All eyes are on Oxford this Saturday night, and the return of Lane Kiffin has turned LSU’s visit to Ole Miss into the week’s biggest college football spectacle. More than 325 credential requests came in for the game, not counting ESPN’s “College GameDay,” and Ole Miss approved roughly 200.
The matchup itself brings plenty of weight. LSU is No. 7 and Ole Miss is No. 9 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, setting up a top-10 showdown at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
ET Saturday, Sept. 19.
The game will air on ABC.
Security is being ramped up for the scene around Kiffin’s first trip back to Oxford after leaving for LSU. People close to the situation told USA TODAY Sports that horse-mounted officers from the Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans police departments are being brought in to help with security, crowd control and fan management. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said the hope is that the attention stays on the game.
“I've got confidence in the fans of Ole Miss and LSU ultimately," Tindell told the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. "As competitive as it is and everybody wants their team to win, to handle themselves appropriately and act right."
Kiffin, for his part, has tried to shift the pressure back onto the Rebels. He told his players they won’t be the center of attention this week because the spotlight - and the criticism - will land on him instead.
“I told the players today, you don't have anything to worry about as far as like attention on you all week. There's just going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me, I said, 'You just get to go play,'" Kiffin said. "I said really the pressure's on them.
"We won seven games last year, they won 13. They return two Heisman candidates (in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy).
How often does that ever happen in the same backfield? The second longest winning streak in the country.
You guys just get to go play and the pressure is not on you."
The storyline has also spilled beyond the sideline. Ole Miss wideout-turned-LSU player Princewill Umanmielen was served court papers just four days before the game as part of an Ole Miss lawsuit. He is being sued for breaking a revenue-sharing contract with Ole Miss when he entered the transfer portal and ultimately signed with LSU, alongside offensive lineman Devin Harper Jr.
Former LSU coach Brian Kelly, now an analyst with CBS, also weighed in earlier this week and backed the home team. He pointed to the recent trend in the series and the challenge of playing in the SEC on the road.
“The home team has won this matchup in the last four years," Kelly said. "So, 2-2 over the last four years and it has been the home team winning close games - overtime, one-score games.
So, we already know what the outcome is. This is going to be a close game.
"So, I'm going to lean with the home team here. When you go on the road in the SEC, the home crowd makes a difference."
Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss has made this a far more personal return than a normal road game. According to John Talty’s forthcoming biography, Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football's Agent of Chaos, Kiffin also tried to bring key Ole Miss players with him to LSU, including quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, whose unexpected rise helped drive the Rebels’ playoff push.
Attorney Tom Mars said Kiffin was closely tracking Chambliss’ eligibility appeal and wasn’t exactly subtle about his motives.
“It was clear to me - it’d be clear to anyone except the village idiot - that he was hoping the appeal would be granted so he could bring Trinidad to LSU,” says Mars.
Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding also urged fans to keep the night from spiraling beyond the football. He said respect and kindness are part of what makes the program special.
“To me, what this place has always been about and why so many people love coming here and respect this place, is because of the people that are here," Golding said. "And how they make them feel when they come here.
That's always been something for me. When you come here and meet Ole Miss alumni and all that, they are so respectful."
Kiffin has been through a hostile return before. When he came back to Tennessee as Ole Miss coach in 2021, Volunteers fans threw debris onto the field in a tense finish that included a yellow golf ball tossed from the stands at him. Kiffin kept the ball, and in an interview with USA TODAY Sports columnist Blake Toppmeyer four-plus years ago, he pulled it out of a desk drawer and rolled it across the desk.
“Right there,” Kiffin said, as the ball rolled toward me. “There it is.”
As for the game itself, the predictions lean both ways. Cory Diaz of The Daily Advertiser picked Ole Miss 33, LSU 27, while Microsoft CoPilot went with LSU 31, Ole Miss 30. Either way, the buildup has already delivered the kind of drama that made this date impossible to miss.
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