Texas A&M is rolling into Death Valley tonight to play against the LSU Tigers in one of the most pivotal games of this weekend as regards College Football Playoff implications. Both LSU and Texas A&M have come out of last weekend with losses, and one will exit tonight with another one on their ledger— positioning themselves pretty terribly for a run to the top 12 at the end of the season.
Both squads came in with very high hopes for this year, however, so whoever does come out on the wrong side will be in a pretty bad way going forward. College Gameday and SEC Nation both featured this game as one of their top picks on the day— here is who the hosts for each show ended up selecting in this massive matchup.
College Gameday and SEC Nation lean heavily towards LSU in Aggies' matchup
College Gameday's picks for Texas A&M vs LSU
Desmond Howard: Texas A&M
Nick Saban: LSU
Pat McAfee: LSU
Johnny Knoxville: Texas A&M
Kirk Herbstreit: LSU
SEC Nation's picks for Texas A&M vs LSU
Paul Finebaum: LSU
Roman Harper: LSU
Tim Tebow: LSU
Chase Daniel: LSU
Texas A&M's odds seem pretty long to pick up a win tonight in Baton Rouge, and they are at a low right now in terms of national perception thanks to the way they performed last week against Kentucky. The Aggies have the skill talent to make it happen, but they were not able to execute in an impressive way at all last week in a big national opportunity.
That explains why this is such a slanted slate of selections towards LSU (absent Johnny Knoxville and Desmond Howard, the former of whom said that Kiffin "is to college football what toe fungus is to flip flops"). It's always hard to pick against the Tigers when playing at home anyway, but with the way that the Aggies have looked at times, there's not a lot of people who have a high level of confidence in them.
Even so, the Aggies have plenty to like coming into this matchup, believe it or not. Marcel Reed has torn up Blake Baker's defense each of the last two years using his legs more than his arms, which is something that not a lot of the panelists mentioned— and though he's having some trouble throwing it, he's been effective in the run game so far this year.
If the Aggies can make some solid gains on the ground early, they will have Baker's defense on its heels in this one. A&M has been huge in the second half of this matchup both of Elko's first two years, so if they are close headed into the break, it will bode well for them.
I'm going to stick with my prediction that the Aggies end up winners of this one, 27-24. Texas A&M will get to two straight wins in Death Valley and three straight wins over the Tigers overall.
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