There are matchups worth circling in college football, and others you stay up all night thinking about.
For Ole Miss fans, Saturday night will be the culmination of more than nine sleepless months.
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Even the most casual followers are familiar with the surrounding story. Last season, Lane Kiffin led the Rebels to their most successful season in more than 60 years, then abandoned them at the altar on the eve of the playoffs – departing for what he considered to be greener pastures at LSU, as well as a seven-year contract worth $13 million annually.
Things didn’t immediately go downhill in Oxford, though – Trinidad Chambliss-fuelled Ole Miss won twice in the postseason, and came up a drive short of reaching the National Championship in a 31-27 loss to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.
That’s done little to taper the hostility.
Kiffin put Ole Miss in a position to contend, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t his best chance to win a title. And the result this weekend will likely lead to some sort of overreaction, either from Rebels fans, who will claim they never needed Kiffin in the first place, or from those in Kiffin’s camp, who will insist he’s the singular force in turning around seven-win LSU and the only reason Ole Miss was ever good to begin with.
Kiffin has been tight-lipped this week, attempting to alleviate the pressure from LSU’s players, insisting the “attention and hatred” was on him, and that expectations were higher for Ole Miss because it won 13 games last season – complimenting himself, in a sense, with Kiffin having been on the sideline for 11 of those victories.
Thus far, the Tigers have looked every bit as dangerous as the team Kiffin vacated at the end of last November, winning a pair of games by 72 combined points, including a 51-10 beatdown of Clemson in Week 1. But Saturday will be a different kind of test, in an environment that might be one of the most inhospitable the sport has ever seen.
After all the buildup, the matchup between LSU and Ole Miss is finally upon us.
More on that, and other storylines, ahead of Week 4:
Is Sam Leavitt actually in limbo for Saturday?
The fans in Oxford have had nine months to let their animosity simmer, and you can bet they’ll be ready to explode when Kiffin sets foot in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday night.
But sideshow notwithstanding, the stakes are enormously high in their own right – this is the first time since 1962 that LSU and Ole Miss have met in a top-10 matchup, and a win (or loss) by either side could end up being a determining factor come selection time in December.
This weekend’s game got an added wrinkle on Wednesday night, when Kiffin released a preliminary injury report with Leavitt listed as doubtful due to an undisclosed injury – a potentially enormous development for LSU, which has scored 96 points in two games after finishing 111th in the FBS in both yards per game and touchdowns in 2025.
Leavitt threw three interceptions against Louisiana Tech last Saturday, but he’s been a factor as a passer and with his legs thus far, accounting for 709 total yards and seven touchdowns.
Leavitt’s status was upgraded to questionable on Thursday night, and according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Pete Golding and Ole Miss continuing to prepare as though Leavitt will be the Tigers’ starter.
There’s little question surrounding the offensive firepower on the other side. Chambliss has picked up where he left off last season for Ole Miss, leading a 41-point barrage against Louisville in Week 1 and following it by completing 23-of-26 attempts for 225 yards and two touchdowns in an easy win over Charlotte last weekend.
Running back Kewan Lacy also looked comfortable in the Rebels’ second game after leaving the opener with a leg bruise, rushing for 87 yards and a pair of touchdowns while playing only the first half. Lacy even added some spice to the conversation surrounding Kiffin on Tuesday, shrugging off a question about their bond, claiming he “(doesn’t) have a relationship with him.”
Of course, Saturday’s matchup will come with chaos, unprecedented security, and a degree of vitriol that even Kiffin hasn’t experienced in his two-decade saga of burning bridges.
To add to the drama, former Ole Miss and currently LSU edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen was served court papers on Wednesday morning outside the Tigers’ facility, with Ole Miss seeking over $500,000 for a breach of the contract he’d initially signed to stay in Oxford before transferring in January.
Arch Manning gets a chance to pad his stats
Manning got his signature win in Week 2, exorcising any remaining demons from last year’s season-opening debacle in Texas’ 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State.
The numbers didn’t jump off the page – 23-of-37, 195 yards and touchdown pass – but keep in mind that Manning had a bad-luck interception on a well-thrown deep ball for Cam Coleman on the Longhorns’ second drive and had what would’ve been a 30-yard touchdown strike wiped off the board by a Ryan Wingo drop a quarter later.
This weekend, Manning gets a bit of a reprieve against UTSA before Texas digs into its SEC schedule – a nine-game slate that starts next Saturday in Tennessee and also includes visits to LSU and Texas A&M.
Even factoring in a spotty performance against UTEP last September, Manning has generally used games against non-Power Four opponents to stack giant numbers – in four starts, he’s thrown 10 touchdown passes and rushed for five more. His first significant experience actually came in relief of Quinn Ewers against UTSA in 2024, when he passed for 223 yards and had five total touchdowns in less than three quarters.
We likely won’t discover anything about Manning that we don’t already know, but this weekend should serve as another chance to build momentum before things start getting complicated.
The win over Ohio State was a breakthrough, but we’ll learn in coming weeks about his ability to deliver in hostile environments – settings similar to the ones he struggled in last year, between Columbus, and rough road outings against Florida and Georgia.
Last Saturday, ESPN released results from a poll of 25 NFL scouts and executives that were asked to rank the quarterback most likely to be drafted highest in next April’s NFL Draft, and Manning finished second with seven votes, trailing Oregon’s Dante Moore, who drew 14 votes. After Moore’s stinker in a loss to Oklahoma State in Week 2, Manning currently looks the most desirable — though that’s a story that’ll play out week after week between now and January.
Darian Mensah is continuing a trend at Miami
A Heisman frontrunner has emerged at what’s becoming the poster program for transfer quarterbacks.
Two years ago, Cam Ward moved to Miami and vaulted himself into becoming the top pick in the NFL Draft, and last year Carson Beck helped lift the Hurricanes to a National Championship appearance, raising his stock after an all-around difficult finish to his tenure at Georgia. Now it’s Mensah’s turn.
Mensah was prolific at Duke last year after transferring from Tulane, leading all Power Four quarterbacks in passing yards while carrying the Blue Devils to an ACC title.
In his first two games this season in Coral Gables, he’s thrown twice as many touchdown passes (eight) as he has incompletions (four), completing a staggering 91.1 per cent of his attempts for 653 yards. And sure, part of that came against an overwhelmed Florida A&M last Thursday, but Mensah also went for 401 yards and five touchdowns in the season opener in a conference game at Stanford.
Another thing that bodes well for Mensah’s Heisman push is Miami’s schedule, which isn’t particularly challenging – on paper, at least – from this point forward.
The Hurricanes are the undisputed favourite in the ACC, and their only remaining meeting with a team currently ranked in the AP Poll is their grudge match against Notre Dame in South Bend on Nov. 7. Miami has been known to step on its share of rakes under Mario Cristobal, though – in 2024, it had back-breaking conference losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse in the final three weeks of the year, and last season the Hurricanes lost to Louisville and SMU and needed to lean on an 11th-hour change of heart from the selection committee to punch their playoff ticket.
Tonight, Miami is nearly a three-score favourite on the road against Wake Forest. Seemingly, a runaway win – and an opportunity for Mensah to pile on even more.
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Kamario Taylor takes aim at his first SEC win as a starter
For all the talk about Manning, Moore and Mensah, there’s a quarterback eligible to be drafted in 2028 who could end up being the best of the entire bunch.
Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor had cameos in SEC play against Georgia and Texas last year, then ran for 187 yards and two touchdowns against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. Now he’s showing he can do it with his arm as well.
Taylor was one of the standouts this summer at Manning Passing Academy, and announced his presence in the Bulldogs’ 62-13 win over UL Monroe in Week 1, throwing for 354 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for another. Last Saturday, he flashed his throwing talent again, torching Minnesota for three first half touchdown passes in a 38-13 win that got the SEC some of its edge back in its never-ending supremacy battle with the Big Ten.
It’s been a long road back for Mississippi State since Mike Leach’s sudden passing nearly four years ago – an event tragic enough under any circumstance, and it also happened to leave a program that had worked its way back near the SEC’s upper tier starting from scratch.
Over the past three seasons, it’s gone 2-22 in the conference – a script Taylor’s hoping to help flip this weekend in an intriguing early-season matchup against South Carolina.
The Gamecocks have allowed just nine points in two games this year – granted, they’ve been against Kent State and Towson – despite having been without game-wrecking edge Dylan Stewart, who’s still managing a back injury that limited him for the bulk of 2025. Stewart was listed as probable on Wednesday’s injury report and is expected to play for the first time this season on Saturday.
Interestingly, Taylor bears a similar physical resemblance (6-foot-4, 230 pounds) to South Carolina counterpart LaNorris Sellers (6-foot-3, 238 lbs.), who happened to be the frontrunner in the same ESPN poll last September as the one that ranked Moore as the top quarterback for 2027 last week.
Sellers emerged two seasons ago with similar fanfare to what’s surrounding Taylor, but had a setback last year, throwing just 13 touchdown passes while the Gamecocks dipped from nine wins to four. He struggled as a passer last week against Towson (10-of-23, 96 yards), but had the second-best rushing game of his college career with 119 yards and a touchdown. Sellers did draw two first-place votes in the poll results released last weekend — the only player other than Moore or Manning to garner more than one.
There could be a Big 12 power shift in Lubbock
Texas Tech ran wild in the Big 12 last year, winning nine of 10 games – conference title included – each by 21 points or more. This season, with a schedule devoid of BYU and Utah, the Red Raiders entered as the favourite again, albeit with one particular hurdle.
They’ll have to get around upstart Houston on Friday night in a matchup that could shift the power in what remains one of college football’s most unpredictable conferences.
Texas Tech played with near-identical stakes 364 days ago. After cruising through three non-conference games, the 17th-ranked Red Raiders ventured to Salt Lake City in Week 4 and thrashed 16th-ranked Utah, leaning on Will Hammond in relief of Behren Morton in a fate-flipping 34-10 win. With Morton in concussion protocol, Hammond passed for 169 yards and two touchdowns – the defining performance that left Texas Tech comfortable leaning on him even after Brendan Sorsby’s eligibility debacle this past summer.
Texas Tech is hosting this time, with 22nd-ranked Houston entering following a pair of wins to start the season, including a 77-6 walkover against Southern last Saturday. Both teams enter with non-conference wins over Oregon State, with the Cougars beating it 33-20 in Week 1, and the Red Raiders needing to rally late in a tense 35-24 win six days ago. Texas Tech actually trailed past the midway point in the fourth quarter, but Hammond led a go-ahead scoring drive to grab the lead and Thomas Castellanos capped another following a Beavers turnover on downs.
If there’s a grand concern in Lubbock, it’s on defence, after losing six players to the NFL Draft this past April, including star edge rusher David Bailey and Butkus Award-winning linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.
Texas Tech reloaded in the portal, but couldn’t generate much pressure against Oregon State up front, allowing 417 yards through the air.
Things won’t get much easier on Friday. The Red Raiders will have to deal with fifth-year quarterback Conner Weigman, who was a revelation last year in his first season with Houston and has operated with relative ease thus far in two games this year, completing 69 per cent of his passes with four touchdowns. Weigman was also the most mobile quarterback in the Big 12 last year outside of Utah’s Devon Dampier, rushing for 700 yards and 11 scores.
