{"id":152117,"date":"2025-09-25T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=152117"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:59:07","slug":"ole-miss-vs-lsu-rebels-prepare-for-the-magnolia-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-vs-lsu-rebels-prepare-for-the-magnolia-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss vs. LSU: Rebels Prepare for the Magnolia Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The No. 11 Ole Miss<\/strong> football team, coming off a commanding win against Tulane <\/strong>to improve to 4-0 on the season, will meet its biggest challenge yet against its annual Magnolia Bowl<\/strong> rivals, the No. 4 LSU Tigers (4-0).

Head coach Lane Kiffin<\/strong> held his weekly press conference Monday to preview Saturday\u2019s 2:30 pm CT battle with LSU<\/strong>. De\u2019Zhuan Stribling, Kewan Lacy<\/strong>, and Will Echoles<\/strong> each met with the media as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/showcase\/embed.aspx?Archive=6097&autoplay=false<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayou Blockade<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LSU\u2019s defense has started the season on a high note, holding reigning ACC champion Clemson <\/strong>and SEC rival Florida<\/strong> to just 10 points each. The Tigers <\/strong>have strengthened their roster through the transfer portal in recent years, particularly on defense, under fourth year head coach Brian Kelly and second year defensive coordinator Blake Baker<\/strong>. Kiffin credited both system experience and personnel upgrades.\u00a0

\u201cI think being in the second year in a defensive system helps and they\u2019ve improved their personnel also. Three of the four starting defensive linemen are portal guys, along with three of the four starters in the secondary\u2026 They are coaching great and playing great.\u201d\u00a0

The Ole Miss\u2013LSU rivalry dates to 1895, with uninterrupted annual games since 1945. The last game in Oxford was a thrilling 55-49 victory for the Rebels<\/strong>, while the 2024 matchup in Baton Rouge<\/strong> ended in an overtime heartbreak.\u00a0

\u201cThis’ll be easily the biggest test yet for our guys,\u201d Kiffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/showcase\/embed.aspx?Archive=6098&autoplay=false<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-Octane Rebs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Ole Miss offense has been flying high in recent weeks. After a slow start at Kroger Field<\/strong> against Kentucky<\/strong>, the Rebels have been putting the pieces together to revive Kiffin’s fast-paced, high-powered offense. A key factor in the turnaround has been the offensive line\u2019s consistency.\u00a0

Discussing last week\u2019s performance against Tulane, Kiffin said, \u201cI thought they played well and played consistently. We didn\u2019t have a lot of negative plays, which was good, so we avoided third and longs and it ultimately paid off.\u201d\u00a0

The skill positions have also been strong, even if individual stats aren\u2019t always flashy. Stribling, a transfer wide receiver from Oklahoma State<\/strong>, had only three catches against Tulane, but was able to turn it into 62 yards of positive offense for the Rebels. He credits a team-oriented mindset and a desire to help the team succeed.

\u201cWe all have one common goal, and that is to go 1-0 every week,\u201d Stribling said. \u201cYou still have a job out there whether or not you\u2019re getting touches.\u201d\u00a0

Through four games, Ole Miss has six players with more than seven receptions, including Stribling and its starting running back, Lacy. Lacy, the former Missouri Tiger,<\/strong> has rushed for 358 yards and scored seven touchdowns while contributing as a receiver.\u00a0

\u201cI\u2019ll go out there and do my job,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cIt gives me motivation that this coaching staff thinks I can do it, and I\u2019ll go out there and do it.\u201d

The Rebels\u2019 offense will need to be firing on all cylinders Saturday against LSU\u2019s loaded defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/showcase\/embed.aspx?Archive=6099&autoplay=false<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebel Retaliation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to their star-studded defense, the Tigers return key members of their offense, including QB Garrett Nussmeier<\/strong>. The Rebel\u2019s defense has faced Nussmeier once before in the 2024 edition of the rivalry. He made numerous crucial plays late in the fourth quarter and threw the winning pass on the first play of overtime to break Ole Miss\u2019 hearts in a game LSU didn\u2019t lead until the final whistle.\u00a0

\u201cHe (Nussmeier) does a great job of getting out of trouble with really quick feet, moving around and he saved the game last year.\u201d Kiffin said. He later referred to the star QB as a \u201cvery savvy player.\u201d

Ole Miss will be returning numerous players from last year’s team that experienced the devastating loss to the Tigers.\u00a0

\u201cYou just got that feeling in your gut from last year on how the game ended so use that as motivation,\u201d Echoles said.

Fueled by last year\u2019s heartbreak and armed with a high-powered offense, the Rebels are ready to take on LSU and make their mark on the Magnolia Bowl once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/showcase\/embed.aspx?Archive=6100&autoplay=false<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The No. 11 Ole Miss football team, coming off a commanding win against Tulane to improve to 4-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":152120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[2086,5,7067,4,2294,655],"class_list":["post-152117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-lsu","tag-mississippi","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-tigers","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-OleMissRebelsFootball-01.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152117"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152121,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152117\/revisions\/152121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}