Ole Miss is the perfect opponent for Tiger Stadium's 100th anniversary | LSU

At first glance, the state line between Louisiana and Mississippi appears to follow the mighty river that defines both states.

Closer examination shows how the border moves away from the current course of the Mississippi in places with sepia-toned names like Old River and Yucatan Landing and Palmyra Lake, places that Mark Twain may have once visited but that the river's current course has abandoned.

Louisiana and Mississippi, whether one cares to admit it in times like these, are intertwined, be it Old Man River, the Blues – or football.

Even in these modern times of gigantic television contracts, millionaire coaches and now millionaire players, college football is still a game that evokes nostalgia. Nowhere is it more nostalgic than in the South. Nowhere is Southern football more nostalgic than when it comes to LSU and Ole Miss.

When you think of the Tigers and Rebels, you think of a humid Halloween night and a ghost in a white LSU shirt with the number 20 weaving through would-be tacklers into the end zone. Or a rubber-legged redhead from a tiny hamlet named Drew, deep in the Mississippi Delta, who became a near deity to both Ole Miss and the Saints.

When you cross the state line, your clock goes back four seconds because the Tigers defeated the Rebels in 1972. They scream “Go to hell, LSU!” in The Grove in Oxford, or “Go to hell, Ole Miss!” under the giant oak trees in Baton Rouge that grow not far from that fabled river.

In this game legends are created. If your name is Cannon or Manning or Burrow or Daniels or you're known to Rebels and Saints fans as Deuce, you made a name for LSU against Ole Miss or for Ole Miss against LSU.

Yes, Ole Miss has Mississippi State in the annual Egg Bowl, and this is the ultimate game for both. LSU still has Alabama, even if Nick Saban, the scarecrow of the Tigers' football field, has finally retired. But there is something special about this rivalry.

Beat Ole Miss? LSU expects it.

Beat LSU? Ole Miss is enjoying it.

Perhaps fitting for the topsy-turvy world of college football in 2024, this game has a different feel. No. 9 Ole Miss is preferred over No. 13 LSU. According to ESPN, it is the first time since the IA/I-AA (now FBS and FCS) split in 1978 that the Rebels have been picked on the road over a top-15 team. This comes a year after Ole Miss' 55-49 win at Oxford, a game that included more than 1,300 combined yards and more points than a basket full of LSU-Ole Miss basketball games.

The way the Tigers went down dented their pride, particularly on defense. Linebacker Greg Penn was watching film Monday night when he received a call from LSU safety Major Burns.

Burns' message? “We owe them one.”

What better time to borrow a little from Shakespeare to help an ancient grudge erupt into new mutiny? LSU is making the Ole Miss game the centerpiece of its Tiger Stadium 100th anniversary celebrations, which Smart Money says will include a replay of Billy Cannon's 1959 punt return against Ole Miss on the giant new video board above North End zone will belong. It's even homecoming, usually a designation reserved for a more beatable opponent.

Ole Miss could pour cold water on all of LSU's celebrations and end up facing Cannon and, for dessert, put a dent in the Tigers' still-lived College Football Playoff hopes. It's a risk worth taking. The setting, the opponent, the matchup – and of course the weather – should all be perfect.

“When you come here, you expect to play a game like this,” LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said, “a top-15 matchup.”

It's a game that should bring Tiger Stadium to its loud, seismographically shaking bourbon with beer upon takeoff. An event that lights a fire under the adrenal glands, quickens the pulse and moistens the palms.

“That’s one of the reasons I came to LSU,” Penn said, “to play in a game like this. Saturday night in Death Valley – it’s just exciting to play there.”

It's just as exciting to watch.

LSU fans show up and are called out when their Tigers are in danger. This is a dangerous game.

The smart money from Caesars in Vegas to Beau Rivage in Biloxi says the Rebels should win. But Ole Miss is battered and exhausted from a seventh straight game, and two weeks ago, when Kentucky stunned the Rebels 20-17 in Oxford, Lane Kiffin's grin was immediately ripped off.

This is supposed to be Ole Miss' year, but it can't be if it loses to LSU. Maybe the oddsmakers are right, but Les Miles also said after his Tigers were the No. 1 seed in 2014. 3 Rebels defeated 10:7:

“That was Death Valley,” he said. “This was the place where the opponents’ dreams die.”

Someone's epitaph is waiting to be written on the banks of the Mississippi.