Next fall, Lane Kiffin will be leading LSU football—the pride of the state of Louisiana. The first big win of 2026 on the Bayou, however, belongs to his former team, Ole Miss, which scored an impressive upset of Georgia at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinal.
Kiffin, of course, could have been part of that win against the Bulldogs, had he not opted to leave at the end of the regular season for the job in Baton Rouge, despite his Rebels being CFP bound—a first for the program. With Kiffin gone, new coach Pete Golding, who was elevated from defensive coordinator, has led Ole Miss to the first two CFP wins in program history, including a revenge game against a Georgia team that beat the Kiffin-led Rebels 43–35 in Athens, Ga., during the regular season.
