STARKVILLE, Mississippi – The Egg Bowl tried on a new name here Friday.
Call it the “Lane Kiffin Bowl.”
Ole Miss coach and possible future LSU coach Lane Kiffin may have coached his last game with the Rebels against Mississippi State in a 38-19 win on Friday afternoon in the annual blood bath that has been called the “Egg Bowl” officially since at least as far back as 1978. The two rivals 94 miles apart have played for a Golden Egg Trophy since the 1920s.
And “blood bath” is not an exaggeration. Both benches emptied late in the second quarter during a brief skirmish. But not to be alarmed. There’s usually at least one fight during every Egg Bowl.
And Mississippi State fans broke into Ole Miss’ locker room at Davis Wade Stadium Thursday night and stole the jersey of Rebels’ senior quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, according to surveillance cameras set up by Ole Miss trainer Ken Crain. Was State trying to say, “Happy Thanksgiving?”
Ole Miss brought a backup jersey, and it fit well with Chambliss completed 23 of 34 passes for 359 yards and four touchdowns as the Rebels showed no signs of any distraction from their coach considering a possible move to LSU. Ole Miss took a 21-10 lead at the half that grew to 31-13 early in the fourth quarter.
Lane Kiffin tells me on the field pregame that Miss St. students broke into Ole Miss locker room at 3am and stole Trinidad Chambliss’ jersey.
— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) November 28, 2025
The great Ken Crain, Ole Miss’ equipment czar, set up Covert surveillance cameras. Because of course he did.
Egg Bowl! pic.twitter.com/awn3JP7PD4
Now, imagine Chambliss in purple and gold, if his appeal with the NCAA for another season is granted.
Because Kiffin could be leaving eggs all over Ole Miss’ collective face if he decides to leave the Rebels for the head coaching vacancy at LSU with an announcement expected on Saturday. Florida, which has courted Kiffin as well, is now out of the picture.
“It’s all happening,” as Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane said in the “Almost Famous” classic about rock stars … like Lane Kiffin.https://t.co/KajxywPVmM
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 26, 2025
And it has been starting to look like Ole Miss may be out of the hunt as well as LSU backup targets Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri and Clark Lea at Vanderbilt suddenly agreed to new or enhanced contracts over the last two days. Perhaps, they know they’re not getting any more interest from LSU now.
But Kiffin sure sounded like he had not made up his mind yet between LSU and Ole Miss, and he said as much.
“No, I haven’t,” Kiffin said on the ABC broadcast immediately after the game when asked if he had decided, but not said so publicly. “I’ve got a lot of praying to do to figure that out tomorrow.”
Later in the postgame press conference, he said the same thing.
“Yeah, I have not,” he said when asked if he had made up his mind. “I know that surprises you. But I’ve got to do some praying. I’ve got to figure some things out. I take things one day at a time.”
First things first. On Friday night, he was going to see his son Knox, the sophomore starting quarterback at Oxford High, play against Tupelo in a Class 7A North Half championship game at Oxford. Kiffin named him after Knoxville, where he was coaching Tennessee when Knox was born in 2009.
If Kiffin, who doesn’t have a child named Ox, moves again, he could become the first coach in college football history to leave his team near the altar of a possible national championship. Ole Miss (11-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) is now assured of its first berth in the College Football Playoff, which went to 12 teams last season, or in any other previous playoff system.
The Rebels, who are No. 7 in the latest CFP rankings, have not had a national championship to claim since the Football Writers Association of America named them No. 1 after the 10-0-1 1960 season.
The win Saturday also should guarantee Ole Miss a home playoff game in the first round on Dec. 19 or 20. That is already being called the biggest single sporting event in the history of the state. Although famed former Jackson Clarion-Ledger columnist and Mississippi sports historian Rick Cleveland did bring up John L. Sullivan’s bare-knuckles heavyweight title-winning bouts in the 1880s in Mississippi. We’ll let Rick decide that one.
Mississippi State (5-7, 1-7 SEC) ended its season not bowl eligible for the third straight year. It could still win, if Kiffin leaves, though.
“I’d have to say if I had to pick one or the other (a State win, or a loss and Kiffin leaving), I’d pick Kiffin going to LSU,” a State alum said as he walked to the game. “A win today would be good in the short term, but the long term gain of Kiffin leaving Ole Miss would be better for us.”
That’s one way of looking at it, or two.
State fans will love it if Kiffin discards Ole Miss, not just for another school or NFL team, but for LSU, which has been the Rebels’ hated rival since they began playing in 1894 – not long after John L. Sullivan’s pugilistic reign, by the way. LSU leads the series 64-43-4 and has won four legitimate national championships – in 1958 and three since the 2003 season via playoff systems – and played for another in the 2011 season.
Much like Alabama has long been LSU’s daddy, LSU is Ole Miss’ daddy, though the Rebels have won three of the last five, including this season, under Kiffin.
Ole Miss fans will be raging mad and bitter for decades should Kiffin turn purple and gold, but he has done amazing things for Ole Miss. He is the first Rebels’ coach in history to win 11 games in a regular season as of Friday and was the first to win 10 game in a regular season in 2021 in just his second season after a 5-5 mark.
Like it or not, if Kiffin exits and Ole Miss advances in the playoffs and perhaps wins it all under likely interim coach Joe Judge, Kiffin will deserve much of the credit. No one has been a better football coach at Ole Miss since Johnny Vaught in the 1950s and ’60s.
In the modern era now, great coaches like that are going to get other offers – from LSU, other top college programs or the NFL. LSU, which lost Nick Saban to the Miami Dolphins, knows that feeling all too well, particularly when he returned to college two years later to coach Alabama – LSU’s Daddy.
Kiffin leaving will kill the Ole Miss Nation’s heart, but only emotionally and in the short term. Like Saban before him at LSU, he would be leaving Ole Miss a dramatically much better football program than when he arrived. And that was six years ago, which is a lifetime for a college coach in this era.
“Players have the option to leave as well,” Ole Miss junior linebacker T.J. Dottery put it perfectly. “Can’t blame him for that.”
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