LSU travels to Oxford week three.
The new football coach in Baton Rouge used to work there. It’s a story.
That week promises to be a circus. College Gameday has already announced its plans to broadcast from The Grove. Ole Miss will shatter an attendance record. ABC has picked the game up in primetime.
What LSU walks into that day is going to make the Egg Bowl look like a church retreat.
The other truth is that Ole Miss is planning on having its season mean much more than a return visit from Lane Kiffin. The belief in Oxford is that Kiffin was just a small cog in the wheel that still turns and is truly powered by The Grove Collective and the Keith Carter-led administration. Pete Golding handled Georgia without Kiffin, and they’ll just keep the best run in 60 years right on moving.
This year is test case No. 2. The College Football Playoff being an on-the-fly test No. 1.
BAKER’S BALL
Can John David Baker produce similar offensive results to Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr.? That’s what this all really comes down to in 2026.
Golding and the collective signed another highly touted portal class. The best quarterback/running back duo in America returns. Can the offense hum like it has for five seasons?
Under Kiffin, the Rebels have finished 2nd, 2nd, 13th, 8th, and 6th nationally in total offense the last five seasons. It’s the foundation of the renaissance of the program. Now it’s up to Baker.
East Carolina was 15th in total offense and 31st in scoring in 2025 under Baker. The 2024 season, his first with the Pirates, saw the program rank in the top 10 nationally in yards, points and passing.
He spent three seasons on Kiffin’s staff in Oxford and is now back to help take his place.
PORTAL COMBAT
Ole Miss stayed true to its identity even without Kiffin. Thirty-one new players came in during the portal cycle.
Rivals ranked it the No. 14 portal class.
This model, which LSU is going to adapt in some ways, does require a lot of portal hits year over year to sustain success. Only five starters remain on both side of the ball, 10 total. Interestingly, only two Rebels were drafted in April, just one in the first six rounds.
Leading tackler TJ Dottery and sack artist Princewill Umanmielen are at LSU. So is Winnie Wakins. Fellow wide out Caden Lee is at Missouri, and EDGE Da’Shawn Womack bolted for Auburn. None of those pieces are as impactful as Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy who Ole Miss managed to retain, but they could have been part of the fabric of the team.
Turnover is nothing new at Ole Miss. Perhaps the most important piece will be an offensive line that has to replace its two tackles. Golding and Co. brought in tackles from Miami, Florida and LSU to replace the departures.
STARTING OVER
This has nothing to do with Ole Miss. It’s true for every team in every sport.
When you climb the mountain or reach as high as you’ve ever reached, that restart is jarring. When the Rebels start camp in August, the College Football Playoff and National Championship Game will be a long, long way away.
I’d guess very few., if any, in Oxford were considering winning a national title in September of 2025 when LSU visited. Same thing goes for the days that followed the loss at Georgia. It was just business as usual for the Rebels until it wasn’t in November and December,
The CFP will be on the minds of everyone in red and blue this fall, and that’s a tougher way to practice, play and coach. That doesn’t mean Golding, Chambliss and Co. can’t handle it. It just means it’s a change in mindset.
That may be as important as anything for the 2026 Rebels.
