By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
OK, let me get this straight.
Ole Miss is No. 6 in the nation at 11-1 and preparing to host a College Football Playoff game on Saturday in Oxford amidst its greatest run since the 1960s under then-coach Johnny Vaught, whom its stadium is named after.
The Rebels are a 17-point favorite to beat No. 11 Tulane (11-2) on Saturday (2:15 p.m., TNT) and advance to the Sugar Bowl for the second time in five years after just one of those since 1970. With a win over No. 3 Georgia (12-1) in that game on Jan. 1, Ole Miss will be one win away from playing for the national championship – something it has not won since 1960.
Ole Miss was 32-6 over its last three seasons under former coach Lane Kiffin with three straight double-digit win seasons and four in the last five years. From 1972 through 2019 pre-Kiffin, Ole Miss had two 10-win seasons.
Meanwhile, LSU is 7-5 and headed to the third tier Texas Bowl for the second straight year amidst its fourth single-digit win season in the last six and under its fourth coach since the 2021 season.
And LSU is treating Ole Miss like its own Junior Varsity team?
Yes, LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson, who will be the third different coach to guide LSU in a bowl since 2021 at that Texas Bowl against Houston on Dec. 27, is not being retained by new LSU coach Lane Kiffin, who left Ole Miss after six seasons on Nov. 30 for LSU.
CBS Sports reported Tuesday night that Wilson will be Ole Miss’ new running backs coach after the Texas Bowl under head coach Pete Golding, who replaced Kiffin as head coach after three years as his defensive coordinator. Golding was Wilson’s defensive coordinator in 2016 and ’17 when Wilson was the head coach at Texas-San Antonio. Wilson previously was Ole Miss’ running backs and special teams coach from 2005-07 under head coach Ed Orgeron, who later became LSU’s head coach and won the national championship in the 2019 season.
After LSU and Ole Miss are done in the postseason, Wilson will replace current Ole Miss running backs coach Kevin Smith, who may end up at LSU with Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy.
Lacy as a transfer and Smith as an assistant coach are expected to be a package deal at their new school, possibly LSU. Current Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss may also transfer to LSU, should he receive another senior year by NCAA waiver. Apparently, Lacy and Chambliss have done well enough to move up to the Varsity in Baton Rouge.
Former LSU personnel general manager Austin Thomas will welcome Wilson to Oxford. Thomas was not retained by Kiffin either at LSU, because Kiffin brought his personnel general manager, Billy Glasscock, with him from Ole Miss to LSU. So, Thomas is being sent back to the JV team after he left Ole Miss after the 2023 season for the Varsity at LSU.
Oh, and two LSU commitments Kiffin inherited for LSU’s recruiting class of 2026 were told that Kiffin no longer had scholarships for them, and each just transferred to Ole Miss – you know the LSU JV team. A JV team that is going to the playoffs that beat LSU, 24-19, this season for its third win in five years in the series.
Meanwhile, five former Ole Miss assistant coaches – offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis Jr., receivers coach George McDonald, tight ends coach Joe Cox, assistant quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens and slot receivers coach Sawyer Jordan, whom all joined Kiffin’s staff at LSU – have been in Oxford for two weeks on a work-release program. They’re all coaching the Ole Miss offense for the playoffs. Kiffin wanted to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs, too, but Ole Miss wouldn’t allow that.
When Ole Miss loses its next game, it losses those coaches. If Ole Miss wins the national championship, it loses those coaches. They will leave a playoff JV team to rebuild a 7-5 Varsity team?
Oh, and did I mention that Ole Miss historically hates LSU as the two have been bitter rivals at least as far back as the 1950s and have been playing since 1894. But it goes deeper than that. LSU leads the series, 66-44-3, and has won three national championships since 2003 while Ole Miss has never reached the SEC Championship Game.
Yes, LSU has historically been Ole Miss’ Daddy.
And while Ole Miss is in the midst of its greatest run since its heyday of the 1950s and ’60s and LSU will be rebuilding for the second time in five years … LSU is still Ole Miss’ Daddy.
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