Brian Kelly doesn’t see LSU walking out of Oxford with a win.
The former Tigers coach, now working as a CBS analyst, made his pick Sept. 15 and sided with No. 9 Ole Miss over No.
7 LSU in Saturday’s SEC showdown. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m.
ET on ABC, with ESPN’s “College GameDay” on site, and it carries extra heat because it will be Lane Kiffin’s first trip back to Oxford since leaving the Rebels for LSU before last season’s College Football Playoff.
Kelly said the setting matters, and he expects the home crowd to tilt things Ole Miss’ way.
"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."
LSU’s roster still includes several players who were on Kelly’s team last season, including tight end Trey'Dez Green, linebacker Whit Weeks and cornerback DJ Pickett. Those Tigers were on the wrong end of a 24-19 loss at Ole Miss a year ago. Under Kelly, LSU beat Ole Miss in 2022 and 2024, while the Rebels took the meeting in 2023 and 2025.
Kelly’s own LSU run ended during the middle of the 2025 season, after a 49-20 road loss to Texas A&M that marked the program’s third defeat in four games after a top-10 start. He led LSU to the SEC championship game in his first season in 2022 and finished 3-0 in bowl games, but he never got the Tigers into the College Football Playoff.
He also made clear he expects this one to be a fight from start to finish.
"LSU-Ole Miss is a rivalry game," he said. "It's a border war.
That now, with the backdrop of everything else, has created obviously what we have. This is going to be a heck of a football game.
Playing in the SEC, when you go on the road, regardless of what all the other circumstances are, you better be ready to play because this is going to be one fun football game to watch."
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Ole Miss Fan Just Delivered A Viral Pregame Flex At LSU's Expense
A day before Ole Miss and LSU renewed one of the SECs louder rivalries, an Oxford commercial pilot found a fresh way to needle the Tigers. Joshua Gregory took to the sky and, over Louisiana, used his flight path to spell out Come to the Sip, turning a pregame jab into something far bigger than a message board post.
The stunt quickly caught fire on social media and even drew notice from aviation enthusiasts around the world, which is about as wide a stage as a college football flex can get. It also prompted reaction from Louisiana pilot Brian Trascher, who weighed in on the challenge of pulling off the route and the rivalry flavor behind it, leaving the whole episode with a little more air time than anyone probably expected. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Got A New Twist In Its LSU Lawsuit Fight
The offseason legal battle tied to Ole Miss took another turn when LSU defensive end Princewell Umanmielen was served court papers connected to a lawsuit the Rebels filed. The case centers on alleged breach of contract and seeks monetary damages from Umanmielen and another former Ole Miss player, adding a messy off-field layer to a dispute that already reaches beyond the usual transfer chatter.
LSU officials were aware there would be an attempt to serve Umanmielen before it happened, underscoring how carefully this has been unfolding behind the scenes. The suit is reportedly centered on revenue sharing issues between the schools, which gives the fight a broader backdrop than just one player and makes it clear this disagreement could have implications well past this single legal filing. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Got Another Reason To Circle LSU Saturday
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The legal fight has only sharpened the mood around a game that was already set up to carry real weight for both programs. With Umanmielen now on the LSU side of the rivalry and the lawsuit still hanging over the story line, this is the kind of off-field wrinkle that can make an SEC meeting feel even bigger before a single snap is played. [Read more 🡒]