Kiffin Says Ole Miss Has The Best QB, RB And K in College Football| I've Said It For Months

Four days from LSU, the two men at the center of the biggest story in college football spent Monday complimenting each other into the ground — and that should worry Ole Miss fans more than a grudge would. Pete Golding, asked about facing the staff he worked for for three and a half years, compared it to a round of golf with your buddies. Lane Kiffin opened his own press conference by deflating the entire premise: "Pete's not gonna tackle anybody. I'm not gonna throw any touchdowns." Then Kiffin told the story of Nick Saban interviewing Golding and calling it the most impressive interview he had ever seen. And each of them handed the other the advantage — Kiffin says the familiarity favors Ole Miss because Golding spent three years hearing what Kiffin hates to play against, and Golding says knowing somebody that well is a trap that makes you overthink. One calls it a weapon. The other calls it a trap. Same three and a half years. Then the part of this week that nobody outside Mississippi has explained properly: why Ole Miss fans are actually angry. It is not about losing a coach. Ole Miss has not won an SEC championship since 1963, and 2025 was finally the year — a playoff run, a pass away from playing for everything. And instead of getting to enjoy November and December, this fan base spent it watching planes to Gainesville and Baton Rouge and a coach working the portal. Saturday is closure. Then the sentence of the week. Kiffin on Ole Miss: "You're talking about the best-playing quarterback, running back, and kicker in the country, coming back." All three, one breath, kicker included. He called Trinidad Chambliss the best-playing quarterback in the country last season, compared the Chambliss–Kewan Lacy backfield to Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, and told his own locker room the pressure is not on them. Every word of it is true, and true is exactly what makes it work. And then the players, who are the only people in Mississippi who have already moved on. Chambliss on the entire circus: "It's going to be a crazy weekend in Oxford, but it's just another game." On seeing his old head coach: "It's going to be weird. It is what it is." He has been with Pete Golding and John David Baker every day for eight months. The one thing the locker room looked back at was Deuce Knight's hurdle — which Chambliss says Knight had been promising all week he would do. Plus the number: FanDuel has Ole Miss +3.5 at home with a total of 58.5, and what a home underdog in September is actually being told about the road in front of it. This is the first time Ole Miss and LSU have met with both teams ranked in the top ten since 1962, when No. 6 Ole Miss beat No. 4 LSU 15-7 in Baton Rouge.