After the loss to LSU last season, which followed the Aggies’ seven-overtime win in 2018, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher was asked Monday whether he considers the LSU game a rivalry, and if the Aggies are out for revenge this time.

“I don’t think like that, I’m sure they want to play well,” Fisher said at his regular press conference. “Anytime you get beat, you want to go back and compete and play every well. I don’t ever like the word revenge, I think revenge clouds your thinking. I think you’ve got two different teams, two different groups of people, two different years apart. You want to win because somebody had success against you, I mean that’s just human nature.”

How about it being billed as a rivalry? LSU has won eight of the last nine meetings, but the Aggies won that overtime thriller at Kyle Field, where this week’s game will take place. Last year, LSU won 50-7 in Joe Burrow’s last game in Tiger Stadium, which helped juice the crowd even more.

“Well, a rivalry game usually happens when both sides win, that’s happened,” Fisher said. “The games are very important for the conference and for the league you’re in, so yeah, these are getting to be that way. Whether it’s a rivalry or not, I don’t know that, I just know it’s a very important football game. One it’s the next game, and it’s a big game, and it’s a team you have to play well against to reach your goals in the SEC West and get to where you have to go in the national spotlight. So it’s a very important game, whether it’s a rivalry or not, that’s for other people to decide. I just know it’s an extremely important game, each and every year.”