LSU 54, Texas A&M 39: Guice Leads LSU Offensive Explosion

Despite rumors circulating regarding the status of LSU’s head coaching search at kickoff, Ed Orgeron and LSU (7-4, 5-3 SEC) jumped on Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4 SEC) early and rode the early lead to a 54-39 Thanksgiving night win in College Station.

Texas A&M was unable to stop LSU on either side of the ball as Danny Etling had 324 passing yards and, with Leonard Fournette sitting the game out due to injury, Derrius Guice broke LSU’s long standing month-old individual game rushing record with 285 yards on 37 carries.

Guice opened the scoring on the game’s opening series with a 45 yard touchdown run, one of his four scores on the evening. After a Trevor Knight pass to Christian Kirk tied the game, Colby Delahoussaye hit a pair of field goals and a Trayveon Williams fumble at the Texas A&M 12 yard line set up an Etling touchdown pass to give LSU a 20-7 halftime lead.

LSU rode that halftime lead and got a few second half stops en route to a 41-17 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the game’s final stanza saw a combined 42 points as the teams traded three touchdowns apiece.

For Texas A&M, tonight’s defensive capitulation closes out a November swoon which sees the Aggies finish the season with four straight SEC losses after opening SEC play 4-0.

It might be the nature of those losses, however, that is the worst part of the defeats. Combined, the Mississippi schools and LSU (as well as Alabama) have 17 losses. Over the last four seasons, Sumlin’s squads are 3-9 in SEC play during the season’s closing month including four straight regular season ending losses to LSU (plus a loss to the Tigers in 2012 in October).

Is that all enough to put Sumlin back on the hot seat? Possibly. With as much investment as Texas A&M has made in facilities and staff the last few years, the results are not changing year over year. It may be a difficult climate to make a coaching change with LSU and archrival Texas both possibly (probably?) on the market, but Sumlin’s position could be one to keep an eye on in the next few days or weeks.

Both LSU and Texas A&M will be awaiting their bowl destinations after the SEC Championship Game next Saturday. LSU could sneak into the Citrus Bowl, but the more likely result is both teams ending up in the group of six bowls with the Aggies possibly in Houston at the Texas Bowl and LSU in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl.