By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
The Grove was packed and loud long before kickoff, and by the time it emptied out Saturday night, Lane Kiffin knew exactly how it felt to lose in the place he used to call home.
No. 8 Ole Miss beat No. 7 LSU 32-24, and the story of the night was Trinidad Chambliss, who passed for 363 yards and two touchdowns and added a go-ahead touchdown run in the fourth quarter to finish off the Tigers, according to ESPN. It was Kiffin's return to Oxford for the first time since leaving the Rebels for LSU, capping what ESPN described as an "epic scene" of hype and buildup around the game.
Kiffin, for his part, didn't sulk about the scoreboard. He spoke instead about "the emotions of gratefulness" for his six years in Oxford, a tenure he said "went well beyond football," per ESPN's report on his postgame comments.
Ole Miss coach Pete Golding kept his team's feet on the ground even in celebration. Beating Kiffin and LSU was "sweet," he said, but not "our Super Bowl" — a reminder, ESPN reported, that Golding has bigger goals in mind this season than one rivalry win, however personal.
The win vaults Ole Miss into the thick of an SEC-heavy conversation at the top of the College Football Playoff picture, with ESPN's early Week 3 rankings projection showing the conference dominating the top tier of the field. For one night, though, the numbers took a back seat to the moment: a coach walking back into the building he left, and the team he left behind making sure he remembered why the door mattered.
Final score's the last thing that mattered here.
— Compiled from reporting by ESPN.
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