As Lane Kiffin prepares for his highly anticipated return to Mississippi this week, the LSU football coach has made it clear where he believes the pressure lies, telling reporters the pressure lies not with the Tigers, but on the Rebels.
Does that then make the Saturday, Sept. 19 meeting in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium a must-win game for the seventh-ranked Tigers?
ESPN's Paul Finebaum certainly thinks so. Appearing on ESPN's "Get Up" on Sept. 15, he gave three emphatic "yes" answers before explaining the reasoning is "so simple" to Mike Greenberg.
"He left Ole Miss because LSU was the glory. That's where everything he wanted was. It wasn't at Ole Miss,
even though the team that he left behind nearly went to the national championship game last year," Finebaum said.
Kiffin left the Rebels for their SEC rival ahead of their eventual College Football Playoff trip. In his six seasons at Ole Miss, Kiffin led the Rebels to a 55-19 overall record while turning the Rebels into one of the best programs in the SEC.
The Rebels, the No. 6 seed in the 12-team CFP field, made a run to the CFP semifinals under his successor, Pete Golding. Ole Miss won gams vs. Tulane in the first round and Georgia in the quarterfinals. Kiffin had requested to continue coaching the Rebels through the playoff, despite taking the LSU job.
Ole Miss declined his request.
Finebaum also alluded to the "warm Southern hospitality" Kiffin is likely to receive in Oxford, noting that Ole Miss fans "will not let it go" that he left during one of the best seasons in program history and in the way he did.
"He wanted to go to LSU because that's what he said Nick Saban told him was the best job in college football. That's where everyone wins national championships. Everyone but Brian Kelly, who was brought there from Notre Dame," Kiffin said. "He's got a $55 million roster. He's got the governor in on him. He's got everybody rowing in the same direction. He didn't think he could win at Ole Miss.
"He left them behind. They feel pretty badly about it. They are carrying that torch against Lane Kiffin and will not let it go."
ESPN's "College GameDay" is set to be broadcast from Oxford in Week 3 ahead of the top-10 SEC matchup.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul Finebaum says Lane Kiffin must beat Ole Miss: 'Didn't think he could win' with Rebels
