OXFORD - Deuce Alexander tried hard to keep things simple Tuesday, even as Ole Miss gets ready for a top-10 showdown that carries far more weight than the usual early-September matchup.
The Rebels’ wide receiver called Saturday’s game against No. 7 LSU “just another game” in one breath, then used a much sharper word moments later when describing the challenge ahead.
“Most definitely - just because of the circumstances,” Alexander said when asked whether the game had been circled by him and his teammates. “But we're not going to treat it any different. Just another game, just another week to go 1-0.”
Then came the other side of it.
“It’s going to be a great matchup,” Alexander said. “They've got great guys.
We've got great guys. Just going into practice, working on technique, watching a lot of tape.
It's going to be a great matchup. Get ready - it's going to be a bloodbath.”
That’s the tone around Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. kickoff on ABC. Ole Miss is ranked eighth, LSU is seventh, and the backdrop is impossible to ignore: Lane Kiffin left Oxford for Baton Rouge two days after last season’s regular-season finale against Mississippi State, taking most of the coaching staff, the strength and conditioning staff and, over the following weeks, prompting LSU staffers to tamper with the Ole Miss roster.
Alexander said LSU did reach out to him after the season, even though he never entered the transfer portal.
“Yeah, a little bit of that. But I stayed home because I love Oxford,” Alexander said.
He has been a big reason Ole Miss has started fast. Through two games, Alexander leads the Rebels in receiving with 13 catches for 235 yards and two touchdowns, production that figures to put him squarely in LSU’s plans Saturday night.
The Tigers also have familiar faces on their side in former Ole Miss teammates Princewill Umanmielen and TJ Dottery, adding another layer to a game that already has plenty of it. Alexander said the focus inside the Ole Miss locker room is on football, not everything surrounding it.
“(I'm) just telling all the guys to block out the outside noise and keep the main thing the main thing, keep it all about us,” Alexander said. “Let the fans, the media, all of them do the talking.
The coaches too, if they want to do it, let them do it. Us as players, we just keep the main thing the main thing and go out there and play our game.
“Of course we talk about them, because we've got to scout them - got to know how they play, the techniques, how they act off the field, how they respond to certain situations. But other than that, it's not really a big topic for us, talking about guys.
That's not really what we do. We just play football.”
Alexander said there is “no bad blood” with the players who left with Kiffin.
“I still love them, still my guys,” Alexander said. “But at the end of the day, they're on the ball now, so business has got to get taken care of.
After that, we can be friends. The guys who stayed, we fought hard for them, the main guys especially, but it takes everybody to win.”
As for Kiffin’s exit, Alexander said the ending still left a mark.
“Everybody's got their reasons for doing things, but it was a little achy,” Alexander said. “We were all in the dark.
We didn't know what was going on. It was just, one day he was just gone, or so they say.
I never really understood or knew what happened. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.
Now we've got Coach PG (Pete Golding), and he's doing a great job.”
Even with all of that, Alexander was clear that Kiffin remains someone he respects.
“He's still my guy,” Alexander said. “Just a great head coach.
You can't hold anything against him. No bad blood.
We're all still cool.”
Still, he didn’t exactly downplay what Saturday could turn into.
“This might be the biggest game in years, past or future,” Alexander said. “It's going to be a huge game.
…When we see the crowd, the students talking trash to the other team, that gets us excited, gets us pumped up. But at the same time, we can't let it get to be too much - like, 'Dang, this is a big game, I've got to go do this and that.'
Nah, the mindset is just go out there and play your game. You don't have to do anything different to play your game or do a good job.
Just go out there, play the game, and good plays will come to you.”
In Other News...
LSU Fans Are Facing A Brutal Price To See This Ole Miss Showdown
The buzz around Saturdays LSU trip to Oxford has already spilled well beyond the field, and the price of admission makes that clear. With two top-10 teams meeting at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and ESPNs College GameDay in town, the market for Ole Miss showdown has been pushed into another tier, with the cheapest available seats on SeatGeek sitting around $467 with fees.
For LSU fans, the sting only gets worse from there, since secondary-market listings show a median ticket price of $862. Add in Lane Kiffins return to Ole Miss as LSUs head coach and it is easy to see why this one has the feel of a marquee event, even before a snap is taken at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. [Read more 🡒]
Sam Leavitt Just Became LSUs Biggest Concern At Ole Miss
Rece Davis has already put a spotlight on LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt ahead of the Tigers trip to Ole Miss, and the concern is less about raw talent than whether he can keep the offense on schedule. The ESPN College GameDay host questioned Leavitts ability to avoid mistakes and operate cleanly as a passer, pointing back to the kind of turnover issues that can quickly change a game.
For Ole Miss, that makes the quarterback matchup one of the central story lines to watch. If Leavitt presses or gives the Rebels extra chances, it could tilt the game in a hurry, which is exactly why his decision-making is drawing so much attention before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Fans Can't Ignore What Overshadowed This 2-0 Start
Ole Miss rolled to a 41-9 win over Charlotte and stretched its home winning streak to 13 straight, with Trinidad Chambliss, Deuce Knight and Kewan Lacy helping drive a performance that left the Rebels sitting at 2-0. Pete Golding had plenty to like about how his team handled business on the field, especially with the offense and defense both setting the tone in a routine-looking victory.
Still, the scene around the stadium carried a jarring distraction before kickoff, when a physical altercation broke out between two Ole Miss fans at a pregame tailgate and campus police had to step in. It was the kind of episode that cut against the celebratory feel of an early-season home game, and it ensured the afternoon would be remembered for more than just the final score. [Read more 🡒]