The Ole Miss Rebels couldn’t have planned a better welcome for Lane Kiffin if they tried.
Ever since Kiffin ditched Oxford for Baton Rouge, every college football conversation has circled back to what kind of hostile environment Vaught-Hemingway Stadium would roll out for him.
And of course, that includes whether it would rival Knoxville’s preparations in 2021—complete with the infamous rain of mustard bottles and golf balls. Kiffin coached the Vols for one chaotic year, sure, but he spent six seasons building the Rebels into a powerhouse.
Yet, nobody expected Ole Miss to take direct inspiration from Rocky Top quite this literally.
Ole Miss Hands Rebels Fans ‘Golf Balls’ For LSU Game
On Friday, Ole Miss announced that the first 45,000 attendees at the Vaught-Hemingway will receive a special LED Ole Miss golf ball as part of their “Light Up the Vaught” promotion.
Sure, the athletic department slapped on a warning telling fans not to throw them onto the field. But handing out Ole Miss golf balls to 45,000 enraged Rebels fans on the exact night their former head coach returns as the enemy? Everyone has seen that film before, and they know how it ends.
Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding has maintained a diplomatic stance regarding anything LSU-related as best he can, but the feeling of revenge that the Rebels are vying for is clear.
Fans have been instructed to not throw these golf balls at any player, coach, or media representative on the field.
Making it more obvious is the Vaught-Hemingway directly banning LSU gear. “To maintain a solid home atmosphere,” as the reports claim, Ole Miss announced that anyone in LSU gear gets barred from the student section, even ticket holders.
“No person wearing an opposing team’s gear or colors will be allowed entrance into the student section. Additionally, anyone found to be wearing opposing team apparel or colors in the student section will be removed,” the announcement said.
It is a pressure cooker, and Kiffin knows what he’s in for.
Besides the entire drama surrounding Ole Miss-LSU, both teams enter the Week 3 matchup as undefeated teams. It goes without saying that this will perhaps be the most pressure both of them have to win in the entire season.
Ole Miss is Under More Pressure to Win
Kiffin, however, feels that Ole Miss is under much more pressure to win.
“We won seven games last year. They won 13. They returned two Heisman candidates. How often has that ever happened in the same backfield? … You guys get to go play. The pressure is not on you,” Kiffin said earlier in the week, previewing the Ole Miss game, but that’s just one part of it.
Ole Miss is under more pressure because they need to prove they’ve finally shaken the ghost of the Kiffin era, and the only way to do that is to hand him an outright L.
After Kiffin jumped ship to LSU, Ole Miss made a deep playoff run, more than anyone expected out of them, but Miami managed to kick them out after a tough fight in the semifinals.
That should already serve as total vindication that the Rebels managed just fine without their previous architect right out of the gate. But beating him head-to-head leaves no room for debate or argument.
That is what all the Sep. 19 anticipation has been all about.
Ole Miss’s Latest Announcement Brutally Trolls LSU’s Lane Kiffin Before Kickoff