There might be nothing left of Oxford after this weekend.
It’s only week 3 of the college football season so far, but I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say that this weekend’s matchup between Ole Miss and LSU may be the biggest game we see all year.
Obviously both teams are currently undefeated and ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll (LSU is currently sitting at #7 while Ole Miss is right behind them at #8), and the game has massive implications for the SEC championship and a college football playoff berth. But this game is way more than football: It’s LSU head coach Lane Kiffin’s highly-anticipated return to Oxford following his chaotic departure last season.
Chaos seems to follow Lane Kiffin wherever he goes, and the way he left Ole Miss to take the LSU job certainly rubbed a lot of people in Oxford the wrong way. After leading his team to the College Football Playoffs last season, Kiffin decided to jump ship to an in-conference rival after stringing the fans (and apparently the university) along for much of the season – while taking much of his coaching staff along with him.
You can see why Ole Miss fans might not be happy with him.
Well tensions are already high going into the game, College GameDay is coming to town with excitement through the roof, and Ole Miss is beefing up security ahead of Lane’s return. Louisiana governor Jeff Landry even floated the idea of using the military to keep the Tigers (and their coach) safe:
“I’m thinking about having to send him in on an F-16 and maybe the team on a C-130. Security is going to be really tight. You know, we might need the National Guard out there to protect our team. I think it’s going to be an interesting weekend.”
And the trolling between the two teams and their fan bases has already started too: Earlier this week, Ole Miss served Tigers star defensive end Princewill Umanmielen with court papers in the parking lot of the LSU football facility, related to a lawsuit for breach of contract after the player followed Kiffin to Baton Rouge.
LSU, meanwhile, shocked the college football world last night by releasing their latest injury report listing quarterback Sam Leavitt as “doubtful” to play on Saturday against Ole Miss – which most people dismissed as mind games from their coach.
On campus in Oxford though, apparently the trolling is getting a little too personal.
Landry Kiffin, the daughter of Lane Kiffin (and boyfriend of star LSU lineman Whit Weeks), took to social media this week to call out what she says are harassing bed sheet banners hung by students that have been targeting her ahead of the big game:
“I’m still a student at Ole Miss. I’ve loved my time here and I love Ole Miss, so that’s what kinda makes this all even more upsetting. I opened my phone this morning to pictures of banners on houses around Oxford posted on different accounts saying really inappropriate things about me, and with somebody that I genuinely have never met in my life, which makes it even more frustrating to say the least.
I think turning a girl into the punchline of a sexual joke because you’re upset at somebody she’s related to should not be OK. I understand emotions are high this week and people are upset, but I’m my own person.
I will just never understand how someone can feel good about themselves putting such vulgar things about a girl on a giant banner hanging from their house. I feel like that’s really mind-blowing to me.
I just hope people realize that there’s like an actual person behind the jokes they make.”
The banners she’s referring to apparently reference a rumor of a sexual relationship with a former Ole Miss player. And in her caption, Kiffin encouraged Ole Miss students to simply “do better.”
@landrykiffin Let’s do better
Going to be a wild weekend in Oxford.
