Rarely does a big game live up to the expectations the way Ole Miss and LSU did on Saturday night.
Ole Miss 32, LSU 24.
Lane Kiffin and the Tigers vanquished. Revenge secured.
An instant classic at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium won by the Rebels on a late touchdown drive led by the best player on the field, Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, and sealed with a goal line stand by the Ole Miss defense, probably the most openly criticized unit in the build up to the football game.
A Saturday they’ll talk about for generations in homes and haunts across the state of Mississippi is the only way to begin this week’s assessment of the 7 things I’m absolutely overreacting to in SEC and college football.
Revenge for the Rebels, ahead of schedule
In the southern Gothic world of literature, it would have been years before Ole Miss exacted its revenge on Lane Kiffin, the former Rebels head coach turned villainous heel who returned to Oxford on Saturday after jilting the proud program, university, and Mississippians everywhere in a profoundly public and painful divorce last December.
In a novel authored by one of Ole Miss’s favorite sons, William Faulkner, revenge for Kiffin’s unforgivable (in the Ole Miss fan’s mind) transgressions would have come years later, if at all, and only after years of intervening, snowballing trauma. Charles Bon’s return to Sutpen’s Hundred after the Civil War, so many years after Henry Sutpen denied his birthright and departed with him comes to mind.
In the novel version, Lane Kiffin wins championships (plural) at LSU and earns the national acclaim and legacy he so deeply craves and Ole Miss struggles to maintain the national relevance it also deeply craves and Kiffin helped create and only then, after that tangled web of tragedy and tears and gore, finally, on some equally hot and humid September day, with Pete Golding perhaps coordinating a defense in some skybox overlooking some other southern sideline and College GameDay’s set on a campus hundreds of miles to the north and Paul Finebaum Show callers returning to the existential question of whether the University of Alabama will finally clone Nick Saban and win national championship number 19 or 41 or however many they claim to remember that as a people, they are better than everyone else at something, no matter what the heathens from Michigan and the big-monied boosters from Ohio suggest, only then would Ole Miss rise from the swampy sludge and shadows of the sweetgum and cypress trees and swallow Lane Kiffin’s LSU whole.
Under no circumstances would revenge come so quickly, with the wounds of Kiffin’s departure so intensely raw.
Life, unlike the best southern fiction, occasionally offers moments of instant gratification.
Or so it felt on Saturday night, when the Rebels bested LSU by being better than LSU at everything Kiffin, whether you insist he’s a genius mad scientist or narcissistic malcontent, insists his teams are better at than the teams they play.
Big-play offense? Advantage Ole Miss.
Red-zone execution? Rebels again.
Havoc-creating defense? Ole Miss forced 8 tackles for loss to LSU’s 3, deflected 4 passes to LSU’s 3, and sealed the game with a Jaylen Braxton interception.
Best player? Lane Kiffin’s chosen quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, playing for the program Kiffin left behind.
When it was over, the collective outpouring of joy reminded us of what makes this sport so important to so many.
Ole Miss, for decades the SEC’s object lesson in genteel southern hospitality, was for much of Saturday a frothing throng of bloodthirst. Fans began lubricating in the storied, tree-filled Grove in the early morning hours, booing Kiffin on the College GameDay set and letting their jilted rage, boiling for months on message boards and media platforms, reach a fever pitch by the evening kickoff.
Pete Golding did little to offset the southern gothic revenge specter circling the game, admitting he told his players before the game that “tonight is life or death,” calling Kiffin “the devil” and urging his team to send Kiffin “back to hell.”
When the Rebels secured the win in the final minutes, the joy merged with the lingering rage and grief.
After an all-day party in mind-altering heat and a 4-hour exercise in emotional exhaustion during the game, Ole Miss fans didn’t move from their seats as the Rebels celebrated on the field below.
Still salty but redeemed, Ole Miss cued Callin Baton Rouge as LSU exited the field. Neck came next, because of course it did.
Trinidad Chambliss thanked God and dropped a F-bomb in the same interview.
You could author a polemic on the way it isn’t simply a catchy slogan to suggest football means more down South. From Gettysburg to Vicksburg to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights movement led and opposed intensely by Mississippians themselves, the idea that something is better beyond Mississippi is a touchstone of the state’s psychosis.
Football superiority moves beyond pride and into a piece of the cultural fabric, a balm and tonic and healing practice for a culture that became accustomed to losing, again and again.
Kiffin’s departure for LSU was a reminder of that pain.
Kiffin did no favors when he brought up Mississippi’s dark history as an obstacle in recruiting to Oxford, a stunning and, in truth, salacious allegation from the sandy foundation of a glass house in Louisiana.
Belittled for the backwardness for decades, left at the altar by Kiffin, is anyone surprised Ole Miss bottled all that pain and rode it to a storied victory on Saturday night?
I’m not even sure Wright Thompson or William Faulkner could have written it better.
What now for LSU?
After the defeat, Kiffin spoke of the emotional toll the first 3 weeks of the season have taken on him, reminding us all of his humanity when he mentioned that he was doing all of this without being able to lean on his Dad, who he lost in 2024.
I’m sure there’s something to all that, and it was never going to be an easy task visiting Ole Miss, in Week 3. After all, Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels were a College Football Playoff semifinalist after Kiffin’s departure last December.
A reeling Texas A&M visits Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, and while Mike Elko’s defense should capture LSU’s complete focus, the Tigers are the more talented, better team. Win that game and there’s nothing unmanageable about the schedule until November.
There’s margin for error, in other words, and Kiffin’s teams have always tended to get better as the season progresses. As long as that trend continues, LSU will be playing for a Playoff spot in November, when a backloaded schedule that features games with Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee once again ratchets up the pressure.
In the end, an 8-point road defeat to an Ole Miss program whose head coach was comparing the game to a battle between heaven and hell isn’t the end of the world. It might even be a sign that in Year 1, Kiffin’s ahead of schedule.
Which LSU shows up Saturday night against the Aggies will give us our first clue at an answer.
We take Kirby Smart and Georgia for granted, part II
A week ago in this space, I wrote that Georgia has become the new Alabama, rolling along with a brand of joyless murderball that is both nationally expected and unappreciated, all at once.
Texas holds the No. 1 ranking and Indiana is the defending national champion. Miami is tremendous. Ohio State is really, really good. Ole Miss has Trinidad Chambliss.
Kirby Smart’s Georgia? I’d take the Bulldogs on a neutral field against all of them.
I don’t really care that they haven’t played a quality opponent in 2026.
The Dawgs have won 3 games by the combined average score of 59-13 and Saturday’s SEC-opening 45-17 slaughter of Arkansas was no different than the 2 nonconference cupcakes that came before it.
Gunner Stockton continues to play the best football of his career, leading Georgia to another explosive offensive performance and making plays with his arm and legs (97 yards rushing in the win at Arkansas). Georgia’s offense has so many weapons that 14 different Dawgs have scored touchdowns this season.
Nate Frazier is averaging 8.4 yards per carry. I suppose those numbers will decline as the competition improves but right now, he scores a touchdown 1 out of every 5 times he carries the football.
Chauncey Bowens, Frazier’s backup, scored 3 touchdowns in the win in Fayetteville.
Craig Dandridge and Sacovie White-Helton are averaging 20 yards per reception.
And I haven’t even mentioned the defense, which ranks third in the country and second in the SEC (behind Week 4 opponent Oklahoma) in SP+ efficiency defense.
Is Georgia fatigue real? Probably.
Did Georgia’s early Playoff exit the last 2 seasons make it possible to write off Smart’s program a bit? Potentially.
Is that foolish and disrespectful? Absolutely.
Will Stein and Kentucky shake things up and wow, is it refreshing to see Big Blue Nation enjoying offense
The Lane Kiffin coaching search and LSU switch dulled a bit of the edges around other coaching hires in the SEC this offseason, many of which felt like downstream reactions to Kiffin’s decision to leave Oxford for Baton Rouge.
As a result, a hire that didn’t get talked about much was Will Stein to Kentucky.
That narrative feels like it will change after Stein and Kentucky pushed Alabama in Week 2 and flat out dominated Texas A&M in College Station in Week 3.
Couple the early Kentucky success with how discombobulated and stolid Oregon looks offensively early this season and the temptation is there to suggest Mitch Barnhart got a steal to Lexington on his way out the door.
The native Kentuckian and former Oregon offensive coordinator piled up 408 yards against a Mike Elko defense in quarterback Kenny Minchey’s first SEC road start on Saturday. The Wildcats showed terrific balance and explosiveness, hitting multiple big plays in the run and pass game to build a large lead before the Aggies rallied to make the final score respectable late.
With games against South Alabama and a middling South Carolina looming, the Wildcats have a strong shot at a 4-1 shot before LSU comes to Lexington on October 10.
If Minchey, who connected on passes of 28, 53, 42, 22, and 32 yards in Saturday’s victory, continues to deliver big plays, the new Kentucky head coach may factor into SEC Coach of the Year discussions.
Even if that lofty accomplishment doesn’t occur, the moribund offense that doomed the late Mark Stoops years in Lexington appears to be a thing of the past.
Shane Beamer is finished in Columbia. It’s just a matter of time
Look, I love Kamario Taylor. He’s a special quarterback and Jeff Lebby has something brewing in Starkville.
But Shane Beamer can’t lose that game on his home field. That’s just inexcusably bad.
Making matters worse, the loss coincides with a report from The Athletic that shows the Gamecocks are in the top half of the SEC in institutional investment in football.
You can’t be spending what South Carolina is spending on the sport and lose home games to Mississippi State (who isn’t spending close to what South Carolina is spending).
The natives are restless, as the “Fire Beamer” chants that filled Williams-Brice late in the loss to State aptly demonstrated.
“We’ll be defined, this team will, by how we respond from this night, and I know the type of young men we have on this football team and the type of leadership we have. We’ll respond the right way,” Beamer said after the defeat.
That response is fine in Year 1 or 2.
The problem for Beamer is that in Year 6, how you respond to home losses to Mississippi State is by contemplating a coaching change.
The bottom line is that unless LaNorris Sellers, a high draft pick projection and big-time arm talent whose 2 costly second-half interceptions all but handed the game to State, executes and plays better beginning next week at Alabama, there will be a new head coach in Columbia next season. And there probably should be.
Meanwhile, Jon Sumrall is just getting started
Florida pounded Auburn 44-39 on the Plains in a game that was less competitive than the final score.
Florida is 3-0 for the first time since the Dan Mullen era in the process and Jon Sumrall has passed his first big test as head coach in Gainesville, beating another first-year SEC head coach, Alex Golesh, in the process.
The Gators need to play better defensively, but defensive coordinator Brad White led 4 top-20 national defenses at Kentucky and seems likely to figure things out. At present, the personnel is better than the product.
If Florida does figure it out on that side of the ball — which is also Sumrall’s specialty — then the Gators have an offense that can compete for the Playoff.
With perimeter weapons Dallas Wilson, Vernell Brown III, and Eric Singleton all capable of taking the tops off defenses vertically, the Gators are simply too full of weaponry for defenses to key on Jadan Baugh, arguably the best running back in the country.
Baugh’s forced 25 missed tackles in Florida’s first 3 games and absolutely demonized a stout Auburn front 7 with 162 yards on 26 carries. Baugh scored 3 touchdowns, including this backbreaking 4th-down jaunt in the second half.
Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner is a rising star with a plethora of riches, and the Gators are playing like it, averaging 50+ points per game and ranking third in the country in total offense and second in success rate offense.
A Week 4 test against Ole Miss will heighten the stakes, but if the Gators pull the upset, suddenly an October gauntlet that includes trips to Mizzou and Texas and an Atlanta date with archrival Georgia feels like a “survive and advance” type month where Jon Sumrall could be coaching to get into the College Football Playoff for the second consecutive season (Tulane).
Is it time to panic about Oklahoma?
There’s no shortage of worry in the SEC.
Is Marcel Reed actually this mind-numbingly inconsistent? What does that mean for Texas A&M?
What does Sam Leavitt do without Trey’Dez Green (though the injury news is promising, thankfully)?
Is Auburn actually poor defensively or is Florida just that good?
What’s Shane Beamer’s buyout again?
Can Vanderbilt win a game where a quarterback doesn’t implode in victory formation?
Respectfully, though, no one is more frightened of what’s next than Oklahoma.
Brent Venables won’t admit that, of course, but with 9 SEC games to play, Oklahoma has to worry about the fact it scored just 14 points against New Mexico, was stifled in the Big House by a Michigan team that lost to Western Michigan and suddenly seems to have a quarterback who can’t pass.
“That was ugly,” Venables said after the Sooners eked past New Mexico, 14-6.
You think? Worse, when asked if there was something he felt the offense could build on before visiting Georgia next week, Venables was blunt.
“Not really. No.”
That’s a problem. Kirby Smart’s defense won’t be sympathetic while the Sooners search for solutions.
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Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
