While trying to ignore, victory would be the Rebels’ best response

• A win would make Ole Miss a lot like Kiffin in one way: the Rebels would be really hard to ignore.

If you’re an Ole Miss fan, by the time you read this Lane Kiffin has either said or will say something that makes you shake your head with disgust.

The probability is high.

Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss is Saturday night at 6:30 as No. 7 LSU visits No. 8 Ole Miss. Those are rankings in The Associated Press Top 25. There have been 11 White House administrations since both teams were ranked in the AP Top 10 when they met in this historic rivalry.  No. 6 Ole Miss defeated No. 4 LSU 15-7 in Baton Rouge in November of 1962.

While Kiffin has elevated throwing shade to an art form, the best response for Ole Miss fans and players is simple yet complex. It’s every parent’s advice to the younger offended child — ignore.

Kiffin’s opinion in the 2022 preseason that he needed Oxford and Ole Miss more than they needed him is a big warm hug that now seems light years ago.

It’s not so hard to ignore the average former coach. That coach moves on and forgets about Ole Miss.

That’s not Lane’s way.

Speaking with ESPN’s Marty Smith and Ryan McGee in August, Kiffin praised the high expectations surrounding the LSU job.

Then he addressed Ole Miss.

“At Ole Miss, you can go 7-5, have 7-5 seasons, you’re good. They won’t even complain in the offseason. It’ll still be great,” he said. “If I’m 7-5, I’m miserable. I don’t care where I am. I don’t care if the fans are mad or not. I’m miserable myself. So that didn’t appeal to me to stay somewhere because of that lower expectation of a program.”

There have been different times in the program’s history when a 7-5 season would have been an improvement, but no administration is forever content with mediocrity.

In my time covering the program, the administration was in constant reach of something much more.

For a time, you had administrators who played under John Vaught, remembered those great teams and longed to return to that competitive level.

Now Keith Carter leads an Ole Miss athletics department that wants to compete for championships and in the NIL era has the fundraising infrastructure in place to flourish.

If they weren’t to his standard, expectations were changing, and Kiffin was savvy enough to realize that.

Hiring Kiffin away from Florida Atlantic was the kind of bold move that could help the program reach the desired competitive level. It did.

Now in hindsight, even Kiffin’s bizarre departure last season as he was courted by not one but two SEC schools, then his public fight to try to and remain to coach the Rebels in the playoffs, now with whatever he throws into the mix, the Kiffin tenure at Ole Miss remains a huge net gain for the program.

When it began with a December 2019 hiring, nobody thought it was forever.

The irony is that Kiffin tied David Cutcliffe as the second-longest tenured Ole Miss coach of the post-Vaught era. Billy Brewer coached 11 seasons, Cutcliffe and Kiffin six.

Even though loving parents want to give the best advice to their children, some individuals and situations are hard to ignore.

Ole Miss did not deserve to be embarrassed last season as the jilted third wheel while Kiffin was pursued by Florida and LSU during the Rebels’ run to postseason.

“Had he just left and gone on his way and focused on LSU, we would have been disappointed. But OK, that’s what he wanted. The problem is he tried to manipulate the players and the coaches on his way out and work behind the scenes to hurt us,” Carter told On3’s Chris Low this week.

Now while Kiffin thrives in the spotlight and rolls up the window on the Fansville sheriff, Ole Miss fans, and certainly its players, need to reset.

The Rebels have a chance to return to the playoffs.

It’s been predicted more than once in these parts that Kiffin will at some point leave LSU. The reasoning varies. He stiffed Tennessee, he stiffed Ole Miss, he wants to be at Alabama.

Lane vs. the SEC, a bad look

The reality is Kiffin’s reputation has taken on weight during the LSU-SEC missile crisis. It’s not to the point that he won’t be able to move should he be so inclined, but move where?

You can argue that in terms of money, facilities and fan support there is no upward move. Sometimes it’s not about those things, and with Kiffin, discontent could be about anything.

But people who make the hiring decisions have watched Kiffin’s SEC fight with interest. Will the administrations at Alabama, Texas or Ohio State share LSU’s willingness to push the envelope with the conference? What do NFL executives think?

The Big 10 on average paid its members $79.9 million for 2024-2025, the SEC $72.4 million. The conferences have a right to make their own rules. Membership has its privileges, and membership is voluntary.

The SEC has alleged that LSU’s top administration failed to exercise meaningful control over Kiffin and the football program during recent hostilities. In fact, that allegation became part of the SEC’s case for potential discipline. Expulsion is off the table since LSU eventually blinked and did not roster Dae’Quan Wright or Zxavian Harris.

Comments over coffee in the administration building at Alabama would be great reading right now.

There would be no greater statement to the former coach than a second playoff appearance, this one with his replacement, Pete Golding, as head coach.

In two games Ole Miss has shown potential and vulnerability. The Rebels have to clean up some things in the secondary, but a pure passer with mobility can cover a lot of sins, and Ole Miss is elite at quarterback right now.

There was talk of Golding as a head coach candidate even before last year’s Lane drama reached maximum density. Golding is 4-1 since getting the job. Against Miami in January, Trinidad Chambliss was throwing to the end zone on the game’s final play for a spot in the national championship game.

Last week’s 44-9 win over Charlotte was Golding’s first against an unranked opponent.

If he delivers Saturday much of the buzz around Kiffin and LSU will transfer to Golding and Ole Miss. It would be a pretty big statement in its own right, an early one, as the Rebels aim to stack wins against a really strong SEC schedule.

Speaking of vulnerability

LSU showed some for three quarters against Louisiana Tech. It was late in the third quarter before the Tigers opened up a two-possession lead against a Sun Belt Conference opponent.

Whoever plays cleanest Saturday night – fewest mistakes, coverage busts and penalties – will come away with a win.

If defensive backs are in the right place, and Chambliss is on top of his game, that could very well be the Rebels.

A win would make Ole Miss a lot like Kiffin in one way: the Rebels would be really hard to ignore.