No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 13 LSU matchup headlined by accomplished coaches and prolific QBs
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU coach Brian Kelly seems more amused than anything by Mississippi counterpart Lane Kiffin’s penchant for mocking and trolling opponents.
At least, Kelly didn’t sound offended while offering his impressions of Kiffin as a communicator in advance of Saturday night’s high-stakes clash between the ninth-ranked Rebels (5-1, 1-1 SEC) and the No. 13 Tigers (4-1, 1-0) at LSU’s Death Valley.
Rather, Kelly offered a series of compliments — even if some were of the backhanded variety.
“I just think you have to look at how many followers he has on Twitter,” Kelly said with a grin. “He’s got a blue checkmark, doesn’t he? Isn’t that how you’re regarded?”
Kiffin has about 694,000 followers on what was formerly known as Twitter and is now branded as X. An image pinned at the top of Kiffin’s X page shows a woman in front of a white board that reads: “Lane Kiffin tweets too much. He will probably tweet this too.”
In early September, Kiffin used social media to poke fun at Kelly’s table-pounding news conference following a loss to Southern California.
“Lane has a positive outlook on the game and he certainly has been a central figure in college football,” Kelly said this week. “He can poke fun at himself and others and I think he’s good for college football.
“We like to have fun back and forth,” Kelly continued, noting that his encounters with Kiffin date back more than a decade ago, when Kelly coached Notre Dame and Kiffin coached USC. “When we get on the field, we’re fierce competitors.”
Kiffin, unsurprisingly, has since posted on X about Kelly calling him, “good for college football.”
This year’s meeting — the 114th between the two — has the makings of a passion-filled, high-stakes and high-scoring affair. It features the two most prolific passers in the Southeastern Conference this season — Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart (350 yards per game) and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier (330.4 yards per game).
“All LSU teams, regardless of who the head coach is, they’re extremely talented,” Kiffin said. “Really explosive on offense. Nussmeier is really talented ... so, you’ve got really good players that you’ve got to go play against, and that’s been the case for a long time.”
Big numbers
LSU’s 55-49 loss at Ole Miss last season — when the Rebels racked up 706 yards of offense — became Exhibit No. 1 for why Kelly overhauled his defensive coaching staff after last season and brought in Blake Baker as defensive coordinator.
“You’ve got to make hard changes to be a successful head coach,” Kiffin said, alluding to Kelly’s offseason staff changes. “I’m sure that was challenging for him, but you’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of the team.”
But while redemption might be a motivating factor for LSU’s defense, Kiffin suggested that what happened a year ago, for practical purposes, has no bearing on this week’s game.
“Every year’s independent; every game’s independent of other games,” Kiffin said. “So, I don’t know that there’s much relative to last year, because as you see in college football, you can’t even say what’s relative to a week ago.”
Kelly can only hope Kiffin is right about that.
“Obviously, you’re going to turn on the film from last year, and you’re going to look at it and go, ‘OK, that’s not what we want to be defensively,’” Kelly said. “From a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint, we’re much further along. That’s not the same defense.”
Wreaking havoc
The Ole Miss defense currently leads the nation with 63 tackles for loss, led by Florida transfer Princely Umanmielen, Jared Ivey and Suntarine Perkins.
The Rebels still piled up six sacks against South Carolina — including two apiece from Walter Nolen and Jared Ivey — with Umanmielen out with a lower body injury.
Health matters
The status of top Ole Miss receiver Tre Harris, whose 885 yards receiving leads the nation, was unclear this week after he left last week’s 27-3 victory over South Carolina with a lower leg injury.
“We’ve got to get the other guys ready,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got to perform better than we did in the second half without him, when we only had three points. ... We’re preparing to play without him.”
LSU, meanwhile has listed two receivers — CJ Daniels (knee) and Chris Hilton (ankle) — as questionable. Hilton is a proven deep threat who has yet to play this season. Daniels, a Liberty transfer, has 20 catches for 239 yards without a TD.
Meanwhile, freshman Caden Durham, who has been LSU’s most explosive running back in recent weeks, is listed as probable after injuring his foot during a victory over South Alabama on Sept. 28.
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AP Sports Writer John Zenor contributed to this report.
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