By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – All winter, spring and summer, Las Vegas oddsmakers maintained Ole Miss as a 2½-point favorite in its Sept. 19 home game over LSU.
It had nothing to do with first-year Tigers’ head football coach Lane Kiffin returning to Oxford where he spent six seasons building the Rebels, culminating in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal berth.
It was about Ole Miss, returning its three best players ranked No. 1 in the nation at their respective positions, being a more proven commodity than Kiffin’s Tigers and their 47 transfer portal purchases.
Two weekends ago, when LSU and Ole Miss kicked off season openers, it all changed. The Tigers destroyed Clemson 51-10 while the Rebels squeaked by Louisville 41-38 on a last-second field goal.
LSU leapfrogged Ole Miss in the Associated Press and Coaches polls, and so here we are. It’s game week for the now 3-point favorite 7th ranked Tigers (2-0) headed in Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. SEC opening Armageddon at No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0).
But don’t tell Kiffin his team has flipped to the catbird seat. He isn’t buying it.
“The pressure is on them,” Kiffin said of the Rebels at his Monday press conference. “We (LSU) won seven games last year. They won 13. They return two Heisman candidates (quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy). How often does that ever happen in the same backfield?”
Kiffin left Ole Miss before its playoff run, heisted four Rebels’ offensive assistants for his LSU staff and then in May criticized the school’s racial history in a Vanity Fair magazine interview.
The smoldering hate by Ole Miss fans for him and his abrupt coaching change might be unparalleled in SEC history.
Not even Kiffin’s overnight decision in January 2010 to become Southern Cal’s head coach after just one season at Tennessee has had the intense immediate residual effect of Kiffin’s jump to a place he describes as “just different.”
Kiffin didn’t have to face Tennessee until more than a decade later in 2021 during his second Ole Miss season when the Rebels’ won 31-26 in Knoxville. Vols’ fans peppered him with golf balls, vape pipes, screws, water bottles, half-eaten fruit, and an empty mustard bottle.
Since Kiffin is just 9½ months removed from jilting Ole Miss for LSU, which will remain a permanent annual SEC opponent for the Rebels (unlike Tennessee), authorities are preparing for the worst.
Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill and local law enforcement are bringing in extra horse-mounted patrols from New Orleans and Mobile to assist with crowd control.
“I told the players today (Monday) you don’t have anything to worry about as far as attention on you all week and everything,” Kiffin said. “There’s just going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me. I said, `You just get to go play.’”
Pete Golding, elevated from Ole Miss defensive coordinator to head coach as soon as Kiffin boarded the plane for Baton Rouge and his new job, asked the Rebels’ fan base and Oxford to have cooler heads prevail this weekend.
“We want to create a really good loud environment like they always have for a top 10 matchup,” Golding said at his Monday press conference. “There’s nothing wrong with being competitive and being in the moment, right?
“But at the end of it, there’s still a respect piece. Let’s not lose that over a game, over a person. At the end of the day, don’t lose what has been created here for so long, which is a really unique place with really good people in a place that’s really hard to play.”
Here’s Kiffin on other subjects:
On the challenge of facing Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss
“Trinidad is 24 years old still playing college football. That’s the same as (NFL starting quarterbacks) Drake May and Caleb Williams. You’re dealing with a quarterback that has a lot of maturity in age and a lot of plays in big time games. You’re going to have to play really well for a long period of time against him because he doesn’t make many mistakes.”
On LSU third-year defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who Kiffin convinced to stay last January rather than become head coach at Tulane or Memphis
“I look at the process, and not just outcome. I look at his (Baker’s) calls where we’re taking away things offenses are doing, like the (TD) interception against Clemson. I was hoping as we challenged him differently offensively in practice with our (fast) tempo, it would make our defense even better than they were last year. Through two games, it’s been that way.”
GAME 3
No. 7 LSU (2-0 overall, 0-0 SEC) vs. No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0 overall, 0-0 SEC), Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, Saturday, 6:30 p.m. (ABC)
Last game for Rebels: Beat Charlotte 41-9 in the home opener last Saturday. The Rebels won their 13th consecutive home game, which is the third-longest active streak in the FBS. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss completed 23-of-26 for 225 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Kewan Lacy added 87 rushing yards and two TDs on 13 carries.
Series record and last meeting: Considering forfeited or vacated games due to NCAA sanctions, LSU claims it leads the series 64-44-4 while Ole Miss has it as 64-43-4. Last season in Oxford, Rebels’ QB Chambliss had 385 of the Rebels’ 480 total offense yards as No. 13 Ole Miss edged No. 4 LSU 24-19.
Ole Miss head coach: Pete Golding (4-1 overall and at Ole Miss in his first full season).
THIS AND THAT
Early betting line: LSU by 3
Betting tip: In the last six games in this series, the home team is 6-0 straight up and against the spread.
Number of Louisiana natives on Ole Miss roster: 4
Number of Mississippi natives on LSU roster: 1
Number of transfers on the Ole Miss roster from 4-year schools: 45 players from 39 schools.
OLE MISS PLAYERS TO WATCH
QB Trinidad Chambliss (44 of 62 for 561 passing yards, 5 TDs, 1 interceptions, 62 rushing yards and 1 TD on 13 carries), RB Kewan Lacy (148 rushing yards and 3 TDs on 30 carries), WR Deuce Alexander (13 catches for 235 yards) and 3 TDs, LB Tah’j Butler (12 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PBU), CB Jaylen Braxton (16 tackles, 3 PBU), PK Lucas Carneiro (4 of 5 FG, 10 of 10 PAT), P Oscar Bird (5 for 45.40 ypk, 0 touchbacks, 2 fair catches, 0 inside the 20, 1 50 yards plus)
DID YOU KNOW. . .
With a win over LSU, Pete Golding will become the first Louisiana native to coach Ole Miss to a football win over the Tigers. The Hammond-born Golding is the third Rebels’ head football coach from the Pelican State, joining Jonesboro’s Ed Walker (who coached the Rebs from 1930-37) and LaRose’s Ed Orgeron (2015-17). Walker was 0-8 vs. LSU and Orgeron went 0-3 vs. Tigers.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com