Heated 7OT thriller finally awakens SEC's sleeping LSU-Texas A&M rivalry

After five years and seven overtimes, the SEC finally has the rivalry it's been craving.

Texas A&M had yet to register itself as a notable foe for LSU since joining the league in 2012.

The SEC adjusted the teams' annual meeting to the final date of the regular season — known as "Rivalry Weekend" — and promoted the matchup as such.

But the Tigers continued to downright own the Aggies, to the tune of seven straight wins overall. And Texas A&M gained little, if any, traction in the annual debate over LSU's biggest rivals.

Until Saturday.

The potential had long been there.

Texas A&M is nearly as close geographically to Baton Rouge as any other SEC opponent, with the slightly closer proximity of Mississippi State and Ole Miss pretty negligible.

And the recruiting hotbed of southeast Texas has always kept both programs rich with talented prospects.

Factor in the familiarity — and not often friendliness — of a few key coaching changes.

News broke on the day of the Tigers' 2014 Music City Bowl that defensive coordinator John Chavis would be leaving to assume the same position with the Aggies — one month after the teams' matchup.

LSU positioned itself throughout November 2015 to replace longtime coach Les Miles with former offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, then the head man at Florida State.

Instead, plans changed rapidly on a rollercoaster day of public support for Miles that culminated in his players carrying him off the Tiger Stadium field following a 19-7 defeat of Texas A&M.

LSU ultimately made the change 10 months later in September 2016 and promoted defensive line coach Ed Orgeron on an interim basis at first and then permanently on the heels of a 54-39 Thanksgiving feast on the Aggies.

Orgeron parted ways with wide receiver coach Dameyune Craig — with little love loss — after that season. And the assistant made his way to Tallahassee to join Fisher's Seminoles staff.

Fisher resigned his position at Florida State the following December of 2017 to take over the reins in College Station, brought Craig and made a lucrative and well-documented play for Tigers' defensive coordinator Dave Aranda — albeit in vain.

And the stage was pretty well set.

Texas A&M became increasingly more apparent through the spring and summer as one of LSU's biggest recruiting rivals for years to come.

But the Tigers still hadn't lost to the Aggies on the field since years before almost any current players were born.

Until Saturday.

LSU appeared to have an eighth straight victory in the series in hand no less than half a dozen times.

The Tigers forced Texas A&M to punt back their way in the final minutes, but couldn't pick up a first down and quickly returned the favor.

Sophomore safety Grant Delpit intercepted Aggies quarterback Kellen Mond.

Players doused Orgeron with a celebratory Gatorade bath.

But referees overturned the play, saying Mond's knee had touched the turf prior to the throw.

Texas A&M converted a fourth down a couple plays thereafter that appeared well short of the erred digital marker television viewers saw, then eventually received one final second after initially appearing to spike out the game's final ticks.

Mond hit Quartney Davis to help send the game to what proved to be seven extra periods' worth of additional tension and controversy, including a potential Aggies fumble ruled an incompletion and a phantom pass interference call against LSU on a game-deciding two-point attempt.

After years of other circumstances packing the barrels, a sleeping rivalry had quickly become a powder keg.

Enter the postgame fireworks involving several notable staff members.

A so-called "melee" ensued after Cole Fisher, the sideline-credentialed nephew of Jimbo, struck LSU analyst Steve Kragthorpe — a former Aggies and Tigers assistant who suffers from Parkinson's Disease — "in (his) pacemaker."

Several individuals from the Tigers' side pointed to Craig as an instigator.

Texas A&M fans and one Houston Chronicle reporter question Kragthorpe's innocence and story.

In any event, Kevin Faulk, LSU's director of player personnel and a former star running back, quickly sprung to Kragthorpe's defense.

The situation escalated in the moment and has remained heated among the fan bases via social media as the SEC continues to review the circumstances.

And the historic seven-overtime, scoring record-setting nature of the game itself means Saturday's arrival of an actual rivalry between LSU and Texas A&M will not be allowed to slip anyone's mind anytime soon.

Monitor how another offseason of player signing and coaching changes unfold.

And notice how differently the mood feels next Thanksgiving week than in these years before Saturday's awakening.

Regardless of any prior assertions, the LSU-Texas A&M rivalry began this week.

And, regardless of what further rulings the conference might levy this week, the SEC finally has the rivalry it's been anxiously awaiting.