By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s rivalry with Ole Miss predates aviation.
The Wright Brothers sustained flight in 1903, and the Tigers and Rebels had been battling on the gridiron for a decade. A hundred and thirty years is a lot of history to comb through, but to find a matchup that parallels Saturday’s, you only have to go back to last season.
The similarities are eerie.
Last September, Ole Miss shouldered the weight of preseason expectations rarely lumped on its shoulders. Lane Kiffin had coerced his booster base to pony up the dough for a huge transfer portal signing class that included high profile additions from the power four leagues.
Ole Miss nabbed Walter Nolan, a former five-star, from Texas A&M, Princely Umanmielen, Florida’s sacks leader, Trey Amos from Alabama, Chris Paul from Arkansas and Henry Parrish from Miami. In all, 26 portal prospects flooded The Grove to unite with a core that had won 11 games previously and finished in the top 15 in the country in total offense.
In the game of poker college football has become, Kiffin drew a few new cards and shoved his chips in.
Kiffin busted, but he had one hell of a hand. It beat Kirby Smart’s at Georgia 28-10 and produced eight NFL Draft picks, the most from Ole Miss since 1971 when Archie Manning went first overall to the Saints. Five of those eight picks were in the top 77 of the draft.
Ole Miss timed its spending spree correctly in the portal to assemble the best roster in Oxford in half a century, maybe ever. Those Rebels just didn’t cash in.
One of the reasons for the failure was a loss in front of a raucous crowd in Baton Rouge to a team with a veteran first-year starting quarterback with talent but minimal experience.
Fast forward a year, and LSU will enter a Vaught-Hemingway Stadium ready to burst at the seams to support an Ole Miss team led by fifth-year player but third-time starter in Trinidad Chambliss.
And this time its LSU taking the field with a freshly purchased portal class dripping with NFL prospects from the Power Four. Mansoor Delane has been a star in the secondary. Patrick Payton and Jack Pyburn man the edges. Tamarcus Cooley and AJ Haulcy roam the back end. Barion Brown may be the offense’s most explosive player.
They were all brought in to support a fifth-year starting quarterback coming off of a massively productive year. That’s Garrett Nussmeier for LSU in 2025, and it was Jaxson Dart for Ole Miss in 2024. Dart was the 25th pick in April. Few would be surprised if Nussmeier came off the next NFL Draft board around that time.
The point being, last year’s Ole Miss team was loaded. The Rebels finished second in the country in total offense and 14th in total defense. But they came up short of the playoff.
This year’s LSU team looks loaded. The defense has manhandled Clemson and Florida, and the Playoff is an explicitly stated goal for this group.
Can the home team shouldering less expectation ride the home crowd to a win to propel itself directly into the playoff race as October arrives?
That would be a repeat of history.
Or does the NFL-loaded outfit impose its will on an outmanned roster and cement its place near the top of the SEC?
That would be a road win for Brian Kelly.
Neither coach has reached his ultimate goal at the current stop. Kiffin has Ole Miss near the top of the SEC routinely, but he’s never played for a conference or national championship. Kelly beat Nick Saban and won the SEC West. He’s coached a Heisman winner, but he came to LSU to win a national title. He hasn’t come close.
Saturday night one will emerge unbeaten in 2025. That’s one difference from last year.
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