Undeniably, Saturday’s winner between LSU and Ole Miss will be in a strong position after three weeks.
At the same time, the season will push forward with plenty of upcoming resistance. LSU has to immediately turn around and play Texas A&M. A trip to Florida awaits Ole Miss.
Both teams will have nine games to play as of Sunday morning no matter the outcome in Oxford.
It makes no sense to try to tamp down the emotional stakes at play. The result is massively impactful for a pair of teams with playoff aspirations, but it’s still eight percent of the schedule.
To many, it’s just the most important eight percent.
I’ll preface this list by saying I don’t know any of the people I’ve included, and I haven’t spoken to any of them. I’m simply looking at the big picture, reading stories, listening to quotes and using context to form an opinion. And that’s all this is—an opinion.
While this game means a lot to a lot of people, here’s my list of who it means most to, in order.
Lane Kiffin
Those in purple and gold are still learning Kiffin’s ways. The state of Mississippi is not. What I have figured out is that Kiffin’s competitiveness knows few, if any, bounds.
My contention is that he believes he should have been able to coach that team in the College Football Playoff last year. It drives him crazy that Ole Miss fans despise him rather than appreciate the best six-year stretch most of them have ever experienced.
Most of that is reasonable in a vacuum, but this isn’t one.
When you leave for a rival, you’re hated. When you do it before a playoff game and threaten to take half the staff and the star players with you, well…it doesn’t sit well.
Kiffin wants Saturday badly. He wants Ole Miss fans to understand exactly what they no longer have. That puts him at the top of the list.
The Ole Miss fanbase
The emotions on display Saturday will be powerful. Rebel fans waited their entire lives to reach the position they were in nine months ago, and Kiffin marred the moment.
It’s reasonable and admirable that many in red and blue believe Pete Golding and the Rebel fundraising arm can keep the momentum Kiffin helped build. It’s every bit as reasonable to fear that Kiffin’s departure could start a descent back to mediocrity.
A Kiffin-led LSU rout in Oxford would only stoke that suppressed flame. Ole Miss fans badly want to remain near the top of the SEC. They need to prove they can do it without Kiffin, and this is the perfect time.
Pete Golding
Whether Golding likes it or not, all of this falls on his shoulders.
College football is about coaching, and he’s the guy who has to sustain Kiffin’s run. If he doesn’t, recapturing it at Ole Miss could prove extremely difficult.
His defense struggled against Louisville, and if Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. light it up, real questions will creep in.
That said, this is a massive opportunity to live up to and exceed the exact standard that’s been set at Ole Miss. Kiffin raised the bar. No better way to show that you belong than staring him right down from the other side of the ball.
Golding has the confidence of the Ole Miss base. He can strengthen that on Saturday or see it start to slip away.
The returning Ole Miss players
Kiffin decided to walk away from a group that could have won a championship. Plenty of players in that locker room were briefly without a head coach two days after winning the Egg Bowl to finish 11-1.
That stings.
Trinidad Chambliss, Kewan Lacy, Will Echoles, Brycen Sanders and the guys back for 2026 should have an edge about them. It’s a revenge spot.
No generation of players understands moving on to a new place more than this one, but those circumstances were different. They were personally affected. It’s a chance to show Kiffin what he walked out on again.
The LSU fanbase
Tiger fans love to look down their nose at Ole Miss. There are five SEC titles, two Heismans and three national championships in the last 23 years that give them the standing to do so.
However, the Ole Miss of the last six years has stood toe-to-toe with the Tigers and won more games.
LSU fans would suggest that’s Kiffin’s doing. Rebel fans would say it’s a new era of college football. What Nick Saban or Les Miles did in the era of reliance on high school five-stars doesn’t matter.
The winner on Saturday gets significant bragging rights in a game that feels a little heavier than Magnolia Bowls of the recent past.
I still feel weird typing Magnolia Bowl. I’ll probably shelf that one for the rest of the week.
The LSU players
This is a huge chance for this Tiger team to earn a top-10 win on the road and boost its young resume. It matters a ton in a sport where two losses may be all you can afford.
However, the emotion of it all is lost on this group more than any other involved. What do DJ Pickett, Braelin Moore, Dilin Jones, Ty Benefield and Sam Leavitt care that Kiffin walked out on Ole Miss?
They don’t.
Just like they didn’t care about a Baton Rouge court case three weeks ago. Sure, the four Ole Miss transfers might have a little more juice, but that’s 4-of-105.
College players don’t get swept up in the news cycle and certainly aren’t as invested in ancillary storylines as Joe Message Board Poster or @TwitterTroll99.
