It’s no Red River Shootout or Iron Bowl — there’s not even a snappy nickname for it.
But when LSU and Texas A&M renew their regular-season series Saturday for the first time in 17 years, the teams will breathe new life into one of the South’s oldest and most competitive rivalries.
Spanning 113 years, eight combined conference affiliations and nine host venues, the rivalry was practically a staple of the Tigers’ schedule for the latter part of the 20th century.
Between 1960 and 1995, the two schools met on the gridiron 26 times.
When LSU coach Les Miles spoke at Monday’s team meeting, Tiger players say the first thing he emphasized was the rivalry’s history and tradition.
The players knew the number by heart.
“[They are] 27-20 to us, with a few ties in there,” said senior offensive lineman Josh Dworaczyk in reference to LSU’s 27-20-3 all-time advantage in the series. “You can tell how balanced and back-and-forth the games were. Some of the alumni that still come around the program always talk about the pride at stake against the Aggies.”
In the modern era, the two teams have waged several memorable battles, many between the Tiger Stadium lines.
From 1960 to 1975, the Aggies and Tigers met in Tiger Stadium each year.
A&M won just three times during that stretch, but provided one of the series’ standout moments in 1970 by upsetting No. 12 LSU, 20-18, only days after Tiger quarterback Butch Duhe’s abrupt death from a brain hemorrhage.
The series went into hibernation for 10 years, but re-emerged in annual home-and-home form in 1986, when then-freshman quarterback Tommy Hodson carried No. 18 LSU to a season-opening upset of the No. 7 Aggies in Tiger Stadium.
Once Hodson graduated after the 1989 season, the Tigers claimed only one of the next six games before LSU canceled the series after the 1995 season.
Jim Hawthorne, LSU’s director of broadcasting, said A&M was always circled on the Tigers’ schedule.
“The games were competitive, and there was consistency to it for both sides,” he said. “They’re passionate about their football [at Texas A&M], so the culture fits with ours. LSU is in a much better position now to hold up its end of the bargain than we saw in the 1990s.”
The Tigers did just that the last time the two teams met, delivering a 41-24 beatdown in the 2011 Cotton Bowl.
The two programs share more than a passion for football. Both schools churn out engineers and oil industry research, compete for the same recruits and have a rich military background.
Texas A&M has also played LSU more than any other opponent it hasn’t shared a conference with.
With the two longtime foes now in the SEC together, LSU players said they expect the Texas A&M game to become an annual highlight.
“I wish we would have played them every single year,” Dworaczyk said. “It’s not just great for the schools to have this be a rivalry, but college football on the Gulf Coast is better when A&M and LSU get after it.”
That doesn’t mean LSU players knew too much about their rivals to the west.
Sophomore punter Brad Wing said he didn’t know until LSU’s preparation for last January’s Cotton Bowl that the two sides had even played before.
Senior safety and Texas native Craig Loston said he knows all of Texas A&M’s gameday traditions, but had “no clue” that the two schools had a history when each recruited him.
But players say familiarity will breed contempt, and A&M already has motivation after the recent bowl defeat.
“With their history and that young quarterback [redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel], it will have this game exciting and tough for many years to come,” said sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Johnson. “This is the weekend that will kick-start it all up again. It’s a fun time, to be getting a new old rival.”
Stadium Nickname:
• Texas A&M: Home of the 12th Man • LSU: Death Valley
Stadium Capacity:
• Texas A&M: 83,002 • LSU: 92,542
Male-Female Cheerleader Ratio:
• Texas A&M: undefined • LSU: 1:1
Series Record:
• LSU leads 27-20-3
Last Meeting:
• Jan. 7, 2011; LSU 41 – A&M 24
First Meeting:
• Dec. 2, 1899; Texas A&M 52 – LSU 0
