- No. 11 Ole Miss defeated No. 4 LSU 24-19, establishing itself as a College Football Playoff contender.
- LSU’s offense continued to struggle, raising questions about its status as a national championship contender.
- Ole Miss backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss outplayed LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, throwing for 314 yards.
OXFORD, Miss. — Mississippi was in the end zone, and Lane Kiffin was pumping his fist, and next thing you knew, red, white and blue confetti shot into the air.
Party on, inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
What do you at a party? You pump the dance music, of course.
The stadium DJ blasted a beat filled with bass, and the red-clad fans inside the packed stadium started shaking their pompoms.
Eleven minutes remained on the stadium clock, but the Rebels fans were in full celebration.
And, why not? No. 4 LSU was on the ropes.
Kiffin and his No. 11 Rebels hard-launched their College Football Playoff candidacy by taming the Tigers, 24-19.
Hey, Brian Kelly, ya think maybe there’s a problem with this LSU offense?
The Tigers’ month-long scoring slump continued, weeks after Kelly blew a fuse at a reporter who dared ask him about the team’s offensive funk in a postgame news conference.
“What do you want?” Kelly said then.
Some touchdowns, would be nice, from LSU’s $18 million roster.
LSU woes on offense continue in loss to Ole Miss
This rivalry renewal frothed with juicy on-field narratives. It told us whether LSU is a national championship contender or pretender (Verdict: Pretender, it appears) and whether Ole Miss is a playoff contender or pretender (Verdict: Contender).
This matchup gained an extra dash of spice, though, after Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, announced days before kickoff that she’s dating Whit Weeks, LSU’s star linebacker.
Weeks got the girl, but her old man got the victory.
An awfully important one, too.
In the wake of Landry’s relationship announcement, Kiffin joked gamblers should bet the over, a playful hint he planned to run up the score on his daughter’s beau.
‘I’m looking for Whit right now to see if we covered the over,’ Kiffin quipped during his on-field interview afterward.
The over didn’t hit. LSU’s meager offense made sure of that. Landry’s boyfriend had a hand in that, too. Weeks recovered an Ole Miss fumble in the end zone to negate a Rebels scoring opportunity.
Pair two turnovers with 14 Ole Miss penalties, and the Rebels struggled to get out of their own way. When they weren’t attracting flags, they were gashing LSU’s supposedly fierce defense.
LSU, a national championship contender? That’s hard to believe after this.
Trinidad Chambliss stands tall for Lane Kiffin
Kiffin has said if injured quarterback Austin Simmons was healthy, he’d be the team’s starter. It’s time to rethink that logic, after backup Trinidad Chambliss spurred Ole Miss to another victory.
No matter what Kiffin says about his depth chart, he’s obviously got faith in Chambliss, who was playing Division II ball just nine months ago. Chambliss took to the air to move the chains on 4th-and-1 shortly before halftime. Three plays later, he fired a touchdown pass.
Chambliss salted away the victory with a fourth-down completion with less than two minutes remaining.
The Ferris State transfer outdueled Garrett Nussmeier, LSU’s ballyhooed quarterback who was supposed to have NFL scouts salivating. Scouts on hand saw Nussmeier throw an interception into triple coverage and Chambliss throw for 314 yards.
Kiffin kept thrusting his arms into the air triumphantly with every Chambliss completion.
Spare some praise for Chambliss’ companions on defense. Chambliss threw a third-quarter interception, giving LSU a chance to tie the score with a touchdown. Ole Miss limited the Tigers to a field goal, maintaining the lead.
LSU failed to solve a defense that allowed a total of 58 points to Kentucky and Arkansas, two of the SEC’s worst teams. Yeah, so it’s like that for LSU’s offense.
LSU played without top running back Caden Durham. In his absence, Kelly didn’t even try to mount a ground game in the first half. Shouldn’t a program with LSU’s roster payroll have more than one running back it trusts? Or, maybe the problem is just LSU’s penetrable offensive line.
The fourth-largest crowd in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium history started pregaming in the morning with cigars and liquids suited to plastic cups. They stood elbow to elbow in the Grove, and even before noon it was smoldering enough to sweat through your shirt, but none of the Rebels revelers seemed to mind.
And when it was finished, this third win against LSU of Kiffin’s tenure, the fans stayed in the stands and cheered, because playoff contenders shouldn’t storm the field after games they expect to win.
Pair Ole Miss’ 5-0 September record with the remaining schedule, and the Rebels are bid hunting, one year after they blew their playoff chance with losses to doormat Kentucky and downtrodden Florida.
None of the Ole Miss fans could be mourning last season as the final seconds ticked off this victory. They were too busy celebrating.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
