Josh Pate: Emphatic win over LSU represents A&M's 'flag-plant moment'

Key notes from Josh Pate interview

• I thought that game was pretty easy to see coming. I thought it was easy to see coming, even last week before Vanderbilt. Me watching the national reaction, and everyone is forgetting A&M winning that game emphatically. Everyone nationally is just talking about Brian Kelly getting fired. That was A&M’s flag-plant moment in Tiger Stadium.
   
• If Kelly still had his job, it would get more attention. Now, A&M goes into the bye week, so they are not right in front of your face again. It is a good thing. It delays the inevitable, which is a Texas A&M playoff appearance. People are going to have to recalibrate their view on Texas A&M. I thought A&M would win comfortably, maybe not by that margin, but still win. One important thing to note is that November is the longest month of the year in college football. If you are in contention, it feels like nine weeks. You are breathing air you haven’t breathed. A&M is in a poll position right now for the playoff. It is a good thing, but what is going to happen is, they are being put in this position for the first time. This happened with Oregon last year. They had a great regular season, and then they lost in the first round. Everyone deals with their first time being in this position differently. I will be watching that as much as every bit as much as the game results down the stretch.
   
• The two things that played a factor in Kelly’s firing are the margin of loss. ABC put on a Texas A&M infomercial in the fourth quarter. Always zooming in on Kelly, a bad execution play, ‘Fire Kelly’ signs and chants and empty LSU seats. The entire scene of A&M taking over their stadium post-game. It is such a slap in the face to LSU people. I think that pushed some of them over the top. Then the next morning, if Kelly had agreed to all the changes demanded of the staff, he might’ve still been coach. But he pushed back, I think people thought this would happen eventually, so might as well do it now. It all works downstream from the result. Even if LSU had lost a close game, it is still possible he would have been fired.
   
• Elko fit Texas A&M because he embraces what A&M is. But even if he embraces it all and doesn’t win, he won’t be a fit because you aren’t winning and doing what you hired him to do. For Kelly, everyone focused on the accent stuff and early soundbites. I had fun with it too, but none of it matters if he embraces the resources there and wins. That is what fit is anywhere. The biggest crime he committed was taking one of the best jobs in the country, and he didn’t embrace all that was offered to him.
   
• LSU looked at him and said, “You don’t need an accent. Just embrace the resources.” He checked out on recruiting. Coach Elko would never do that. That is why I say he fits there. He didn’t go to Texas A&M and say, “What can A&M do for me?” I don’t think Kelly ever asked, “What can I do for LSU?” It was, “What can LSU do for me?” But I will say, don’t you have to vet him more in the hiring process? I was sitting in Nashville at the time, and I didn’t have the perspective or access to knowing who Kelly is. But people at Notre Dame laid it out and talked about what was going to happen at LSU. We all just didn’t listen to it.
   
• I know everyone is trying to read into every social media post Lane Kiffin puts out. I don’t think he knows where he is going yet. I really think if you go into your own life, your biggest life decisions, you hypothesize and theorize and think you have a good idea of what you are going to do. But when the offer comes in on paper, in black and white, he enjoys the spotlight of it. When it happens, the offer comes in, and he will then know where he is going to go. If I had to lean one way or the other, I’d lean that he will leave. There is the argument that he fits Florida more. I would think the LSU job is the better job. He doesn’t know where he is going yet.
   
• If you fire a coach because he didn’t have you as a playoff organization, you want to get a guy to get you where the previous guy couldn’t. The attitude that we fired a guy, but don’t want to wait for a coach in the playoffs... That is where some places are. From Matt Campbell, Marcus Freeman, Alex Golesh and Jon Sumrall... All of these guys are of that caliber who are good, but will maybe miss the playoffs. Freeman lost a couple of games early. Three losses will keep them out. Campbell’s roster is injured. I don’t know how it will work out for any of them.
   
• When I was watching the games over the weekend, I had Tennessee vs. Kentucky on and A&M vs. LSU on the main screen. I glance over at what Tennessee is doing to Kentucky, and it dawns on me, as the huge celebration is happening in Baton Rouge, that Mark Stoops could have been the head coach there. Who stopped it from happening? The A&M fans and not the administration there. Play it in your mind how different today could be if you changed that one thing in history. I don’t know where Elko would be. I don’t think A&M would be celebrating in Baton Rouge. I don’t know if Kelly has been fired. So many things have changed there. Not to mention what could come. A&M could win the national title or the SEC in the future.
   
• I think the ACC will decide how many SEC teams make the playoffs. You may have two to three ACC teams making it because their schedule is so jacked up that you have a bunch of undefeated or one-loss teams up there, like Georgia Tech and Miami. Vanderbilt could lose a game or two and be left with four. Notre Dame is a team to keep your eye on there. For the Big Ten, you are thinking the playoff teams are Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon. Oregon has to go to Iowa in a couple of weeks. And they have to play USC and Washington. They have one loss already. But then you have to question what their best win is? I still credit them for the Penn State win. They killed Penn State. I would lean four SEC teams right now, but I am close to leaning your way with five.
   
• I am not ignoring Vanderbilt right now. They could be a two-loss team and get in. They play Kentucky and Auburn at home, and then they go to Neyland. They could go to Tennessee and lose, and their losses are at Tennessee and at Alabama. Their season is really on the line this Saturday. We will see if Vandy can come into their house and beat Texas.