Lane Kiffin will make his return to Oxford on Sept. 19, 2026, when LSU football visits Ole Miss football in Week 3 of the 2026 college football season, the SEC revealed as part of its 2026 schedule release. This will be Kiffin’s first trip back to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium since leaving Oxford and taking the LSU job.
The matchup carries obvious drama. Kiffin spent six seasons at the University of Mississippi and built the Rebels into a national contender before accepting LSU’s offer in late 2025. Fans on both sides will treat the game like more than just an early-season conference tilt; it’s a storyline clash between a coach and the program he helped elevate.
Expect the narrative to dominate the week leading up to kickoff. Oxford will remember the recruits Kiffin landed, the offenses he ran, and the playoff push he engineered; Baton Rouge will push the “new era” angle of Kiffin’s arrival and how he plans to retool LSU in his image. The date, Sept. 19, makes this one of the earliest home returns in the storied LSU–Ole Miss series, and the timing means both teams should be past their early nonconference tests and ready for a heavyweight SEC feel.
From a coaching-soap-opera perspective, this is peak college football. Kiffin’s move reshuffled staff and created fallout that lingered into the postseason; now both programs will have months to shape rosters and game plans around that split. If LSU and Ole Miss both hold to preseason expectations, the game could carry significant SEC West implications even in Week 3.
For fans marking calendars, pencil in Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Oxford, Miss. Tickets and broadcast details should follow the normal SEC release cadence, but expect networks to treat this as a marquee early-season game once kickoff times and TV windows land.
