Despite inheriting a locomotive that had fallen apart under its previous engineer, one that was losing vital pieces left and right through no fault of his own, Brian Kelly found a way to get it running and running efficiently, having it on track to reaching its destination a few years ahead of schedule.
Often times, the rides weren’t pretty. Each checkpoint posed its own set of challenges and usually, the engine faltered at the start, causing the train to trudge slowly out of the station and confuse its passengers. There were even a few cases where the train broke down before reaching its checkpoint, elevating suspicion from passengers but not warranting shutdown from inspectors.
Eventually, Kelly’s repairs paid off and with every component in the right place, the rides from checkpoint to checkpoint began to run more smoothly. Soon, the train faced two checkpoints before it was scheduled to reach its final destination, one seemingly easy and the other more primed for breakdown, yet still not impossible to reach.
Train metaphors aside, LSU entered its final regular season game ranked No. 5 in the nation with a serious chance to make the College Football Playoff under first-year Head Coach Brian Kelly. It faced a team that had recently gotten blown out by Florida, beaten by Auburn, one of the worst teams in the conference, and struggled to put up points against a then 1-11 UMass team.
The loss that occurred in College Station Saturday night, a game in which the Aggies put up their highest point total of the season and rushed for 274 yards, sent shock waves through the college football world. Despair and disbelief were the primary emotions LSU fans felt as they stared at their televisions at home, too shocked to turn it off or change the channel to something less gut-wrenching. “I told you so’s” from those that criticized LSU’s ranking littered social media, though I’m sure those posting were just as surprised as the rest of us were.
You can tell yourselves time and time again that you’re satisfied with a 9-3 regular season finish and SEC West tournament bid. I mean, most preseason projections had LSU winning seven or eight games this season and that was before the Tigers lost their opener to Florida State, a game that most making projections had them winning.
But fans of the program know that’s not what they had in mind. Even the more optimistic were uneasy about the prospect of facing Georgia, the consensus No. 1 team in the nation. This team made Tennesse, who handed LSU a 40-13 loss at the beginning of the season, look average at best. But that’s the thing.
They were supposed to get their answer there.
Most conversations across the state of Louisiana regarding the matchup against Texas A&M featured an attitude of cautious optimism, with fans feeling unsure about the prospect of facing a rival filled with talent but reassured that its record was 4-7 on the season.
But reality strikes hard and the fact of the matter is, this game held the recipe for disaster. An opponent filled with five-star talent that had come inches away from defeating Alabama and had one last chance to accomplish something big to conclude a miserable season was facing an imperfect team with everything to lose in its own stadium. It doesn’t matter that it took 11 games for the Aggies to figure things out.
“We ran into a team that played really well tonight at home and we just didn’t have what it took tonight, for whatever reason,” Kelly said after the game. “We’ll learn from this.”
A train on track to the College Football Playoff ran out of fuel and broke down for the third time, giving inspectors enough evidence to finally shut it down for good. But considering how far it traveled with components it had, it should still be commended for its resilience.
“This was one of the most enjoyable years that I’ve had in my career in watching these kids grow. This was not a step back,” Kelly said. “I don’t want this loss to at all take away from what they’ve accomplished this year.”
LSU’s wins against Mississippi State, Auburn and Ole Miss all featured double-digit deficits in the first half. Its best player was injured for the year on its eighth defensive play of the season and its communicative leader on defense was knocked out for four games with a neck injury.
It entered its toughest stretch of the season already sporting one loss, lost its first game of said stretch by 27 points, then proceeded to win four straight games against SEC opponents, including Ole Miss and Alabama. The fact that the Tigers were in the position they were in heading into their last game of the regular season was extraordinary, and it’s the reason the loss to Texas A&M was so excruciating.
A fanbase that had suffered through the last two seasons, only having its 2019 season to fall back on for comfort, was back on the top of the world. The rest of the college football world complained but that was just another sign that LSU was back.
The feel-good story may be over but that doesn’t mean that that last statement doesn’t ring true in the minds and hearts of Tiger fans everywhere. LSU is back. Kelly may lose some of the components that allowed it to get this far after this season, but a whole array of new ones is scheduled to come in very soon.
Not to mention that there are still two games left in the season.
