Texas A&M's game against the LSU Tigers tomorrow will go a long way towards shaping how the rest of the season looks for Mike Elko, Marcel Reed, and the rest of the team. Coming off of a loss to Kentucky this past week, the Aggies need to bounce back in a huge way— but they are facing maybe the most difficult possible environment to do that in.
Despite that intimidating prospect, though, there's a reason for Aggie fans to feel confident in what they are going to be rolling out there on Saturday night. It's simple, and it is a little bit counterintuitive given how the season has gone thus far, but it has yet to go wrong: the Marcel Reed vs. Blake Baker matchup has always gone to no. 10.
Reed struggled mightily against Kentucky, it's true, but LSU has been an opponent for him historically that has allowed him to take advantage of his greatest natural gift in his ability to run the ball. The Tigers were woefully unable to stop him when he was inserted into the game in place of Conner Weigman in 2024, and despite a close first half last year, he led the Aggies to a huge second half behind the strength of his legs.
Texas A&M fans should remember that LSU still has to deal with Marcel Reed
Two of Reed's best three games as regards ESPN's QBR have come against the Tigers. His 2024 game was near-perfect (though he only had to throw two passes), and his 2025 game was extremely efficient despite a curiously pedestrian statline when throwing the ball.
That's because QBR really emphasizes a quarterback's ability to run the ball, and those were two of Marcel's best games on the ground of his Aggie career. If you look at the shift in philosophy from the first to the second half in last year's game, you see that, when the passing wasn't working, the running game really opened things up.
Of course, that works in reverse, too. The Aggies will need to keep the Tigers honest with some semblance of a downfield passing game in order to prevent them from loading the box up every single play and throwing everything they have at A&M's offensive front.
In other words, while the focus needs to be on Marcel utilizing his legs to a greater degree than we have seen this season, we can't expect the Aggies to come out and just run QB draw over and over until the game ends. Texas A&M will need to be able to take advantage of an LSU secondary that is currently without its best player in DaShawn Spears with some timely and on-target passing.
If Texas A&M makes that their whole identity in this one, though, they'll be playing right into LSU's hands. Blake Baker would love nothing more than to be able to let his athletes loose and have them play aggressive against a slow-developing dropback passing game, so the run has to be more of a factor.
Luckily, the Aggies have been able to pull that off each of the last two seasons. Will they be able to make it a third in a row? We'll have to wait and find out.
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