I was delighted to watch A&M defeat LSU last Saturday in Baton Rouge.
Much of the conversation surrounding the No. 3 ranked Aggies playing in a legendary hostile environment was the fact the Ags hadn't won a game there since 1994.
I went to the LSU game from my sophomore year to my senior year.
The sophomore trip was six or seven of us piling into a 1957 Chevy whose owner was fanatical about that car.
I was compliant, especially since I didn't want to take my Mustang.
We were clearly experienced game-day warriors, stopping anywhere where they served 19-year-old Aggies.
Still we arrived in our uniforms ready to cheer on the Aggies.
A&M definitely wasn't third-ranked, or anything ranked back then.
LSU was sort-of like Texas, an ancient rival.
We started playing in 1899, we won that one 52-0 and played throughout the decades, including almost all of the 40s.
LSU led that series 7-2.
My era at A&M was during the LSU series from 1960 to 1975.
We played all of those games at Baton Rouge because A&M would get a larger gate than at College Station.
It was the longest consecutive games played between the two.
LSU still leads the series today.
There was one game, however, that I always will remember.
In 1970, A&M won with a 79-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds left to upset LSU.
They went on to win the SEC, we didn't win another game that year and finished 2-9.
The series resumed from 1986 to 1995 as a home-and-home and we went 6-4, including that win in 1994.
The Aggies R.C. Slocum, a Louisiana native was head coach for the last seven meetings.
The A&M-LSU series has played into some coaching changes.
The Aggies hired former LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher from Florida State – Fisher was on Lou Saban's LSU staff in 2003 when the Tigers won the first of three national championships.
A&M beat LSU 74-72 in 2018, setting a FBS record for the most points scored in a single game – over seven overtime periods.
LSU got revenge by beating the Aggies 50-7 in 2019.
A&M won in 2020, LSU won in 2021, the Aggies won in 2022, LSU won in 2023, but lost in 2024 and, of course, last weekend.
The SEC adopted a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026, and A&M-LSU is a protected rivalry until 2029.
Protected is an odd word to describe that rivalry.
