STARKVILLE, Miss. — Lane Kiffin is 5-1 against Mississippi State as head coach of the Ole Miss football program.
Whether he’s in Oxford next year to pursue a sixth Egg Bowl victory in seven seasons remained to be seen as of Friday evening. Kiffin wasn’t ready to say whether he would stay with the Rebels or go — perhaps just one state over to take charge at LSU, which fired Brian Kelly earlier this season after he failed to make the Tigers a College Football Playoff team during his four seasons in Baton Rouge.
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss threw for 359 yards and four touchdowns as the sixth-ranked Rebels beat Mississippi State 38-19 in the Battle for the Golden Egg on Friday afternoon at Davis Wade Stadium. The Rebels have now won five of the past seven meetings to stretch their all-time lead in the series between Magnolia State rivals from the Southeastern Conference to 67-46-6.
The Rebels, who were coming off an open date for their regular-season finale, also improved to 11-1 overall and 7-1 in SEC play this year, marking the most regular-season wins in program history. They accomplished the feat amid Kiffin’s name being heavily linked to vacancies at Florida and LSU, two other SEC schools.
It’s been a strange few weeks for a team that is on track for a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff — the Rebels were seventh in the most recent CFP selection committee rankings — and was in the running for a trip to next week’s SEC title game at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.