Louisiana governor Jeff Landry has urged people to show a little “southern hospitality” as LSU coach Lane Kiffin returns to face his former team, Ole Miss.
Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU in 2025 just two days after the regular-season finale, having led the team to a stellar 11-1 record. With his coming return, fans and analysts have speculated it could get ugly.
“I’m thinking about having to send him in on an F-16, and maybe the team on a C-130,” Landry jokingly told ESPN. “Security is going to be really tight. You know, we might need the National Guard out there to protect our team. I think it’s going to be an interesting weekend.”
Landry added that his office has been coordinating with Ole Miss officials to ensure no foul play erupts at the coming game. He also called for some “southern hospitality.”
“I know that we’ve been talking with Mississippi and making sure that we have adequate security for the team and coach,” Landry said. “But I’m hoping that we can go there and play in complete Southern hospitality and have a great, great game.”
Kiffin addressed the controversy during a press conference in Baton Rouge on Monday.
“We talk about that,” Kiffin said. “I guess there’s real safety issues and stuff, so there’s people that have a plan for that. I told the players today, ‘Man, you don’t have anything to worry about as far as, like, attention on you all week and everything. There’s going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me. You just get to go play.’”
Pete Golding, Ole Miss head coach, urged fans to keep it professional.
“To me, what this place has always been about and why so many people love coming here and respect this place, is because of the people that are here,” Golding told reporters in Oxford. “And how they make them feel when they come here. That’s always been something for me. When you come here and meet Ole Miss alumni and all that, they are so respectful.
“Let’s not lose that over a game, over a person, over anyone else like that. There’s nothing wrong with being competitive, being in the moment, being really loud, and being an unbelievable fan. But at the end of the day, don’t lose what we have created and what they have created for so long, which is a really unique place with really good people that’s really hard to play,” he added.