No. 14 Texas A&M earned a monumental win over No. 8 LSU on Saturday night, rallying from a 17-7 halftime deficit to earn sole possession of first place in the SEC with a 38-23 win.
The Aggies' defense intercepted LSU's Garrett Nussmeier three times, and Marcel Reed came off the bench to earn the Best Performance by a Backup QB Who Threw Two Passes award for all of college football history. Needing a spark on the ground, the Aggies turned to Reed midway through the third quarter, who piloted four touchdowns and a field goal in his first five drives while rushing nine times for 62 yards and three touchdowns and going 2-of-2 through the air for 70 yards.
It's an enormous win for first-year head coach Mike Elko, who in his debut season did something Jimbo Fisher and Kevin Sumlin never did -- start 5-0 in SEC play. In fact, the Aggies hadn't started conference play 5-0 since 1998, their most recent conference championship.
After the game, Elko took the podium and dropped this bar:
Full comment here: pic.twitter.com/zT8WbVtNVH
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) October 27, 2024
While no names were dropped, everyone in the room and everyone at home immediately thought of one person when Elko said that: Elko's predecessor and former boss, Jimbo Fisher.
https://t.co/OuxutYjRVS pic.twitter.com/iDcgP4XUmO
— David Ubben (@davidubben) October 27, 2024
Add a Christmas tree reference and the bingo card is complete https://t.co/Hvp1gsnmdk
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) October 27, 2024
That is an interesting comment given who he took over for. https://t.co/KcxC7HzxZN
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) October 27, 2024
Of course, if indeed Elko was taking a not-so-veiled shot at Jimbo, it wouldn't be out of line. It would actually be consistent with his message from Day 1: "We are not going to talk about it anymore," Elko said at his introductory press conference back in November, "we are going to be about it."
There's a reason Elko is at Texas A&M, after all, and Fisher is not. From the top down, Texas A&M thought the act of hiring Jimbo was the final step toward winning championships, when in fact it was the first. Elko brought in a humbler, grittier approach, and he's not afraid to subtly and bluntly remind everyone of that.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.