By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The security planned for LSU football coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss Saturday – less than 10 months after he left the Ole Miss job for LSU’s – will feature more than a mall cop yelling, “FORE,” if a crazed, jilted, Rebel fan – still heartbroken that Kiffin left him or her at the playoff altar – hurls a golf ball at Kiffin on the sidelines.
That happened when Kiffin was Ole Miss’ coach in 2021 and returned to Tennessee, where he was head coach for one season in 2009 before USC proposed. The ball actually hit Kiffin, who picked up the yellow Strata Super Range ball and still keeps it as a souvenir of sweet victory.
Tennessee lost 31-26 that night, and Volunteer fans hurled mustard bottles, water bottles, beer cans, Rocky Top 45s (maybe) and various trash on their own field. And the Southeastern Conference fined Tennessee $250,000, which usually happens after a home team win. There was no vote to expel Tennessee from the league.
Ole Miss fans may be more heavily armed Saturday when No. 7 LSU (2-0) visits No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0) at 6:30 p.m. on ABC in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the first top 10 pairing in this rivalry since 1962. Because the stake in Ole Miss’ soul from Kiffin’s departure for an obviously more attractive job with a significantly richer history and much larger stadium is a much fresher wound and still bleeding.
“I’m thinking about having to send him in on an F-16 and maybe the team on a C-130,” said Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who found yet another microphone, to ESPN this week. “Security is going to be really tight. You know, we might need the National Guard out there to protect our team. I think it’s going to be an interesting weekend.”
Landry was kidding, and he was mistaken again, as he was last year when he referred to the College Football Playoff as the BCS, which left office in 2013.
“I know that we’ve been talking with Mississippi and making sure that we have adequate security for the team and coach,” Landry said. “But I’m hoping that we can go there and play in complete Southern hospitality and have a great, great game.”
After watching the new Billy Cannon documentary, read this new Lane Kiffin book by @JTalty, and you will be ready for LSU at Ole Miss on Saturday night.https://t.co/Hq0K2E5hV8
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 15, 2026
Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter told reporters that the National Guard is not on alert for the game.
“Honestly, I’ve kind of tuned out the governor of Louisiana,” Carter said on the Supertalk radio in Jackson. “That’s not something we’re focused on here on campus.”
There will be heightened security for the game, but Carter tried to downplay it.
“It’s getting a little blown out of proportion,” he said. “Obviously, we know there’s going to be several-hundred-thousand people coming to Oxford. I think that the added security measures are more just from that perspective. Just the fact that we’re going to have massive humanity on The Square (downtown), a massive humanity in The Grove (tailgating spot near the stadium), you know the stadium’s going to probably set a record crowd.”
Then Carter sounded a little bit like ROTC cadet Chip Diller, played by Kevin Bacon, in the “Animal House” parade riot scene shouting, “All is calm! All is calm!”
It will not be.
“I would encourage everybody that’s coming into town to be a little bit more patient than normal,” Carter said. “Try to get to the game early and avoid some of the rush right before kickoff.”
And, I guess, obey all traffic signals and be courteous to other drives.
“We’ve talked about that,” Kiffin said at his press conference Monday when asked about his security, which may or may not include a helmet over his visor. “I guess there are real safety issues and stuff, so there are people who have a plan for that.”
He tried to calm his players.
“There’s going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me,” he told the team. “You just get to go play.'”
Meanwhile, Ole Miss coach Pete Golding sort of called for a ceasefire.
“To me, what this place has always been about and why so many people love coming here and respect this place is because of the people that are here,” he said at his press conference Monday. “And how they make them feel when they come here. That’s always been something for me. When you come here and meet Ole Miss alumni and all that, they are so respectful.”
But this is LSU-Ole Miss.
“Let’s not lose that over a game, over a person, over anyone else like that,” Golding said.
Wonder what “person” to whome he was referring? Kiffin perhaps?
“There’s nothing wrong with being competitive and being in the moment and being really loud and being an unbelievable fan,” Golding said. “But at the end of the day, don’t lose what we have created and what they have created for so long, which is a really unique place with really good people, where it’s really hard to play (for opponents).”
LSU has not won at Ole Miss since 2019 when it won the national championship. LSU and Ole Miss are tied 11-11-1 in Oxford. It will be the first top 10 pairing in the history of the series in Oxford, which saw No. 4 Ole Miss beat No. 13 LSU, 24-19, last season and No. 3 LSU beat No. 15 Ole Miss, 17-14, in 2003.
“I’ve got confidence in the fans of Ole Miss and LSU ultimately,” Mississippi department of public safety commissioner Sean Tindell told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “As competitive as it is and everybody wants their team to win, to handle themselves appropriately and act right.”
Just in case, though, the number of Mississippi State Police and other officers on campus for the game will be tripled from the presence for LSU’s win over Charlotte in Oxford last week. Louisiana State Police will be joining the team effort as well. Plainclothes police are also expected in strategic spots around the stadium.
“Typically, you might see 20 or so state troopers involved on a game day,” Tindell said. “In this LSU-Ole Miss game, we’re going to have upwards of 60 state police. And we’re trying to coordinate with LSP as well to have some of the Louisiana State Police involved in those functions in the day as well.”
Escorting Kiffin to and from the field – aka the driving range – will be a joint effort as well between both state police entities, Tindell said.
“The university has a pretty solid plan that we’ve reviewed on getting the team and coach Kiffin into the stadium,” he said.
And Kiffin is likely not overly concerned. He tends to love the attention – good or bad.
“I really did enjoy it,” he said after the Ole Miss-Tennessee golf tournament.
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