No. 7 LSU Visits No. 8 Ole Miss as Kiffin Returns — SkimNews
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- No. 7 LSU faces No. 8 Ole Miss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) — the first time the border-state rivals have met as top-10 teams since 1962, with the winner positioning itself for a College Football Playoff spot.
- Lane Kiffin returns to Oxford less than 10 months after accepting the LSU job at the tail end of his sixth season with Ole Miss, before the Rebels made a playoff run without him — a storyline the source frames as 'one of the sport's all-time nastiest breakups.'
- LSU listed starting quarterback Sam Leavitt as doubtful on its Wednesday injury report with an upper-body issue; backup Landen Clark, an Elon transfer who threw for nearly 3,000 yards and earned CAA Co-Offensive Rookie of the Year last season, would start if needed.
- Ole Miss coach Pete Golding was Kiffin's defensive coordinator at Ole Miss for three years, while former Rebels OC Charlie Weis Jr. now holds the same role at LSU, creating a coaching 'chess match' the source highlights as unusually layered.
- Secondary ticket prices for the sold-out game sat at or above $500 on third-party sites as of Thursday, with Oxford police bringing in reinforcements to manage the crowd ahead of Kiffin's return.
- LSU -2.5 is the pick, with the source citing Kiffin's familiarity with Golding's defensive tendencies and Louisville's 41-38 Week 1 exposure of holes in the Ole Miss secondary as reasons the Tigers' offense can exploit the matchup.
- Both teams enter 2-0 after Week 1 wins over ACC opponents and Week 2 tune-ups against overmatched Group of Six foes, meaning this is the first real test for either side.
Why it matters: The winner claims both a College Football Playoff positioning boost and bragging rights in one of college football's most acrimonious coaching divorces. With LSU's starting QB doubtful and the two staffs cross-pollinated (Golding from Kiffin's Ole Miss staff, Weis Jr. the reverse), the game becomes a rare true coaching chess match where both sidelines already know the opponent's playbook tendencies.
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