Marcel Reed: Texas A&M staffer Tommy Moffitt brought Brian Kelly tackle dummy to practice

Texas A&M had their sights set on beating LSU and Brian Kelly all week long, and strength coach Tommy Moffitt had a unique way of keeping his players focused on that goal. According to A&M QB Marcel Reed, Moffitt brought a tackling dummy to practice on Thursday with Kelly’s face attached.

Moffitt was previously on the LSU staff for 21 seasons, primarily as a strength and conditioning coach. He was not retained when Kelly became the coach of the Tigers ahead of the 2022 season. It’s safe to say there may still have been some bad blood there, and the Aggies got revenge for their coach Saturday.

LSU went into halftime holding an 18-14 lead against No. 3 Texas A&M, but that would quickly fade once the second half began. The Tigers allowed the Aggies to reel off 28 unanswered points and fell behind 49-18 before tacking on a meaningless touchdown at the end of the game.

LSU once again struggled to move the ball on the ground, managing only 60 yards rushing. The loss marked the third in the past four games for the Tigers, which have quickly fallen out of the College Football Playoff race after at one point ranking No. 3 in the country.

That’s led to a lot of discussion about Kelly potentially being a candidate for the hot seat. The coach is in the middle of his fourth season at the helm, having directed the Tigers to a 34-14 record in that span. However, he has no College Football Playoff appearances to show for it and that lack of postseason success may be catching up with him.

Fans in Baton Rouge were chanting for Kelly to be fired in the waning minutes of the blowout on Saturday. The coach weighed in on his future in a postgame press conference.

“That’s out of my hands,” Kelly said. “It’s impossible for the head coach, that’s been here for four years and 35 years of doing this, to think anything else but ‘this is my responsibility and we’ve got to get it turned around.’ That’s not my decision in terms of whether I’m here or not.”

As for Moffitt and the Aggies, they improved to 8-0 (5-0 SEC) and look to be in the driver’s seat to make the conference championship. Although the strength coach may have felt jilted when Kelly didn’t keep him on staff a few years back, it seems to have all worked out for him in the end.