Saturday night was not the picturesque homecoming Lane Kiffin may have envisioned.
His new team, the LSU Tigers, fell behind by 17 points early in Oxford against Ole Miss, the school he departed just nine months ago. LSU was able to come back and tie the game, but a late Ole Miss touchdown and two-point conversion were the difference in a 32-24 victory for the Rebels.
“Credit to Ole Miss and Pete, they did a really good job,” Kiffin said following the loss. “All week, my biggest fear every minute was
when the game’s at the end and Trinidad (Chambliss) has the ball in his hands, he made a lot of plays tonight.”
“He’s the hardest player to play against in America.”
This was a game where the Bayou Bengals did not play their best game, punting on each of their first three drives while Ole Miss turned that into 17 points. From there, the Tigers were playing catch-up while the Ole Miss crowd was breathing down their neck for the first half.
LSU scored late in the first half and had the opportunity to go into the locker room down 10 and get the ball to start the second half, but the Ole Miss offense once again found the end zone and put LSU in a big hole.
Sam Leavitt came out in the second half and led the Tigers’ offense all the way back to tie it up while also getting huge help from the defense in the form of a Ja’Keem Jackson interception and putting Ole Miss behind the chains on multiple drives.
However, the Trinidad Chambliss show continued down the stretch as the superstar quarterback pulled a beautiful read option fake and scampered into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown with about six minutes remaining in the contest.
At the end of the contest, during his post-game interview, Chambliss had one message for the world:
“Hotty f%@#ing Toddy”
Ole Miss now sits at 3-0 after a huge SEC opener for the Rebels. They will go on the road to play Florida next week. LSU falls to 2-1 and will host Texas A&M on Saturday.
