doing some really special things. I think we should enjoy it. We should enjoy what’s happening. We’re an 8-0 football team.”

Relax, Mike. Those Elko-holics are very much enjoying what you’ve brought to A&M.

The Aggies, who are 8-0 for the first time since 1992, can all but clinch a place in the 12-team College Football Playoff just by winning their remaining home games vs. South Carolina and Samford. They’re the only unbeaten team in the SEC. They realistically could finish the regular season undefeated. They have a legitimate chance to win the SEC championship. A national championship isn’t out of the question.

“Obviously, we’re going to celebrate all the historic things we have accomplished,” Reed said. “Us not being 8-0 since I don’t know when. … We’re happy about it for sure.

“But there’s definitely still a lot of things to be proven, and I feel like a lot of people in this country still don’t respect us as a team.

“No, we’re not trying to prove anybody wrong. We’re just going to prove ourselves right.”