LSU still holds a large lead in its football series with Ole Miss. But the last few matchups between the two teams have been all-time classics.
The Tigers lead the all-time series against the Rebels 66-42-4, the latest a 29-26 LSU victory in Baton Rouge. LSU did not hold a lead in 2024’s game until the final play in overtime, a game-winning 25-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Garrett Nussmeier to wide receiver Kyren Lacy.
“That’s why I play football,” LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said at SEC Media Days earlier this week. “That’s what I love to do, is be in games like that where, we weren’t leading for a single second of that game until the very last play. I think that says something about the focus that we had that game. There was never a moment during that game where anybody got down on themselves, ‘Oh man, like we just can’t get it going.’ It was just, keep going.”
It was the second straight season the Magnolia Bowl came down to the final play, as the 2023 game in Oxford ended with an incomplete pass in the end zone as time expired from eventual-Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels in a 55-49 Ole Miss win. Ole Miss and LSU have split the last four meetings, with the home team emerging victorious in each. Ole Miss and LSU play this season at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Sept. 27 in what could be another classic in the series.
The Rebels led LSU 23-16 with just over three minutes to play last season at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers completed two fourth-down tries on their final drive of the period, including a fourth-and-5 that saw Nussmeier escape a would-be sack from Suntarine Perkins and throw the tying touchdown to Aaron Anderson.
“I had to make a play, had to go get it,” Nussmeier said. “Game on the line, it just kind of takes over a I guess, the adrenaline kicks in and you just do what you have to do to win the football game.”
The 2023 game featured 1,343 yards of combined offense, 66 total first downs, 513 yards of offense and five total touchdowns from Daniels and 439 yards of offense and five total touchdowns from Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. The Rebels led 21-7 in the first quarter, trailed by nine with less than nine minutes to play in the fourth and scored two late touchdowns, including a 13-yard run-and-catch game-winner from Dart to Tre Harris with 39 seconds to play.
Weeks, a freshman on that 2023 Tigers team, is looking forward to this year’s matchup with Ole Miss and is hoping for defensive redemption from his last trip to Oxford.
“(Ole Miss-LSU means) a lot. And especially, my freshman year, going up there, that was one of the worst defensive performances I’ve ever had in my life,” Weeks said. “So I want to go up there this year, in a hostile environment, playing at Ole Miss – it’s always a great place to play, it’s super fun – and prove to myself and prove to my teammates that what happened two years ago is not going to happen again. We’re going to go up there and play good football and not let the distractions get in the way of us.”
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