When redshirt freshman quarterback Marcel Reed got off the bench in an attempt by the Texas A&M coaching staff to save a sputtering offensive performance against LSU, the Kyle Field crowd erupted. The scoreboard didn’t show it, and the Tigers didn’t know it — but the 12th Man felt it: Reed was about to flip the script and rescue the Aggies.

No. 14 A&M rallied to beat No. 8 LSU, 38-23, on the back of Reed’s three rushing touchdowns to reward coach Mike Elko’s season-altering gamble at the quarterback position.

When Reed entered the game, the Aggies’ offense was floundering. With the score at 17-7, starting redshirt sophomore QB Conner Weigman had just 64 passing yards and seemed flummoxed by the way that LSU’s defense was spinning the dial on him.

“We just felt like we needed a spark, and we pulled the trigger and went with Marcel,” Elko said. “And what a spark he gave us. … We just felt like things weren’t moving the way we wanted to. It certainly wasn’t Conner’s fault. There weren’t a lot of open windows. We couldn’t get the passing game unglued at all. We couldn’t call it right. I couldn’t get them to run it right. We couldn’t get open. It was just a litany of problems. Conner didn’t throw it well at times.”

Senior BJ Mayes started his first game of the season at the nickel-cornerback position and knew he had an opportunity to make a game-changing play with 8:17 to go in the third quarter. As LSU redshirt junior QB Garrett Nussmeier rolled left, he forced a ball across his body into the arms of Mayes, his first of two interceptions.

“I [saw] the quarterback, he looked at us, then he cocked back and I’m like, ‘Ain’t no way he’s [going to] throw this. You see me right here. Ain’t no way [he’s going] to throw that,’ but, shit, he threw it,” Mayes said. “The rest is history.”

With a goal-to-go situation, Reed sauntered out into the offensive huddle. The Nashville product read out the option play and scampered into the end zone from eight yards out, giving the stadium’s 108,852 fans a jolt of energy as he put the Aggies within three points.

“We didn’t really think [LSU] respected us coming into Kyle Field,” Reed said. “The team did a great job of answering. The defense did a really good job of really just putting the offense in great field position.”

After a special teams gaff from the Tigers on a poorly executed field goal, Reed had the ball and the game’s momentum behind him. The quarterback continued to use his legs and marched the Aggies 60 yards to the house in just seven plays. Reed forced his way into the end zone thanks to a push from his offensive line and put the Maroon and White ahead, 21-17, and they never looked back.

The onslaught from the Aggies began to snowball on the Tigers. Nussmeier threw three interceptions in the second half that repeatedly set A&M up for success in opposing territory. Reed and the offense continued to punish the Purple and Gold by gashing them on the ground on the way to another Reed touchdown run, putting the Aggies up, 28-17. The Aggies put up 242 total rushing yards, with Reed himself having 62, to LSU’s 24.

“We just made a decision [at halftime] that we needed to run the ball.” Elko said. “We needed Marcel’s legs. We needed to be able to get multi-dimensional in the run game. It wasn’t necessarily Marcel throwing it over Conner. We just felt like the style of offense that Marcel brings was going to give us a spark.”

LSU had a brief dalliance with a comeback bid once Nussmeier punched in a one-yard touchdown run to bring the Tigers within five points, but the Aggies’ relentless rushing attack in the second half put the Tigers to sleep, scoring 10 more points to ice it.

It was a tale of two halves in this battle for the SEC throne. LSU and A&M entered the game looking like mirror images of each other, as both were on six-game winning streaks to be the only SEC teams unbeaten in conference play. However, the tenor of this game was the reversal. LSU carved up the A&M defense early, while A&M’s offense changed gears when it needed to be late.

Nussmeier had his way with the Aggies’ defense in the first half. While the Aggies struggled to string together back-to-back completions, Nussmeier led an LSU offense that diced up A&M underneath. The LSU passer completed 14 of his 26 first-half attempts as he threw for 259 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Though the raw numbers already paint a picture of aerial brilliance, it could have been worse for the Maroon and White’s defense. Sophomore safety Dalton Brooks erased an A&M bust in coverage with a pass breakup on a would-be Tiger touchdown, and A&M pressure up front didn’t allow Nussmeier to step into another deep ball opportunity that was open.

Elko’s guts to make a change at quarterback and Reed’s heroics saved the Aggies against LSU, but the team knows it hasn’t reached the mountaintop yet. Furthering its position atop the SEC, A&M has an opportunity now to make a push for the College Football Playoff, starting next week with a trip to Columbia, South Carolina to take on No. 20 South Carolina.

“We’ve got a big game next week,” Elko said. “I told the guys that in the locker room. The price of success and the price of winning games like this is you have a target on your back. Certainly, we are going to walk into an extremely hostile environment, and it’s going to be the toughest environment this team has ever played in.”