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LSU vs. Ole Miss (Saturday – 7:30pm ET)
This has the potential to be the atmosphere of the college football season. There will be a lot of hate and revenge in the air when Notre Dame hosts Miami in November after how the College Football Playoff selection process wound up last season, but Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford just might top it.
We know how things ended. Kiffin took the LSU job at a brutal time. Ole Miss rallied best it could and got a huge win over Georgia in the CFP before Miami ultimately took it down. Now the Rebels get a chance to stick it to Kiffin for leaving. But we know Lane Kiffin, and he’s going to want to return to his old stomping grounds and shut the crowd up. This was going to be a rowdy one no matter what, but the fact that it’s also a top-10 matchup with CFP implications just puts it over the top.
I’m fading the hype with LSU. I understand how amazing the Tigers looked in the opener, but it came at home against a Clemson team that simply could not get out of its own way. Now, LSU’s defense is for real, don’t get me wrong. But Clemson never even gave it the slightest test. The combination of Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy absolutely will.
Given the coaching matchup, this will be a chess match. Kiffin knows Pete Golding’s defense. Golding know’s Kiffin’s offense. Who will have more tricks up their sleeve? Who will make more impactful adjustments? It’ll be fascinating to watch. A lot has been made of LSU’s No. 1 transfer class. Let’s not forget that Ole Miss brought in the No. 2 class in the country, including a lot of highly ranked defenders.
This should be a high scoring game, and we’ve seen lots of over money come in and the total tick up. I’m tempted to go that way and ultimately might. But my play on this game will be the home dog.
We had a GOTY line on this one of Ole Miss -2.5. I think what we saw in Week 1 speaks much more to the issues Clemson has than how good LSU is, making this an over adjustment. Ole Miss put up 41 points on what I feel is a solid Louisville defense, and will be able to score in this game.
Again, LSU will get theirs, but I trust Ole Miss to be better at home, fueled by a crowd that will make things very difficult on the Tigers. Bettors at DK are buying into the LSU hype, with over 60% of the money to win the game and over 70% of the money to cover, as of Saturday morning. I’m fading the public on this one and buying low on Ole Miss, who I believe has done nothing to show it isn’t the team we thought it would be.
CFB Pick: Ole Miss +3 (-110)
