LSU and Texas A&M were both ranked in the Top 10 and hopeful of moving up last week.
Then they started Southeastern Conference play.
The No. 7 Tigers lost at Ole Miss 32-24 and fell to No. 10 in the new Associated Press poll. The No. 9 Aggies lost to visiting Kentucky 31-21 and stumbled to No. 23.
LSU (2-1, 0-1 SEC) and Texas A&M (2-1, 0-1) will meet Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La. The winner will get its first conference victory of the young season, and the loser will find itself in a deep hole regarding the SEC and College Football Playoff races.
The Tigers endured week-long hype heading into coach Lane Kiffin’s return to the Ole Miss campus last week, then fought back from a 24-7 deficit and could have forced overtime, but Sam Leavitt’s fourth-down pass was intercepted in the end zone in the final minute.
“I think that they went through a lot,” Kiffin said of his players’ emotions last week, which he addressed with them as preparation for the Aggies began. “I told them, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go out of here and regroup.’ We’ve got to move on because we can’t let that missed opportunity have to do with us losing another game.”
Kiffin said that three games isn’t a sufficient sample for him to have a clear picture of just what kind of team he has.
“It’s our first year with everybody except for the couple (of players) that we coached a year ago at Ole Miss,” he said.
LSU lost two key players to injury against the Rebels. Defensive back Dashawn Spears, one of the leaders on the nation’s No. 1 run defense (33.0 yards per game), sustained a season-ending ACL injury and tight end Trey’Dez Green will miss multiple games because of a knee injury, but is expected to return.
“Dashawn and Trey’Dez are extremely unique and unique in what we use them to do,” Kiffin said.
Texas A&M also lost an important player for the season when versatile wide receiver/return specialist Terry Bussey sustained a lower-body injury on the opening kickoff against Kentucky. In his absence, Mario Craver caught a career-high 11 passes for 119 yards.
“Obviously, (Saturday) wasn’t up to the standard that we want it to be,” Aggies head coach Mike Elko said. “We’ve got a great opportunity this week to go on the road and play a top-10 team in an environment that’s going to be electric, and we have to respond. That’s what this program was built on.”
Elko is in his third season on the job, and his background is on defense. Kentucky took control by outscoring Texas A&M 21-0 in the third quarter and finished with 408 yards despite running 30 fewer plays (84-54) than the Aggies.
“That was probably one of the worst defensive performances we’ve had in my tenure here,” Elko said. “I own that. That’s on me. We have a lot of pride in how we play defense here, and I think we will rise to the occasion.”
Texas A&M defeated LSU 49-25 in Baton Rouge last October, leading to the firing of Tigers head coach Brian Kelly after the team fell to 5-3 overall, 2-3 in SEC play. That move ultimately paved the way for Kiffin’s arrival.
