The LSU-Ole Miss rivalry has been a barnburner in recent years, at least if the game is between the Tiger Stadium lines.
Transport the contest to Oxford, and it’s a completely different story.
LSU has dominated its Magnolia Bowl rivals on the road since the turn of the century, going 5-1 in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium since 2000.
On the surface, the Tigers’ easy run through the Rebels makes sense, given that Ole Miss has only made six bowl games in the last 13 seasons.
But that doesn’t explain the series’ strange voodoo in Baton Rouge. Ole Miss has had a nearly identical record in the five seasons it lost in Tiger Stadium (26-37) compared to the seasons it lost at home (25-35). LSU has only defeated Ole Miss with ease recently in Oxford.
Dating back to 2000, the Tigers’ five victories at Vaught-Hemingway have come by an average of 22.6 points per game. That’s more points per game than LSU’s total margin of victory at home against Ole Miss this century, with the five wins coming by a total of 20 points — or four points per triumph.
“Any time you line up against the Ole Miss team, there’s tradition and history, and it’s just more important,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “It’s a great game. [Billy] Cannon’s great run on Halloween, Odell Beckham’s fourth-quarter punt return a year ago, just a number of exciting finishes to a long‑standing rivalry.”
But other than the infamous 2009 time-management fiasco that upheld a 25-23 Rebel win, the competitive aspect of the rivalry almost seems to be on hold in Oxford.
The most likely explanation for the disparity between venues is the quality of the LSU squads that have played in Oxford.
Since 2003, the four Tiger teams that won at Vaught-Hemingway boasted a combined 49-6 record.
Compare that to the five LSU teams that beat Ole Miss at home since 2002. Those five squads went 49-15.
The Tiger teams that lost to Ole Miss in 2008 and 2009 compiled a 17-9 record, LSU’s worst two-season stretch this millennium.
Each of LSU’s recent national championship teams emerged from Oxford with a win, albeit in drastically different fashions.
The 2003 unit needed Chad Lavalais’ fourth-down push to stop Eli Manning’s last-gasp drive in a 17-14 win. The 2007 squad cruised to a 41-24 win as four turnovers negated Ole Miss’ yardage advantage, and the Tigers clinched the SEC West.
The 2005 team pummeled the Rebels, 40-7, and the 2011 group scored 21 points in the first quarter en route to a 52-3 rout.
For this year’s LSU players, that beatdown — one that included Miles choosing to have LSU kneel down with more than five minutes remaining — is the only memory they have of the Tigers’ winning ways in Oxford.
“I know it got really quiet after the first quarter. That’s what I remember,” said junior defensive tackle Anthony Johnson. “I do remember Zach Mettenberger getting into that game and getting that bootleg that almost scored a touchdown.”
Each of the most recent four LSU teams to win at Ole Miss eventually won at least 11 games and finished in the top-five of the polls.
But Johnson said no one is expecting as easy of a time against Hotty Toddy this time around.
“We don’t take any team lightly,” Johnson said. “They play us hard every year, so we have to go out there and be the more physical team.”
With the Alabama game looming as another titanic showdown, most believe that the still-unknown quality of this year’s LSU team will be measured against the Crimson Tide.
If recent history is any indication, an LSU blowout on Saturday would give the answer away.
HOME GAMES
2012: LSU 41 – Ole Miss 35
2010: LSU 43 – Ole Miss 36
2008: Ole Miss 31 – LSU 13
2006: LSU 23 – Ole Miss 20 (OT)
2004: LSU 27 – Ole Miss 24
2002: LSU 14 – Ole Miss 13
2001: Ole Miss 35 – LSU 24
ROAD GAMES
2011: LSU 52- Ole Miss 3
2009: Ole Miss 25 – LSU 23
2007: LSU 41 – Ole Miss 24
2005: LSU 40 – Ole Miss 7
2003: LSU 17 – Ole Miss 14
2000: LSU 20 – Ole Miss 9