BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lane Kiffin's first two home games as LSU's coach were runaway victories. His third, against Texas A&M, is bound to be more intense.
The No. 10 Tigers (2-1, 0-1 SEC) and No. 23 Aggies (2-1, 0-1) both are coming off their first losses of the season last weekend. Whoever loses in Death Valley on Saturday night will find their College Football Playoff hopes hanging by a thread before the end of September.
“One of the best things about life is you can learn lessons about how to get kicked in the face and how to keep going and get up," said Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, whose team surprisingly fell at home to Kentucky last week. "Now we’ve got to get up and go to Baton Rouge and we’ve got to pull it together.”
Kiffin expressed little doubt that the Aggies, and his own team, would bounce back with better performances.
“Every week is new,” Kiffin asserted. “You can’t look at that game last week and think that’s how Texas A&M is going to show up and play."
The Aggies have “too many good players, and Elko’s a great coach,” Kiffin added.
LSU had an exhausting Week 3, traveling to face rival Mississippi in a game that might surpass every college football regular season game in 2026 — if not some CFP games — in terms of hype. The college football world had been eagerly awaiting Kiffin's return to Ole Miss since he left the CFP-bound Rebels at the end of the 2025 regular season in order to coach at LSU.
It didn't go the Tigers' way. Trailing 24-7, they rallied to tie it in the fourth quarter, but ultimately could not deny Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss in Ole Miss' 32-24 triumph.
Kiffin's team didn't have much time to regroup before getting ready for what could be another tough SEC clash.
"We got to move on because we can’t let that missed opportunity have to do with us losing another game,” Kiffin said.
The Tigers are entering their first game this season without standout tight end Trey'Dez Green and hybrid linebacker-safety Dashawn Spears.
“Dashawn and Trey’Dez are extremely unique and unique in what we use them to do,” Kiffin said while discussing the challenge of filling those voids.
Green, who's caught 14 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown this season, was hurt after making a first-down catch in the fourth quarter at Mississippi. While Green's injury is not believed to be season-ending, the duration of his absence remains unclear. His primary backups are Zach Grace and Malachi Thomas.
“Zach’s done a really good job — really improved, knows his stuff really well, good blocker,” Kiffin said. “Malachi, it’s been a little bit up and down.”
Kiffin said Spears' attributes included his length, as well as his ability to function in man-to-man coverage and to blitz. He was trying to pressure Chambliss when his knee gave out in the first half at Ole Miss.
“A really special player,” Kiffin said. “That’s going to be a really tough loss for us.”
Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed threw two interceptions on the Kentucky side of the field and his 21 incomplete passes came at some key moments — including on pivotal fourth-down plays — in last weekend's 31-21 loss to the Wildcats.
That has lead to some scrutiny of Reed this week, but Elko lashed back at his QB's critics.
“Let’s be careful that we don’t lose faith in the guy who has led us to an awful lot of victories," Elko said. “People can say whatever they want, and they can clip whatever they want, and they can put whatever little bit of evidence on film that they want, but he’s been a really, really successful quarterback at Texas A&M. People better not forget that.”
Reed helped A&M reach the CFP as a sophomore last season. He is 15-6 in his career as a starter. But now he'll have to function without receiver Terry Bussey, who is out for the season because of a lower body injury.
Kiffin also cautioned against underestimating the dual-threat Reed, who rushed for 80 yards last week.
“Our ability to contain him is going to be such a critical piece of this game," Kiffin said. "We got to be really, really sound in what we’re doing on defense.”
LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, a high-profile transfer from Arizona State, misfired on a couple crucial throws at Ole Miss, including on play when Grace was open along the goal line for a potential tying touchdown in the final minutes.
Leavitt finished 16 of 27 passing for 158 yards, one TD and a game-sealing interception in the end zone at Ole Miss. Leavitt has been intercepted five times in three games.
“We’ve got to do a better job in our passing game of being consistent with more completions,” Kiffin said. “We have a lot of incompletions, a lot of dead plays where you’re not getting anything.”
Kiffin said Leavitt was challenged by a good Rebels pass rush and that having to scramble often can affect a QB's accuracy. Kiffin also commended Leavitt on his running ability and his resilience, but added that Leavitt knows he has to “do a better job ... and deliver the ball on time" in the passing game.
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Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed (10) throws a pass against Kentucky during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the year declaring that he stood “shoulder to shoulder” with U.S. President Donald Trump as the two countries launched a war against Iran. But this week, as world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, there were no plans for the two men to be in the same room, or even in the same city.
As the war with Iran has dragged on, Trump and Netanyahu have split over how to prosecute it, straining a relationship between the two allies. Netanyahu has also faced global criticism both for Israel’s war in Gaza and settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Instead of a packed itinerary, Netanyahu, who arrived in New York on Thursday, was to meet only a handful of leaders before giving his speech.
The apparent snub underscored how badly the relationship between Trump and the prime minister has fractured. Many in Washington associate Netanyahu with the increasingly unpopular fight with Iran and Trump has labored to avoid the appearance that the Israeli leader forced him into a war that Trump said would be a “little excursion” lasting only weeks.
Netanyahu's brief visit also demonstrated how isolated he is globally, three years after launching a punishing war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. He faces reelection next month in polls widely seen as a referendum on his responsibility for the security failures surrounding the attacks and his ability to defend Israel's reputation on the world stage.
Still, Netanyahu was unfazed when scores of diplomats marched out when he took the stage on Thursday.
“If there are any other moral cowards who have not yet left this hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu said and delivered a defiant speech lashing out at critics who accuse Israel of genocide and war crimes in Gaza.
He also accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had called for Netanyahu's arrest, of spreading lies about Israel and endangering Jewish New Yorkers.
Still, the prime minister is a master showman, often turning to props and visual aids during speeches in flawless English to drive home his message. His speech, ahead of next month's elections, appeared aimed at Israeli voters, and was repeatedly interrupted by cheers from supporters he had brought into the hall.
“He times his speech so that it is broadcast here in primetime,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who served under Netanyahu and lives in Israel.
But experts say without the usual high-profile meetings, the trip could hurt Netanyahu’s image at home.
“I think the trip is a mistake, because it exposes his weaknesses,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations and professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities.
While many Israelis view the U.N. as hostile toward Israel, he added, the fact that he could not secure a meeting with Trump only highlights how poorly Netanyahu has managed the relationship with his nation's strongest ally.
In 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden was reluctant to host Netanyahu at the White House but still made time to sit down with him on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
“Israel cannot survive without the United States,” Gilboa said.
Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, has sharply criticized settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank. In unusual remarks for an ambassador, he referred to the attackers as “terrorists."
“It’s significant of a deeper rift,” Oren said of Netanyahu's slim itinerary.
When Trump was in New York on Tuesday, he met with an array of leaders from Arab nations, as well as from Denmark, Japan, Greenland, Ukraine and Venezuela, among others. He then quickly returned to Washington to roll out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Netanyahu has met with Trump seven times since the U.S. president's return to office in January 2025, though only once since the war with Iran began.
Not meeting the president was a “big, big miss for him at a time where he can’t afford misses,” said Natan Sachs, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
On other past trips, Netanyahu met with a slate of high-profile leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
This year, though, the prime minister's office said “many world leaders” asked to meet with Netanyahu during his brief visit, but that he was on a “tight schedule” and needed to return to Israel before the start of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Friday.
On his schedule, the statement said, were leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Ethiopia, Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea.
Demonstrators gather to protest following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Madison Swart)
A demonstrator holds a placard near United Nations headquarters during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Demonstrators hold a flag near United Nations headquarters during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a device as he speaks speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - President Donald Trump, right, listens during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the State Dining Room of the White House, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
A person holds a sign during a protest ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Madison Swart)
United States President Donald Trump speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens during a news conference with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
