By KACE KIESCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
A fan map for Saturday’s game between No. 7 LSU (2-0) and No. 8 Ole Miss (2-0) confirmed what many Tiger fans already knew: It is LSU versus everybody going into kickoff (6:30 p.m., ABC) in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi.
“It’s a landslide,” Josh Barton with Bet Online Sports & Casino told Tiger Rag, “and it’s all pointed towards Ole Miss. Not a single state, except for the state of Louisiana of course, is actually pulling for the Tigers this week.”
Researchers with BetOnline Sports & Casino collected geotagged X data from the last two weeks. They compiled over 1 million tweets, hashtags and direct keyword phrases to determine which school fans in each state would be pulling for when the Tigers and Rebels take the field. Some key phrases included, “Kiffin is going down in Oxford,” “We’re all rooting against Kiffin,” “Ole Miss better upset LSU” and “#OleMissFB exacts revenge this week.”
“Lane Kiffin, love him or hate him, he has become the most polarizing figure in maybe not just college football but sports at the moment,” Barton said.
“We’ll see. We’re still not there yet. We’re still looking at everything.” … Lane Kiffin on QB Sam Leavitt’s injury at halftime of his son Knox’s prep game Thursday night. “Hopefully, everything will be good.” https://t.co/WeXOCPGZwd
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 18, 2026
The Tigers have become the villains of college football behind their new head coach, who left Ole Miss at the altar of the College Football Playoff after putting the Rebels there and bolted for the LSU head coaching job just days after the regular season ended. He left Ole Miss at 11-1 and 7-1 in the SEC. Kiffin wanted to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs, but Ole Miss wouldn’t allow it, though other schools last year in the same situation did. But their coaches weren’t leaving for their hated blood, border rival.
But Ole Miss welcomed most of Kiffin’s new staff at LSU who followed him from Ole Miss to coach the Rebels in the playoffs, including offensive coordinator and play caller Charlie Weis Jr. And Ole Miss advanced to the CFP semis with two victories before all those assistants on leave from LSU returned to LSU full time.
“Certainly he has become villainized in a lot of different circles and I think that, given the situation, everything that happened last season, him moving on and taking the bigger pay check, everybody looks at him as the villain and is going to be rooting against him,” Barton said.
Actually, though, had Kiffin stayed at Ole Miss, he likely would have made what he is making now at LSU – $90 million over seven years. Florida and Florida State would have likely given him the same package.
But being the villain is not always a bad thing. Barton thinks the hatred Kiffin has garnered since leaving Ole Miss could be somewhat intentional.
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
“The guy is a great coach, a master marketer as well,” Barton said. “He’s got a great team around him. I think doing that has put a lot of eyeballs on the Tigers, which is a good thing.”
That has already come to fruition this season. Following the court drama and Kiffin’s signing of two fifth-year college football players who were briefly on NFL training camp rosters over the summer, LSU issued the most media and celebrity credentials in Tiger Stadium history at nearly 1,000 when the Tigers kicked off the Kiffin era against Clemson.
Fans have rallied around their villainous new head coach, and the team has proven the attention is more of an asset than a distraction. LSU even sold out at Tiger Stadium for 32-point underdog Louisiana Tech last week. Upcoming home games against No. 9 Texas A&M a week from Saturday, No. 10 Alabama on Nov. 7 and No. 1 Texas on Nov. 14 are also sold out.
“They’ve accepted that mentality and leaned into it,” Barton said. “A I think that’s a great thing for a locker room and a team to embrace.”
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