Lane Kiffin, in his much-anticipated return to Oxford, fell to his former team, the Ole Miss Rebels. Kiffin's LSU Tigers, a team he spent more than $40 million to build into a national championship contender, got outplayed and out-physicaled by the Rebels, falling 32-24. Both teams entered the game ranked inside the top 10, and the result may say more about Ole Miss being a legitimate championship threat, with Trinidad Chambliss quickly playing his way into the Heisman conversation, than it does about LSU.
But there's no getting around that it was a bad look for Kiffin. It was also a serious blow to the Tigers' College Football Playoff odds, with LSU now holding just a 23% chance of making the postseason, according to ESPN. Coming into the game, they were sitting at around 51%.
More news: Nick Saban Rejects Rumor He Played Role in Lane Kiffin Leaving Ole Miss for LSU One loss alone won't keep LSU out of the playoffs. But their upcoming schedule is brutal. Next week, they'll host No. 9 Texas A&M, who will also come in desperate for a win after falling to Kentucky on Saturday.
After that, LSU gets a breather against McNeese, followed by an SEC gauntlet: at Kentucky, versus Mississippi State, at Auburn, versus Alabama, versus Texas, at Tennessee, and at Arkansas. That doesn't leave much room for error for Kiffin's team, and anything more than two losses over that stretch would likely end their season. Even still, many of those upcoming opponents are undefeated at 3-0, putting LSU up against it just three games into the season.
More news: Pete Golding Gets Brutally Honest on His Relationship With Lane Kiffin More news: Big Ten Team Showing Interest in Brian Kelly After Disappointing 0-2 Start Safe to say this isn't the start Kiffin was hoping for after the university signed him to a record seven-year, $91 million contract. LSU isn't a program known for being patient. They demand championships, and given how much they've invested in Kiffin's vision, he doesn't have much time to turn this around.
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