Second chance up for grabs at Kyle Field
First winning record in SEC play since ’12 on line for Aggies
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond grew up in a military family in San Antonio, and he said he learned to keep cool under pressure from his father, Kevin.
“Never get rattled,” Kellen said of a family mantra. “My dad’s a really disciplined person, and I feel like that’s where I get a lot of my discipline from.”
The younger Mond will summon every bit of that discipline and coolness on Saturday night, when the No. 22 Aggies (7-4, 4-3 SEC) host No. 7 LSU (9-2, 5-2) in a fight for second place in the SEC West division.
Top-ranked Alabama is the clear-cut leader in the conference, and likely headed for another College Football Playoff. But the Aggies would find plenty to celebrate in finishing second, because it would accomplish something that was even out of reach of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel.
A&M finished 6-2 in SEC play in its first season in the league in 2012, and that will be the Aggies’ best mark at least into next season, no matter Saturday’s outcome. That year A&M lost to LSU, which also finished 6-2, and the Tigers owned the tiebreaker for second.
The Aggies haven’t come close to competing for a division title since, and on Saturday will try and earn a winning league mark for the first time since that captivating ’12 season when A&M had its first Heisman winner (Manziel) since Louisianan John David Crow earned college football’s top individual award in 1957.
Mond isn’t on anyone’s Heisman ballot, he’s had his share of ups and downs in his first full season as starter, and the Aggies are only playing for second place and a better bowl at this point. But the sophomore has a chance to start something new at A&M in the regular-season finale — the Aggies knocking off LSU for the first time in seven tries with both in the SEC West.
“We’re in a really good place mentally right now,” Mond said. “I’m encouraged where we are. We’ve already proven we’re a different kind of program, with how we’ve played this year … a win would kind of solidify that.”
Based on geography — LSU is easily the closest SEC member to College Station at a 360-mile drive — and recruiting tussles over Houston-area and East Texas prospects, the Aggies have tried hard to make LSU their division rival. Hence the old non-conference foes (this is their 57th meeting) playing on Thanksgiving weekend, the traditional time for longstanding, ballyhooed conflicts.
A&M first-year coach Jimbo Fisher realizes a true rivalry requires both sides winning their fair share of games, and he said he’s determined to level what’s been a lopsided reunion in the past six years.
“We need to pick up our part of it,” Fisher said. “Us getting on a winning track would make it a rivalry — you’ve got to have somebody beat you on the other side to do it.”
The Aggies have done their part off the field to heat up the opposition in this series. They lured Fisher from Florida State, after he’d been LSU’s top choice to replace Les Miles on a couple of occasions (negotiations fell through each time), including after LSU fired Miles four games into the 2016 season.
“He’s a great coach, he has a great plan, he’s a great competitor and recruiter, and he’s done a tremendous job,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said of Fisher, in squashing any suggestions of animosity between the two this week.
Nearly four years ago in a desperate attempt to revive the Aggies’ sagging defense, then-coach Kevin Sumlin hired defensive coordinator John Chavis from LSU for the same gig at A&M. The Chavis plan failed over three seasons, and Sumlin and his staff were sent packing after last year’s LSU game.
Nearly a year ago, Fisher tried hiring highly-sought defensive coordinator Dave Aranda from LSU, but Aranda wound up agreeing to a whopper of a deal ($2.5 million annually over four years) with the Tigers, easily making him the highest paid coordinator in the nation.
“Huge,” Orgeron said of maintaining Aranda. “Dave is a rock for us. He’s fantastic — I can’t say enough about Dave. Whatever it took to keep him, we wanted to do it to keep him here.”