The Iron Bowl, The Game and beyond: What makes a perfect rivalry?
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ESPN staff
Welcome to that most glorious time of the year, when we gather with family, stuff ourselves with food and then ungather from that same family, angrily stomping off to our own private corners of the house because we refused to endure the treasonous slander that our supposed loved ones just spoke about a place and a people that they damn well know we hold near and dear to our hearts.
Thanksgiving? No. Rivalry Week!
When teams play the latest edition of games in which they have competed for a century or more. When schools fight for cups and buckets and other brass mementos that look like they came from the back shelf of a junktique store. When thousands of people pay hundreds of dollars to sit in the snow and lose their voices as they watch all that happen. And during this high holiest of college football weeks, that makes all the sense in the world.
But what really makes a rivalry a rivalry? What factors combine to take an annual game to a whole different level of intensity and fun? As it turns out, there are many to consider, and we’ve documented a few here.
So what’s the best and strangest of Rivalry Week? Grab a turkey leg, read on and find out.
Jump to:
Bad blood | Geography | Tradition
Iconic plays | Bizarre moments
Title implications | Bands and game-day atmosphere
Trophies and game names
BAD BLOOD
Florida State-Florida
0:27
Florida and Florida State players nearly break out into a scuffle on the field prior to their heated rivalry match.
There’s the Choke at Doak, 1994. First, the setup. Earlier that year, multiple Florida State football players went on a shopping spree at Foot Locker, paid for by an agent in violation of NCAA rules, leading to one of the all-time great quips from Florida coach Steve Spurrier.
“You know what FSU stands for, don’t you? Free Shoes University,” Spurrier said. Needless to say, those connected to Florida State were not amused.
Then, the game. Florida held a 31-3 lead after three quarters. Easy going from there, right? Not so fast. Florida State stormed back to tie the game at 31, leading to one of the greatest nicknames ever given to a game anywhere. Period. After the game, late Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said, “It is a pretty dang good win … I mean tie.”
In 1996, Florida State handed the Gators their first loss of the season, and Spurrier accused Bowden and his players of taking “cheap shots” and trying to injure quarterback Danny Wuerffel. Bowden said his team would “hit until the echo of the whistle.” The teams played a rematch in the 1997 Sugar Bowl for the national championship, where the Gators stomped the Noles 52-20.
But there was more to come. In 1997, Florida used a two-quarterback system to shock No. 1 Florida State to ruin the Seminoles’ undefeated season and national championship hopes. In 1998, there was a pregame brawl in which Florida quarterback Doug Johnson nearly hit Bowden in the head with a football (Johnson later apologized and said he was not aiming at Bowden). Star safety Tony George was ejected for throwing a helmet after two walk-ons taunted him.
In 2001, Spurrier and running back Earnest Graham accused Darnell Dockett of intentionally injuring Graham. The following year, Mo Mitchell admitted to chop blocking a Florida State player, injuring his knee. Dockett believed it was retaliation for the previous year. Then in 2003, Florida State players celebrated a win in Gainesville by jumping up and down on the Florida logo at midfield, leading to a brawl.
???? love this moment. pic.twitter.com/NYaXRkCo60
— SeabeeNole85 (@NW_GA_Nole) November 13, 2022
While the animosity between the schools reached its greatest heights in the Bowden-Spurrier years, the bad blood extends to 1947, when Florida State went from being an all-girls school to co-ed and shortly thereafter decided to play collegiate athletics. As the flagship public university in the state, Florida was less than thrilled and refused to play Florida State. The animosity grew so heated Florida governor LeRoy Collins had to broker a deal to get the schools to begin playing each other. Their first game was in 1958, and they have played every year since except 2020 (due to the pandemic).
“There was an overriding feeling of disrespect from the Gator program and fan base as looking down on Florida State’s program through the years,” said Mark Richt, who was Florida State offensive coordinator for 14 years under Bowden, and is a Miami graduate and former Georgia head coach. “From my personal experience, being at Florida State, Miami and Georgia, it was hard to find any love for the Gators.”
“I think there is a big brother-little brother dynamic that exists in the state,” former Florida receiver Chris Doering said. “It’s kind of like a mini Alabama-Auburn vibe. Even though FSU has grown to an equal in college football, that dynamic has been passed along from the older generations to the next. FSU focuses on UF because they don’t really have any other true rivals. We have rivalries with UGA, [Tennessee] and LSU that are at least as important to us as the FSU game is. The difference is that there is an underlying respect that exists for those SEC rivals. We don’t respect our little brother a bit. It’s just complete disdain.”
“From my experience, there’s a level of healthy bad blood,” former Florida State quarterback E.J. Manuel said. “Being an implant from Virginia, I didn’t feel the weight of the rivalry until I played in the game. Simply put, [there were] in-state bragging rights that would be remembered for a lifetime.” — Andrea Adelson
HONORABLE MENTION
Ole Miss-Mississippi State: A big Mississippi State fan and owner of a website covering the Bulldogs, Steve Robertson, was involved in exposing some of the phone calls to escort services that was the last straw in bringing down former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze in 2017.
Alabama-Auburn: There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but it can be summed up with one name — Harvey Updyke, the Alabama fan who did prison time for poisoning the iconic oak trees at Toomer’s Corner in 2010.
Michigan-Ohio State: Don’t dare wear anything that’s remotely red in or around the Michigan football complex or dare say the word “Michigan” in or around Ohio State’s football complex, or you could find yourself doing pushups. And of course there’s Woody Hayes’ famous quote when he explained that he went for two against Michigan late in the 1968 game while leading 50-14 “because I couldn’t go for three.”
Clemson-South Carolina: In 1992, South Carolina quarterback Steve Taneyhill drew the ire of Clemson fans by pretending to autograph the famed Tiger paw at midfield at Death Valley after throwing a touchdown pass. Clemson fans still fume any time it’s brought up.
Georgia-Georgia Tech: The tradition of Georgia Tech players tearing up some of the hedges around Georgia’s Sanford Stadium and parading around with pieces in their teeth following wins over the Bulldogs would qualify in this category, but for these rivals, the bad blood extends even into the record books. The Georgia records reflect two fewer Bulldogs losses in this series than the Tech record book, thanks largely to longtime UGA sports information director Dan Magill. In 1943 and ’44, during World War II, Georgia Tech was used as a training school for the U.S. Navy, and its student body included officer candidates and prospective sailors. Georgia’s teams, however, had to draw primarily from students who were too young or physically unable to enter the military. Tech posted lopsided wins both years, 48-0 in ’43 and 44-0 in ’44. After the war, Magill decided to remove those games from the series record because he thought the Bulldogs were at an unfair disadvantage, and those games are still marked with an asterisk in the Georgia media guide.
GEOGRAPHY
NC State-UNC
Carter-Finley Stadium, home of the NC State Wolfpack, and Kenan Memorial Stadium, home of the North Carolina Tar Heels, are only 22 miles apart. That stretch of Tobacco Road serves as the DMZ that divides one of the nation’s most under-appreciated rivalries. It doesn’t have a trophy or a name (it’s just “Carolina-State”) and only recently was it finally moved to its rightful scheduling slot here amid Rivalry Week.
It also isn’t a basketball game. But spend an afternoon driving along those 22 miles, through Cary, Morrisville, and even the southern edge of Durham, and you can feel the tension of rubbing all of that red and black up against all of that light blue. You can see it in BBQ joint parking lots via the opposing bumper stickers on pickup trucks and BMWs (“That ain’t tar on those heels”), neighboring but not neighborly yard signs, opposing porch flags flapping in the fall Piedmont wind or even — gulp — mixed marriages!
Since 1894, when the schools first played and did so twice in one week, Carolina and State have represented the two dueling personalities of the state known as Carolina, the tech and agricultural giant in Raleigh repping the country and the lawyers and bankers of Chapel Hill symbolizing the city folk. Is that a gross oversimplification of two diverse universities? Absolutely. But did that keep UNC quarterback Drake Maye from joking “people who go to State just can’t get into Carolina” or Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren describing an interaction with a Heels fan as they waited in line to pick up their dry cleaning as “you know, typical, in his khakis, shoes and a fancy belt with UNC things on it and a light blue shirt with the collar up.” Absolutely not. — Ryan McGee
HONORABLE MENTION
Oregon-Oregon State: 36 miles from Eugene to Corvallis
Georgia-Georgia Tech: 61 miles from Athens to Atlanta
Louisville-Kentucky: 70 miles from Louisville to Lexington
Kansas-Kansas State: 73 miles from Lawrence to Manhattan
Ole Miss-Mississippi State: 75 miles from Oxford to Starkville
UCF-South Florida: 77 miles from Orlando to Tampa
Purdue-Indiana: 89 miles from West Lafayette to Bloomington
Source: distance-cities.com
TRADITION
Notre Dame-USC
For the nearly 100 years the USC-Notre Dame rivalry has been played, there has been plenty of memorable moments on and off the field. This is a rivalry that began when teams were still traveling by train — famously, Knute Rockne argued for keeping the rivalry despite the long travel times in anticipation that air travel would soon be ubiquitous — once had 120,000 fans in attendance at Soldier Field, won eight national titles combined from 1960 to 1982 and features a trophy that is a bejeweled club made of oak from Ireland.
But no discussion of the rivalry can begin or end without a mention of the 2005 “Bush Push” game (more on that in the “Game-Changing Plays” section). Games when Rockne and Howard Jones patrolled the sidelines were legendary in their own right, even as scores sometimes barely cracked double digits, but in the modern era, no matchup between the teams is as memorable as this one.
This game marked a stretch of USC dominance in the rivalry throughout most of the 2000s when players like Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Carson Palmer and Mark Sanchez fueled the Trojans to an eight-game winning streak from 2002 to 2009. The Irish, however, have the overall edge in the game, with a 56.7% winning percentage.
There’s little to no reason a yearly game between a Pac-12 team and an independent should exist, let alone be this big of a rivalry, but the fact that it is underlines the kind of national prominence both teams have. There is no regional connection, just two teams who won a combined 11 national championships each. In other words, the history and tradition is in the winning. — Paolo Uggetti
HONORABLE MENTION
Minnesota-Wisconsin: The real granddaddy of them all. This rivalry has had 131 meetings and was first played in 1890.
Purdue-Indiana: 123 meetings; first played in 1891
Oregon-Oregon State: 125 meetings; first played in 1894
Kansas-Kansas State: 119 meetings; first played in 1902
South Carolina-Clemson: 118 meetings; first played in 1896
Ole Miss-Mississippi State: 118 meetings; first played in 1901
Michigan-Ohio State: 117 meetings; first played in 1897
Georgia-Georgia Tech: 115 meetings; first played in 1893
Washington-Washington State: 113 meetings; first played in 1900
North Carolina-NC State: 111 meetings; first played in 1894
Virginia-Virginia Tech: 103 meetings; first played in 1895
Arizona-Arizona State: 95 meetings; first played in 1899
ICONIC PLAYS
Auburn-Alabama
1:04
On Nov. 30, 2013, Auburn improbably beats Alabama as Chris Davis returns a field goal attempt for a touchdown as time expires.
“Chris Davis is going to drop back into the end zone. A single safety. I guess if this comes up short, he can field it and run it out.”
Rod Bramblett, Auburn radio’s play-by-play announcer, remarked on what few others had noticed in real time when Adam Griffith lined up a potential game-winning 57-yard field goal with 1 second left in the 2013 Iron Bowl. Alabama’s kicking team certainly wasn’t prepared for the possibility of anything other than a win or the game going into overtime.
“All right,” Bramblett said right before the snap, “here we go.”
The rest is history. The kick fell short, defensive back Chris Davis caught it and took off, veering left and then hugging the sideline. Once he got past the holder, Cody Mandell, he was home free.
Pick your favorite Bramblett line after that. Here are a few:
“There goes Davis!”
“They’re not going to keep them off the field tonight!”
“Holy cow! Oh my God! Auburn wins!”
Stan White, Bramblett’s partner as color analyst, was astonished. Listen closely, he said, and you can hear the sound engineer turn down his volume because he was shouting too loudly, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”
White has witnessed some incredible Iron Bowls. He was Auburn’s starting quarterback in 1993 when the Tigers knocked off the defending champs and secured an undefeated season. But 2013 stands alone.
White said Bramblett’s call of Davis’ return has to be among the best in sports history — alongside Al Michaels and the “Miracle on Ice.”
What makes it especially poignant is how it has become a reminder of the life and legacy of Bramblett, who died alongside his wife in a car crash in 2019. Bramblett was beloved and respected at Auburn and throughout the SEC before that night in 2013. But voicing the “Kick Six” made an entire country aware of his gift for finding the right words, at the right decibel, at the exact right moment.
White remembers being at the SEC championship game the week after the Iron Bowl when someone knocked on the door. It was Kirk Herbstreit. Then another knock. It was Verne Lundquist. Both came to congratulate Bramblett.
Lundquist’s CBS television partner, Gary Danielson, came to Auburn for a memorial held for Bramblett and his wife years later. Before the service ended, Bramblett’s call of the Kick Six was played in Auburn Arena. Hearing the joy in his voice — rising as Davis passes midfield — you couldn’t help but smile.
If they had played video from the booth, they would have shown White hugging Bramblett in celebration.
“It’s rare to have that type of call and that type of moment in a broadcaster’s lifetime,” White said. “And he captured it so eloquently and he relayed the energy that everyone was feeling, but he was so professional about it.
“When you think about that play, you have to think about Rod. It’s a call that will stand the test of time.” — Alex Scarborough
HONORABLE MENTION
Notre Dame-USC: With seven seconds to play in the 2005 game, USC trailed 31-28 but was on the Irish 1-yard line. Trojans coach Pete Carroll appeared to call on quarterback Leinart to spike the ball so USC could go for a tying field goal, but that was a decoy. Instead Leinart attempted a QB sneak but was stopped cold — until running back Reggie Bush gave him a forceful nudge around the end of the goal-line pileup, which was illegal but not called. Hence the “Bush Push” was etched into the rivalry’s lore.
Michigan-Ohio State: Desmond Howard’s 93-yard punt return and celebratory Heisman pose in 1991 remains the most famous play from one of the sport’s greatest rivalries.
BIZARRE MOMENTS
Ole Miss-Mississippi State
1:18
Elijah Moore’s touchdown cuts Ole Miss’ deficit to one point, but an unsportsmanlike penalty pushes the Rebels’ extra-point attempt back and it’s missed by Luke Logan.
In 2019, Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral, who had completed a fourth-and-24 play from the Rebels’ own 14 to start the final drive, threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Moore with four seconds left to ostensibly tie the game against Mississippi State.
But Moore celebrated his touchdown by mimicking a dog urinating in the end zone in a nod to DK Metcalf, who did the same to the Bulldogs two years before. Moore was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, forcing Ole Miss to attempt a 35-yard extra point.
The Rebels missed, of course, losing the game 21-20 and falling to 4-8 on the season. The fallout was swift as Rebels coach Matt Luke was fired, followed shortly after by MSU coach Joe Moorhead, who was fired after a loss in the Music City Bowl and a 6-7 finish.
“It just happened spur of the moment,” Moore told ESPN in advance of the 2020 Egg Bowl. “It wasn’t planned. A lot of people thought it was planned. It wasn’t planned.”
Lane Kiffin was hired to replace Luke, and Moore was one of the first players Kiffin sought out after taking the job.
“You hear people say, ‘Well, that’s not who he is,’ or, ‘Man, that was so out of character for him,’ and maybe you think they’re just making excuses for a guy, trying to have his back,” Kiffin said ahead of the 2020 game. “But the moment I met him, I knew that was for real. Anyone who knows Elijah knows that’s not who he is.” — David Wilson
HONORABLE MENTION
Notre Dame-USC: In 1977, Notre Dame coach Dan Devine had a plan to fire up his team. After the Irish warmed up in their traditional blue jerseys, they returned to the locker room to a surprise — new bright green game jerseys. The players loved it, as did the fans, who roared as the team stormed out of the tunnel trailed by a giant Trojan horse. Irish receiver Kris Haines said some USC players told him years later, “We knew it was all over at that point.” Right they were: Notre Dame rolled over No. 5 USC 49-19 and went on to win the national championship.
Oregon-Oregon State: In 1983, the field was swamped with rain and the game included four missed field goals, five interceptions and 11 fumbles. Oh, it ended in a tie. It’s why the game earned itself the name, the “Toilet Bowl.”
Washington-Washington State: A legendary snow game in 1992, an ugly incident including bottle throwing after a Wazzu loss in 2002 and a sophomore running back quitting and changing into street clothes at halftime: The Apple Cup has rarely been dull.
LSU-Texas A&M: In 2018, the teams played an epic, seven-overtime, 74-72 Aggies win, setting a record for the most points scored in a single game and the most OTs. There also was a brawl on the field after the game, with LSU offensive analyst Steve Kragthorpe saying he got punched in his pacemaker by Cole Fisher, A&M coach Jimbo Fisher’s nephew.
CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS
Michigan-Ohio State
The game that became The Game first took place in October 1897. Michigan and Ohio State began playing annually in 1918, but the introduction of the AP poll in 1936 added a new element to the rivalry. The 1941 game marked the first in which both teams were ranked. The following year, Michigan came in at No. 4 and Ohio State at No. 5.
There were three more top-10 matchups in the 1940s, but the series reached a new stratosphere when Michigan hired Bo Schembechler as coach after the 1968 season. Between 1970 and 1977, Ohio State and Michigan had five top-five meetings. Schembechler’s first 10 games against Ohio State coach Woody Hayes were labeled the “Ten-Year War,” where Michigan held a 5-4-1 edge. But the most memorable result came in 1973, as the teams both came into Michigan Stadium undefeated and played to a 10-10 tie.
Which team would go to the Rose Bowl? Big Ten athletic directors voted to send Ohio State, in part because Michigan quarterback Dennis Franklin sustained a broken collarbone against the Buckeyes. But Michigan had seemingly been the better team, and Schembechler lashed out, saying “petty jealousies were involved” in the decision.
The rivalry had provided just about everything except a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, which arrived in 2006. The day before the game, Schembechler collapsed and died, adding drama to a game that needed none. Ohio State won 42-39 and advanced to play for the national title.
Ten years later, The Game came down to a controversial fourth-down spot, where No. 2 Ohio State was awarded a first down and went on to beat No. 3 Michigan in overtime. Michigan lost eight straight to the Buckeyes and 15 of 16 before shocking Ohio State in the snow last year to reach its first Big Ten championship game, followed by the College Football Playoff semifinal. And the stakes are sky high again this year. — Adam Rittenberg
HONORABLE MENTION
Auburn-Alabama: The Tigers and Crimson Tide have met as top-10 teams eight times, including 2017 and 2013, when Auburn knocked off No. 1 Alabama. From 2009 to 2013, five consecutive Iron Bowl winners went on to play in the BCS national title game.
Florida-Florida State: No rivalry can match the high stakes of Gators-Seminoles from 1990 to 2000. In that span, the teams met 13 times, and every one was a top-10 matchup, with six of them a top-five matchup. That includes the Sugar Bowl in 1995 and 1997, which served as the Bowl Alliance’s national championship game. Florida rolled 52-20 in that one, but Florida State had the upper hand overall, 8-4-1.
Notre Dame-USC: The Irish and Trojans have met as top-10 teams 18 times, the first in 1938 and the most recent in 2006. The teams staged a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in 1988 at the L.A. Coliseum, with Notre Dame winning 27-10 en route to the national title.
BANDS AND GAME-DAY ATMOSPHERE
Grambling-Southern
It’s just good planning to have your annual rivalry game a mile or so from Bourbon Street. New Orleans gives itself to the Bayou Classic over Thanksgiving weekend, and thousands make a weekend of it. The game itself tends to draw well over 65,000 to the Superdome, which is impressive enough. But Friday night’s Battle of the Bands and Greek show can draw up to 30,000 by itself.
The Battle is a sight to behold. The crowd — filling up nearly half the Superdome just to watch two bands play — is engaged and loud. The bands, both great and both huge, are even louder. They march in to hype videos. They trade songs for over an hour. Their fans talk smack to each other, then they all wander down to fill Bourbon Street for the rest of the night. It has been a uniquely full and worthwhile weekend before the game, which is often very close, has even started.
You might remember the 2014 Classic. It went viral when a former Southern fullback, Calvin Mills Jr., proposed to his girlfriend during the halftime show with Southern’s band, the Human Jukebox, spelling out “Marry Me.” (The game itself was incredible, too, with Southern winning via a last-second goal-line stand.)
Afterward, he gave the best possible summary of what makes the weekend — from the Battle to Bourbon Street to the game — so special.
“People plan their whole Thanksgiving around the Classic,” he said. “It’s like one big family reunion. It’s a fun rivalry. You have families with kids who have gone to both schools.” And both schools have an absolute blast before, during and after the game. — Bill Connelly
Clemson-South Carolina
Clemson and South Carolina like to kick off their rivalry week with fire. Lots and lots of fire.
The current iteration of “Cocky’s Funeral” at Clemson and the “Tiger Burn” at South Carolina dates to 1902. According to South Carolina, the idea started after students from both schools had a standoff following the game that year, in which the Gamecocks upset the Tigers 12-6 — winning for the first time since they began playing in 1896.
At issue was a poster depicting a gamecock standing on top of a tiger and holding its tail. Clemson students found the poster to be insulting, and fights between both sides broke out. They agreed to burn the poster to ease the tensions — hence, the tradition of both sides setting their rivals’ respective mascots on fire.
To accomplish this, student-led organizations at both schools spend months planning. At Clemson, there is a group of 35 students on the alumni council responsible for creating a Gamecock out of wood, chicken wire and tissue paper. This year’s Gamecock is set to be 13 feet tall.
In the past, a casket has been involved and a eulogy read before they light their Gamecock on fire. (Not to worry, fire marshals are on hand to ensure everyone’s safety at both schools). But this year, students have given Cocky’s funeral more of a pep rally feel. It’s the first time they’re able to hold the event in their traditional way since 2019, before the pandemic. Anne Horton, assistant director of Cocky’s funeral, has a long line of Clemson alumni in her family, dating back to her great-grandfathers in the 1930s. She always dreamed of being a part of the event.
“In my application to the alumni council, I wrote I wanted to be the one to light Cocky on fire,” she said. “It always stood out to me. I’ve always loved the rivalry. I love that friendly competition that USC and Clemson have and how cool it is that we all get to get together on that Saturday.”
At South Carolina, the school’s chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is in charge of building their large scale tiger, with the help of a few other organizations. This year’s tiger is going to be its largest yet, about 32 ½ feet tall. The build started in July. The day of the burn, it is transported to a large field outside Williams-Brice Stadium, then put together to reach its full height. At this year’s event, the university president, coach Shane Beamer, the band and cheerleaders are scheduled to attend.
“The whole goal in building something is for it to be strong and stand up,” said Jackson Goldsmith, president of the ASME. “But there’s nothing more satisfying than watching the tiger get caught on fire.” — Andrea Adelson
HONORABLE MENTION
Ohio State-Michigan: Yes, the Wolverines have an iconic fight song, but the Ohio State marching band has a “signature” move, with a veteran sousaphone player stepping out to dot the “i” of his bandmates’ script “Ohio.”
Notre Dame-USC: Yes, the Irish have an iconic fight song, but the Trojan marching band has a platinum album from its 1979 collaboration with Fleetwood Mac, “Tusk.”
The Ramblin’ Wreck, Georgia-Georgia Tech: The 1930 Ford Model A Sport coupe that leads the Georgia Tech football team onto the field adds a touch of whimsy and nostalgia. (Rumor has it Georgia fans have stolen the Wreck on at least two occasions.)
TROPHIES AND GAME NAMES
Minnesota-Wisconsin
Paul Bunyan’s Axe. It wasn’t the first prize at stake for Minnesota and Wisconsin. Beginning in 1930, the rivals played for a slab of bacon, but the trophy — actually a slab of black walnut wood with a carving of a football — disappeared after the 1943 game, only to be found in 1994 inside a storage room at Wisconsin. Needing a replacement, Wisconsin’s lettermen group, the National W Club, introduced the axe, named after the mythical Midwestern lumberjack and featuring Wisconsin cardinal and Minnesota gold on each side.
Scores of all the games lined the axe’s handle until filling it, prompting the first trophy to be retired after the 2003 game, and donated to the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2004, the current axe debuted with a six-foot handle. Wisconsin won it that first year and didn’t relinquish it until 2018, the longest win streak by either team in a rivalry dating back to 1890.
The most dramatic axe moments come when it exchanges hands. Players sprint across the field, grab the axe, congregate around each goal post and begin to chop. In 2013, Minnesota players tried to prevent the “chop” around their goal post, leading to an altercation. The following year, the axe was not kept in the bench area, but presented in the end zone, as Wisconsin won again.
“In the celebrations, you see the creativity come out,” Wisconsin interim coach Jim Leonhard, an All-America safety/returner for the Badgers who went 2-2 in Axe games, told ESPN. “It’s one of those trophies that everybody recognizes. It’s been fun to be a part of it. It’s never a good feeling to be on the losing side, but it really is an amazing experience to keep the axe or to run across to get it back from the other team.” — Adam Rittenberg
HONORABLE MENTION
The Old Oaken Bucket, Purdue-Indiana: In 1925, the Chicago chapters of Indiana’s and Purdue’s alumni associations decided to introduce a rivalry trophy, and agreed that a bucket from an Indiana well would meet their vision. They found one on the Bruner family farm in southern Indiana, and created a chain with blocks in the shape of a “P” or an “I” for each team’s rivalry win.
The Territorial Cup, Arizona-Arizona State: Certified by the NCAA as college football’s oldest rivalry trophy, the Territorial Cup dates to 1899, when Arizona wasn’t yet a state but a U.S. territory (hence the name). In that first game, the University of Arizona played the Arizona Territorial Normal School, which evolved into Arizona State. (The “Normals” won 11-2.) The trophy’s whereabouts were unknown for close to 80 years until it was found in the basement of a church near the Arizona State campus. The tradition of the cup being passed to the winning team each year started in 2001.
The Egg Bowl, Ole Miss-Mississippi State: The Golden Egg trophy, a regulation-size gold-plated football — which looks like a golden egg — mounted on a wooden pedestal, was introduced in 1927 in an effort to calm fans and add dignity and decorum with a postgame ceremony after a chair-throwing brawl broke out following the previous year’s game. What was called “The Battle of the Golden Egg” was dubbed the Egg Bowl by The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in 1978, when neither team was bowl eligible, and the name stuck.
The Apple Cup, Washington-Washington State: Why the Apple Cup? Washington state produces more than 10 billion apples each year. (Sometimes it’s that simple.)
The Game, Michigan-Ohio State: If the game is known as The Game, it must be pretty important.
The Iron Bowl, Auburn-Alabama: Auburn coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan is credited with coming up with this name in 1964. It references the influence of the steel industry in Birmingham, home of Legion Field, the neutral site where the game was most often played through the early 1990s.
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: What says Thanksgiving weekend more than clean, old-fashioned hate?
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ESPN staff
College football’s early signing period started Wednesday and runs until Friday. Class of 2026 high school recruits who signed have locked into the college of their choice for at least the next year.
The drama started early when Vanderbilt flipped five-star QB Jared Curtis from Georgia on Tuesday night. Defensive end Jordan Carter (No. 57 overall) was the highest-ranked uncommitted recruit. He chose Tennessee over Auburn and Georgia Tech on Wednesday. Virginia Tech was a big mover of the day, adding 11 players who were formerly in James Franklin’s class at Penn State. USC added to its top-ranked class by flipping Kayden Dixon-Wyatt from Ohio State. Texas has the most five-star signings of any team, headlined by QB Dia Bell.
If a prospect doesn’t sign a national letter of intent by Friday, the next national signing day for this cycle begins Feb. 4.
We tracked all the news, analysis and more throughout Wednesday.
More: Class rankings: Top 75 | How the five-stars fit
College football’s early signing period opened Wednesday with much of the 2026 recruiting class committed. That added some extra drama for those teams chasing last-minute additions and flips.
Coaching changes weighed heavily on the end of this cycle with Virginia Tech adding eight commitments since James Franklin’s hiring. Auburn and Arkansas each saw movement in their classes following their coach hirings Sunday.
Here’s a look at the winners, the programs that missed out Wednesday and the questions that still loom over the 2026 cycle after more than 12 months of recruiting played out in the span of 12 hours:
Jump to: Texas’ haul | Carousel impact
CFP boost | Who has overachieved | Impact QBs
Texas’ five-star haul is impressive
A few teams landed multiple five-star prospects, but none has more than the Longhorns. The class fills needs but also has extremely talented players at impact positions.
On defense, linebacker Tyler Atkinson (No. 17 overall) has a combination of skills and production that can’t be ignored. He recorded 550 tackles in his prep career and had three double-digit sack seasons. He’s a versatile and explosive defender whether he’s rushing off the edge or in coverage. He is joined by defensive end Richard Wesley, No. 8 overall. After the Longhorns leaned some on the transfer portal this past offseason to retool their defensive line, Wesley will be a key player who projects to be versatile within their front, with the strength and heavy hands to set the edge and the ability to slide inside and expose mismatches with his quickness.
Offensively, QB Dia Bell, the sixth overall prospect, might be the most well-rounded, having been a multiyear starter and consistently playing at a high level of competition. While he is not a true dual threat, he can create second chances and be effective when asked to run. As a passer, his basketball background has helped develop his pocket movement and he has good touch on his deep ball. In running back Derrek Cooper, Texas has its future replacement for Quintrevion Wisner. Cooper’s initial impact could be limited but he brings similar attributes, with the ability to be a 1,000-yard rushing threat and rank among UT’s most productive pass catchers. Again, Texas has set itself up to replace a productive player with a prospect with arguably even greater impact ability. — Craig Haubert
Coaching changes hurt Auburn, Penn State and Oklahoma State
Traditionally, in-season firings tend to be the first domino to a class implosion. Such moves didn’t burn Florida and LSU on the 2026 recruiting trail. But amid a historic coaching carousel, the recruiting classes at Auburn, Penn State and Oklahoma State were among those that felt the fullest force of their school’s respective coaching changes in recent months.
Auburn’s latest class held firm in the weeks after the Tigers fired Hugh Freeze on Nov. 2. In fact, four of the program’s five decommitments since then occurred only after Auburn hired Alex Golesh from South Florida on Sunday. But the departures themselves were significant. Four-star safety Bralan Womack (No. 39 overall), the Tigers’ top-ranked 2026 commit, and quarterback Peyton Falzone (No. 225) each pulled their pledges on Monday. And while signatures from four-star wide receiver Jase Mathews (No. 258 overall) and a trio of ESPN 300 linebackers still give Auburn a foundation of 2026 talent, the Tigers’ incoming class lacks starpower.
Defensive tackle Danny Beale (No. 108 overall) and running back Kaydin Jones (No. 25 RB) marked Oklahoma State’s star additions in a surprisingly strong start to the 2026 cycle. Both left the Cowboys’ class between Mike Gundy’s September departure and the arrival of North Texas coach Eric Morris on Nov. 25. Following another series of decommittments over the past week-and-a-half, Morris is set to begin his rebuild in Stillwater with a thin class of early signees.
The fall recruiting misfortunes of Auburn and Oklahoma State, however, look tame next to the developments that have unfolded around Penn State’s 2026 class since mid-October.
As of Wednesday morning, only two commits remained in a Nittany Lions class that ranked 17th nationally when the school fired coach James Franklin on Oct. 12. Among the high-profile departures from Penn State since then: offensive tackle Kevin Brown (No. 78), wide receiver Davion Brown (No. 109), running back Messiah Mickens (No. 141) and longtime quarterback pledge Troy Huhn (No. 198). To add insult to injury, 10 of the Nittany Lions’ 21 total decommitments ultimately landed with Franklin at Virginia Tech, all signing with a surging Hokies 2026 Wednesday while Penn State’s coaching job still sits vacant in early December. — Eli Lederman
Which teams improved their CFP chances?
35 commitments
ESPN 300 commits: 18, two five-stars
USC is getting close and just lost a game at Oregon that would have likely thrust it into the CFP in 2025. The class is loaded top to bottom, even including juco prospects. To take the next step, though, the Trojans must continue to beef up the trenches. They pulled four-star defensive tackle Jaimeon Winfield out of Texas, landed in-state defensive end Simote Katoanga and traveled to Utah to snag offensive lineman Esun Tafa. To further bolster the offensive line, the Trojans landed Keenyi Pepe out of IMG Academy. He has great size at 6-foot-7 and 320 pounds but is light on his feet as well as physical and can become a standout tackle. Five-star cornerback Elbert Hill headlines the skill-position players. Hill possesses elite speed, having been measured at over 22 mph in game play.
25 commitments
ESPN 300 commits: 12, one five-star
Michigan has quietly put together a very successful season, winning five games in a row prior to a loss to Ohio State despite multiple offensive injuries at running back and a true freshman QB in Bryce Underwood. This class features six players who rank in the top 10 at their respective position. Michigan bolstered its backfield by landing No. 2 running back Savion Hiter, a runner with a nice blend of size (6 feet, 200 pounds), power and speed who can also catch the ball out of the backfield. After losing two defensive linemen in the first round of the NFL draft, Michigan added several to this class, including four-stars Titan Davis, McHale Blade and Tariq Boney. Michigan has also received a commitment from five-star Carter Meadows, a rangy edge defender who can affect the QB. — Tom Luginbill
Which teams have overachieved?
18 commitments: one five-star, 17 three-stars
Coach Willie Fritz has made huge strides in his second season at Houston and recruiting has picked up as a result.
The class has been headlined for several months by five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson, the No. 1 dual-threat QB in the country. Henderson could become a program-defining prospect that thrusts the Cougars into Big 12 championship contenders for years to come. Henderson has also been a loyal commitment throughout the process despite obvious overtures by other bigger programs to flip him. He’s dynamic as a runner and a gamer as a passer.
UH’s class also features the sixth-ranked tight end in the country in Jaivion Martin. The 250-pounder is a well-rounded blocker and receiver who can play as an inline in the run game. He also competes in track and field. The Cougars have also nabbed a top-25 athlete in Paris Melvin, who could project at cornerback or wide receiver and is a dangerous return man who ran a 10.86 100m in the spring of 2025. One of the more underrated running back prospects in the class is John Hebert, a Ryan Switzer-type scatback/utility weapon. He ran a 4.54 40-yard laser timed in the spring and has posted a max speed of 21.3 mph.
This class is full of high-end three-star prospects, and perhaps no coach in the country has a better track record of developing prospects than Fritz.
21 commitments: six four-stars
SMU is now running with the big dogs not only on the field, but in recruiting circles as well. The Mustangs have added several offensive linemen, no bigger than Sam Utu, an ESPN 300 player with tackle athleticism and guard power. The Mustangs also picked up Evan Goodwin, a massive presence at 6-7 and 320 pounds, Evan Goodwin, a massive presence at 6-7 and 320 pounds, and in-state guard Drew Evers, a thickly built and strong blocker who can latch on and control defenders. Rhett Lashley knows the trenches are what’s going to elevate the program.
Capitalizing on the rich talent base in Texas, SMU has added several in-state prospects, including SC Next 300 back Christian Rhodes. Rhodes, an explosive runner who has been recorded hitting better than 21 mph max speed in game play, also brings a physical running style at 6-1, 200 pounds. High three-star Aljour Miles II, a lengthy receiver who has good quickness and body control, is another nice in-state addition. Another receiving target with big-play potential, Jakai Anderson, was pulled out of Louisiana. Not quite as big a target, he brings a good blend of speed and elusiveness and could also be productive in the return game.
On defense, defensive end Hudson Woods shows some savvy as a pass rusher, with active hands and good bend. Linebacker Kenneth Goodwin out of California is a versatile, physical defender who can rush the passer.
12 commitments: six ESPN 300 prospects, eight total four-stars
Despite the firing of coach Hugh Freeze and some late defectors, this class still has major talent upgrades committed, particularly on defense. The class is not large, but it is stacked with overall top-end talent. There are four players ranked within the top 11 players in the country at their respective position and two within the top three.
Adam Balogoun-Ali is the country’s No. 1 inside linebacker and also happens to have significant growth upside with his lengthy frame. He can play inside and on the outside as an edge rusher and excels in space due to his speed and agility. The Tigers also have a commitment from the No. 3 inside linebacker in the class, Shadarius Toodle. Toodle is just a step behind Balogoun-Ali in terms of overall speed and is a downhill gap plugger in the middle of the field.
New head coach Alex Golesh has a good foundation to head into the dead period with and attack the transfer portal in January for more additions. — Luginbill
These 2026 QBs could start early
Jake Fette, Arizona State Sun Devils: Assuming Sam Leavitt goes in the portal, Fette, the No. 4-ranked dual threat, brings a lot of great traits to the Sun Devils offense. He’s super athletic and mobile, with the field vision to keep his eyes downfield while on the move. Fette is very similar to Leavitt in stressing defenses with his arms and legs. Fette also has good touch and anticipation on short to midrange throws. Coach Kenny Dillingham will challenge defenses schematically with a lot of shifts, motions and backfield action that will maximize Fette’s dynamic skill set in and outside the pocket.
Oscar Rios, Arizona Wildcats: Rios is the Wildcats’ highest-rated pocket passer signee in the ESPN 300 era. How immediate the impact depends on whether Noah Fifita returns for the 2026 season. If Fifita chooses to return, Rios could redshirt as a true freshman and be the favorite to become the starter in 2027. Rios’ quick release and great arm strength should lead to big numbers under coordinator Seth Doege in Tucson. — Billy Tucker
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Mark Schlabach
OXFORD, Miss. — Last month, as some of the biggest college football brands pursued Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, a staff member polled the team’s assistant coaches about where they wanted to be in the 2026 season.
The coaches discussed four options: Remain at Ole Miss, where they had built a legitimate College Football Playoff contender; leave for SEC rivals Florida or LSU; or take over Florida State, which according to people with knowledge of the search, was making a stealth move to poach Kiffin.
The entire defensive coaching staff, led by coordinator Pete Golding, preferred to stay at Ole Miss, which was on the verge of its first 11-win regular season and CFP appearance, two sources told ESPN.
All but one offensive assistant wanted to leave for either Florida or LSU, which historically had enjoyed more success than Ole Miss but had fired their coaches after their teams struggled this season.
That meeting was indicative of the divided loyalties and uncertainty that defined one of the most compelling coaching searches in college football history, which threatened to not only derail the Rebels’ historic season but also captivated fans on three SEC campuses and around the country.
On Sunday, after days of mounting tension and uncertainty, Kiffin finally agreed to become LSU’s coach, abandoning an Ole Miss team that is 11-1 and holds the No. 6 spot in the CFP selection committee’s latest rankings.
Even worse for many Ole Miss fans, Kiffin departed for a program they consider its fiercest rival in the SEC.
“You’re not leaving to coach the Giants or the Dolphins or the Buckeyes,” a source familiar with the situation told ESPN. “You’re talking about going to a place that we will play [each of the next four seasons].”
BY THE TIME the Rebels traveled to play rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Friday, a pall had settled over the Ole Miss program.
Florida and LSU had ramped up their courtships of Kiffin, who had transformed Ole Miss from a midtier SEC program to one of the best in the FBS. The Rebels had gone 54-19 under Kiffin, winning 10 or more games in four of the past five seasons. Only blue bloods Alabama and Georgia had more success in the league since Kiffin arrived.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin interviewed Kiffin in Oxford in early November — a bold move behind enemy lines to get an edge on the most coveted candidate in the coaching carousel, two Florida sources told ESPN. Gators fans, who had watched their team limp to losing records in four of the past five seasons, clearly favored Kiffin.
Years ago, Kiffin wanted Florida, but Stricklin hired Billy Napier, then the coach at Louisiana, in November 2021. Kiffin’s off-field behavior made Napier the safer option, despite the Rebels’ 10-3 campaign that season, in which they defeated nationally ranked Arkansas and Texas A&M.
The Gators went 22-23 in three-plus seasons under Napier, and he was fired Oct. 19 after they struggled to a 3-4 start.
It wasn’t the first time Kiffin had been rebuffed by the Gators. After Kiffin was fired as USC‘s coach five games into the 2013 season — the Trojans dismissed him in a private terminal at Los Angeles International Airport following an ugly 62-41 loss at Arizona State — then-Florida coach Will Muschamp sought to hire Kiffin as his offensive coordinator the next season. However, Muschamp was told by UF officials that the SEC office wouldn’t allow him to bring in Kiffin, according to two people familiar with the situation, and Alabama’s Nick Saban hired Kiffin a couple of weeks later.
Early on, Ole Miss officials believed Florida might be the biggest threat to lure Kiffin away because of his family’s connection to the Gators. His ex-wife, Layla, had moved to Oxford earlier this year to be closer to two of her children: Knox, a sophomore at Oxford High School, and Landry, a junior at Ole Miss. Layla Kiffin’s father, John Reaves, was a star quarterback for the Gators from 1969 to 1971 and was later an assistant under legendary coach Steve Spurrier.
However, the Florida opening became Kiffin’s second choice, sources close to him told ESPN, once LSU fired Brian Kelly on Oct. 26, a day after the Tigers lost to Texas A&M 49-25 at home. While Kiffin was reportedly turned off by Stricklin’s involvement in the Florida program, he didn’t seem overly concerned about the political environment at LSU.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was highly critical of athletic director Scott Woodward for leaving LSU on the hook for a $54 million buyout when Kelly was fired. Woodward resigned under pressure Oct. 30 and was replaced by longtime LSU administrator Verge Ausberry.
During his introductory news conference Monday, Kiffin revealed he had a “unique, great call with Governor Landry” during LSU’s recruitment of him.
“I could feel his passion and energy for the state of Louisiana and for LSU football,” Kiffin said.
LSU became more attractive to Kiffin once Ausberry was promoted, sources told ESPN. Saban, who guided the Tigers to the 2003 national championship and helped Kiffin resurrect his career when he brought him on as Alabama’s offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016, was complementary of Ausberry.
LSU brass interviewed Kiffin sometime in mid-November. On Monday, Ausberry said the initial interview with Kiffin lasted less than 90 minutes. When Ausberry called other LSU officials to pick him up, they were like, “Y’all finish, already?”
“It wasn’t a three- or four-hour meeting,” Ausberry said. “[Former LSU baseball coach and athletic director] Skip Bertman taught me that. Nick Saban taught me that you don’t ask great coaches, ‘What you gonna do on third-and-8? Tell me about your offensive game plan, tell me about your defense, tell me about who you’re gonna hire.’
“Here, it’s like, ‘What do you need to be successful? We want you to be our coach here. What do you expect from me as athletic director? What do you expect from LSU, and do you want to be at LSU?’ And that was pretty much the conversation.”
Ausberry recalled working under Bertman when the Tigers hired Oklahoma State‘s Les Miles before the 2005 football season. Bertman’s teams won five College World Series titles and seven SEC championships during his 18 seasons as coach from 1984 to 2001.
“Hiring the football coach at LSU is the biggest thing in the state of Louisiana,” Ausberry told Bertman. “It’s the biggest job. I said, ‘If you hire the wrong one, Coach Bertman, all your national championships, all your great baseball programs, that’s going to be your legacy.’
“So, I thought that this would be my legacy at LSU, and that I have to get the right person to be the head coach of LSU.”
At the same time, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford also was wooing Kiffin behind the scenes, sources familiar with the search told ESPN. Kiffin and Alford had worked together at USC — Alford as the Trojans’ associate AD from 2000 to 2003 and Kiffin as Pete Carroll’s tight ends/wide receivers coach from 2001 to 2003. But Florida State hadn’t fired embattled coach Mike Norvell, whose program had slipped dramatically after going 13-1 and winning an ACC title in 2023. The Seminoles cratered last season, going 2-10, followed by a 5-7 mark this year.
The Seminoles would have owed Norvell about $54 million if they fired him without cause, plus another $18 million to pay off his assistants.
Hiring Kiffin, the hottest coach on the market, might have allowed Alford to justify spending $72 million to dismiss Norvell and his staff. The Seminoles’ recruitment of Kiffin continued into the middle of November, according to the sources. But after it became clear Kiffin wasn’t coming, FSU announced Nov. 23 that Norvell would return for a seventh season.
Ausberry said he worked tirelessly to keep LSU’s courtship of Kiffin under wraps, even though there was plenty of speculation that the Tigers wanted him.
On Nov. 17, fans using online flight trackers discovered that LSU had flown a jet to Oxford and back. Layla Kiffin and other family members visited Baton Rouge that day. She visited Gainesville, Florida, the day before with her son and Lane’s brother Chris’ son.
“They had to really see Baton Rouge,” Ausberry said. “That was one of the big things, because her father was an All-American at the University of Florida, and a coach [and] great NFL player, and those are things that we were a little afraid of. That’s that pull of Gainesville, and then she came to Baton Rouge.”
Kiffin’s family visits to rival SEC campuses — and the fact that they became so public — were like a slap in the face to many Ole Miss fans, who believed their coach was trolling them.
Kiffin was upset about what Rebels fans were saying about him, but an Ole Miss source described the development as a “self-inflicted wound.”
“What do you expect when your family flies to visit two of our competitors?” the Ole Miss source said.
A WEEK BEFORE the Egg Bowl, Kiffin met with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce, as pressure was reaching a tipping point between the sides. Carter and Boyce wanted Kiffin to make a decision and sign a lengthy contract extension that would have made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.
Ole Miss officials had assured Kiffin it could match anything Florida and LSU were offering in terms of revenue sharing and NIL, at least under current NCAA rules.
Kiffin wasn’t ready to commit, however, and informed Boyce and Carter that he hadn’t made up his mind. Kiffin didn’t think it was fair that he had to decide at that point because Ole Miss hadn’t even finished the regular season, sources close to the coach told ESPN.
“This is what’s wrong with the whole system,” a source close to Kiffin told ESPN. “Because this is another example of how nobody’s been in charge of anything in college football. Because if it was the NFL, you couldn’t talk to anybody until after the playoffs. It’s a horrible system.”
Boyce and Carter explored potential ways to keep him from coaching in the Egg Bowl — and they made it clear that he wouldn’t coach in the CFP if he accepted a job at Florida or LSU, Ole Miss sources told ESPN.
Cooler heads prevailed, and the sides agreed that the Rebels needed to focus on beating Mississippi State and potentially securing a CFP first-round home game, which would be lucrative for both Ole Miss and Oxford.
“[Kiffin] was looking for a reason to leave,” an Ole Miss source told ESPN. “When Keith kind of put him on the clock, I think that kind of changed the narrative, changed the landscape a little bit.”
Carter released a statement Nov. 21 saying he’d had “many pointed and positive conversations” with Kiffin regarding his future at Ole Miss and that he expected a decision from his coach the day after the Egg Bowl.
By that point, many Ole Miss fans were fed up with the drama. One prominent booster told ESPN this week he’d already informed the athletic department that if Kiffin returned, he wouldn’t continue contributing money to the program.
“The fan base went from wanting to build a statue for him to wanting to run him out of town,” the booster said.
WHEN THE EGG BOWL finally arrived Friday, there was an overwhelming sense that Kiffin was coaching his last game at Ole Miss. There was plenty of drama off the field, as well.
Before kickoff in Starkville, Kiffin told ESPN that Mississippi State students broke into the Rebels locker room at Davis Wade Stadium, stealing the jerseys of quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and other players.
Mississippi State officials had promised to put security guards outside the locker room but failed to do so, and the thieves broke in again, Kiffin said. The Rebels had captured the thefts on hidden cameras and turned the video over to police.
The Rebels ran away from the Bulldogs in the second half of a 38-19 victory. As Kiffin celebrated with players for the last time, Mississippi State officials blared the hit song from The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” over the stadium speakers.
As Kiffin walked off the field, he embraced Boyce. Then he turned his attention to Ben Garrett, a reporter for On3. Kiffin confronted Garrett for using lyrics from a rap song to describe his unwillingness to commit to Ole Miss during a podcast: “Can’t turn a h- into a housewife. H-s don’t act right.”
Their argument continued in Kiffin’s postgame news conference, with Kiffin calling Garrett’s actions “bush league.”
“I don’t even know your name,” Kiffin told the reporter, a tactic he sometimes uses with staff members when he’s upset.
Garrett told ESPN that Kiffin called him the next day to apologize — and called him by his name. A few hours later, Kiffin texted Garrett a meme of Kiffin wearing a yellow-and-purple hat with the word “h-” on it.
AS COLLEGE FOOTBALL fans turned their attention to Saturday’s rivalry games, the Ole Miss campus was mostly quiet. Students were away for the Thanksgiving break, and Kiffin spent the morning with his family at a hot yoga class.
At one point, he assembled his coaching staff at the Manning Center to review film of Georgia, in case Alabama lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl, which would have put the Rebels in the SEC championship game.
Around 6 p.m. ET, Kiffin met with Carter at the chancellor’s home on campus. During the nearly two-hour meeting, Kiffin broke the news that he was leaving for LSU. However, Kiffin continued to lobby his AD to allow him to coach the Rebels in the CFP.
“[Kiffin] had an opportunity to coach in the playoff, and that would have been to stay at Ole Miss, and he chose not to do that,” Carter told ESPN. “That’s his choice, and I respect that choice. But then we had to make a choice, and talking with the team and spending time with them, I think they know they need coaches to make a playoff run.
“I think they were very concerned about their position coaches and those types of things. But I think they understood when someone takes a job at another place — and not only another place but one of our rivals and a team that will be playing in our stadium next year — I think that that’s something that nobody feels comfortable with.”
Carter told ESPN that he’d been weighing whether to allow Kiffin to coach in the SEC championship game because of the short turnaround. When it became apparent that Boyce and Carter weren’t going to budge on their position about the CFP, according to Ole Miss sources, Kiffin threatened to take his entire offensive coaching staff with him to LSU.
It was his last leverage chip in a tense standoff to coach in the postseason. Ole Miss staff members confirmed to ESPN that Kiffin told his assistants that if they didn’t go to LSU with him on Sunday, they wouldn’t have a job with him in the future.
By the time LSU administrators landed in Baton Rouge following the Tigers’ 17-13 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday, Kiffin’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, had been frantically trying to reach Ausberry. When the men finally connected, Sexton delivered the news that Kiffin was ready to take the LSU job.
The outcome of the Iron Bowl might have determined whether the Tigers would have to wait another week to introduce their new coach. Auburn rallied to tie the score late in the fourth quarter, but Alabama went ahead 27-20 with 3:50 to play.
After Alabama recovered a fumble at its 20-yard line with 33 seconds left, Kiffin’s tenure at Ole Miss was over.
“It’s a tough situation,” Ausberry said. “He loved that place. We were thinking about that timeline. Also, I got kind of nervous the night when Auburn tied Alabama in that game. Now, it might push us back a week, but we were comfortable.”
In fact, Ausberry said LSU didn’t have a problem with Kiffin coaching the Rebels in the CFP, as long as he signed his contract with the Tigers. Kiffin said in a statement announcing his departure that Carter wouldn’t allow him to coach, and he added that he was willing to put guardrails in place to protect Ole Miss but didn’t specify what they would be.
“It’s great,” Ausberry said. “It’s great publicity for our institution. You have a coach, coaching out there, coaching [in the] playoff, playing for a national championship, and being the next coach of LSU, so we had no problems with that.”
0:54
Lane Kiffin respects Ole Miss’ decision to not have him coach in CFP
New LSU coach Lane Kiffin reflects on the process that led to Ole Miss not allowing him to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff.
That was exactly the situation Ole Miss officials wanted to avoid — its historic CFP run becoming a monthlong infomercial for LSU’s next coach. They also didn’t want Kiffin coaching their players once he left. The transfer portal opens Jan. 2, and it would have given Kiffin more time to potentially recruit the Rebels’ best players.
“The players were concerned about commitment and those types of things,” Carter said. “[With] this playoff run, we plan on this being a four-, five-, six-week thing. There’s just no way that that’s possible. I know that the scheduling and the timing and all that stuff is a part of the equation. But I’m just not sure there was any plan that was going to work that would allow the head coach of a rival school to be in your building and coaching your guys. We had to stand up for our program and what we thought was best.”
Late Saturday night, ESPN reported that Kiffin was signing a seven-year contract with LSU. A team meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET Sunday, when Kiffin would address the Rebels for the final time.
ON SUNDAY, the meeting was pushed back to 2 p.m. ET, as Ole Miss officials scrambled to figure out which assistants were leaving and staying. The Rebels also were working to name an interim coach. Pete Golding would end up being hired as Kiffin’s permanent replacement before the team meeting.
“I got back to the office and said, ‘You know what? We’ve got a great solution to all this. Somebody that’s right here under our nose, that’s going to be the next great coach. He can help us hold this staff together,'” Carter said.
Kiffin encouraged Carter to meet with the team’s leadership council, according to Ole Miss sources, telling him that he wasn’t going to like what he would hear. But instead of telling Carter the team wanted Kiffin to coach in the CFP, the players said they were more worried about their position coaches staying and had grown tired of the drama surrounding Kiffin.
After the 30-minute meeting with Carter, the leadership council also met with Kiffin, Ole Miss sources told ESPN.
In response to the statement Kiffin issued announcing his decision, in which he claimed the players wanted him “to keep coaching them,” Rebels starting center Brycen Sanders, a member of the leadership council, posted on X on Tuesday: “I think everyone that was in that room would disagree.”
Linebacker Suntarine Perkins, another member of the council, added on X: “That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”
Meanwhile, Layla Kiffin drove a white Mercedes into the parking lot behind the building about an hour before the scheduled team meeting. Golding paced on a sidewalk, talking on a cellphone for more than 15 minutes.
Lane Kiffin was escorted out of the Manning Center 10 minutes before Ole Miss players met with Carter, Boyce and Golding.
There were a few dozen fans and reporters gathered outside the building. Officers in three police cruisers were parked nearby, in case things got out of hand, as they did when Kiffin left Tennessee after only one season in January 2010. UT students burned couches and nearly rioted the night of his stunning departure.
As Kiffin and his son drove out of the parking lot around 1:45 p.m. ET, an Ole Miss student approached his black SUV and made an obscene gesture. It wasn’t the last one Kiffin would see that day.
A few minutes later, Ole Miss players started to file out of the Manning Center. One of them yelled, “It’s the Pete Golding era!”
By then, two planes owned by an LSU booster had been dispatched to pick up Kiffin, his family and the staff members who were joining him in Baton Rouge. The original rendezvous point was Tupelo, Mississippi, which is more than 50 miles from the Ole Miss campus.
On the way to Mississippi, someone told Ausberry that the flight was being diverted to Oxford’s airport.
“We’re going where? Oxford?” Ausberry said. “They’ll be shooting missiles at us.”
A few hundred Ole Miss fans lined the fences of the runway of University-Oxford Airport when the two planes landed. They booed the pilots, who could only laugh and wave. When someone asked Ausberry if he needed to use the restroom in the airport terminal, he said, “That’s OK, I’ll hold it.”
One by one, the Ole Miss assistants who were joining Kiffin arrived at the airport and were escorted to the planes in a black SUV. The fans booed their disapproval at offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., passing game coordinator/receivers coach George McDonald and co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Joe Cox, among others. (LSU announced Tuesday that Weis will return to Ole Miss for the CFP.)
Layla Kiffin was booed loudly when she drove her Mercedes onto the runway.
“He is what we thought he was,” said Ole Miss graduate Taylor Cauthen, who stood along the fence. “He was gonna win, and we knew how he was gonna leave. I mean, it’s not surprising to anybody with any sense. He was gonna win games, and he was gonna leave, and it was gonna be bad.”
Cauthen, who moved back to Oxford in July, said Kiffin hijacked the Rebels’ historic season and turned it into a soap opera about him.
“He’s taken it from us,” Cauthen said. “He made it all about him. I think he wakes up every morning, looks at himself in the mirror, and tells himself he loves him. I think that’s who he cares about most. I think he cares about himself more than anything on this earth, including his family.”
Joe Ignatius, an Ole Miss baseball player from 1992 to 1996, watched in disbelief as Kiffin and his assistants left Oxford like diplomats fleeing a foreign country.
“I feel naive thinking it wouldn’t happen to us,” Ignatius said. “It just didn’t have to go this way. It could have been six great years going your way, thanks for what you did. But leopards don’t change their spots. And I got fooled, so not what I expected.”
Ignatius said he felt the worst for his son, Bodacious, an eight-grader, who grew to love the Ole Miss football team.
Kiffin, along with his son, was the last person to arrive at the airport. By then, police were turning away fans because the parking lots were full. Kiffin used an auxiliary entrance, which had fire trucks and firefighters blocking the road to keep fans away. He was escorted down the runway by a state trooper and another emergency vehicle.
Once Kiffin pulled his SUV next to the plane, the Ole Miss fans gave him a full-throated sendoff. He was embraced by Ausberry, who was wearing a purple shirt, and climbed the jet’s stairs. There was no farewell wave to the fans.
“He got on that plane and was like, ‘Let’s go. I’m ready,'” Ausberry said.
Only a few hours later, defensive tackle Lamar Brown of Baton Rouge, an LSU commit and the No. 1 player in the 2026 class according to ESPN’s recruiting rankings, posted a photo with Kiffin on X with the caption, “Welcome home.”
During a news conference at LSU on Monday, Kiffin said he wasn’t surprised by the reaction of Ole Miss fans when he left.
“They ain’t going to the airport and driving from all over, OK, to say those things and yell those things and try to run you off the road if you were doing bad,” Kiffin said. “Time heals a lot of things, and having gone through this in this conference before, I sure hope that happens.”
Kiffin won’t have to wait long to find out. The Tigers are scheduled to open SEC play at Ole Miss next season.
On Monday at the Po-Boy Express in Baton Rouge, LSU fan Remi Brignac, his son Beau and their friend Jay Olinde were discussing the program’s future with Kiffin.
“We’re optimistic for change,” Remi said. “Finally got an offensive mind.”
Olinde, meanwhile, isn’t expecting a long-term marriage.
“I believe that he will bring the program back to where we expect it to be in Baton Rouge,” Olinde said. “But I also believe that as soon as he gets that done, he’ll leave for the NFL, coaching the Dallas Cowboys.”
ESPN’s Dave Wilson contributed to this report
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