No. 14 Ole Miss is seeking a consolation win against Miss in the Egg Bowl. State on

With an important regular-season finale just a short week away, Mississippi has seen its dreams of national success evolve into perhaps something it certainly didn’t want on Thanksgiving weekend:

An eggshell that only has regional significance and nationwide bragging rights.

After their third and disappointing defeat, the No.

It won’t be easy to ignore last Saturday’s disastrous 24-17 loss at Florida, a heartbreaking setback that ended any College Football Playoff hopes for the most talented Rebels team in a long time. Coach Lane Kiffin’s team slipped five spots to 14th in the current CFP rankings.

The offseason outlook was bright as Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3 SEC) spent big on zero money and added the top tier to fill a roster that won 11 games in 2023.

But the Rebels kept shooting themselves in the foot against the Gators on Saturday. Ole Miss’ powerful offense turned the ball over three times, went 3 of 14 on third down, failed on two fourth down attempts, dropped five passes and missed a field goal.

Before the game, ABC’s broadcast said the Rebels had an 84 percent chance of making the CFP. After the loss, that number dropped to four percent. The only option for the Oxford school is to experience the repeated chaos of Week 13, which talk show host Paul Finebaum called “the greatest SEC carnage” he had ever seen.

The Egg Bowl has been played on Thanksgiving Day 23 times, from 2017 through last season, but Kiffin believes the afternoon start on Friday is beneficial.

“It helps them know that the playoffs are still alive and that they have, so to speak, the first chance to show everyone on a national stage,” Kiffin said Monday, “as opposed to a Saturday game where these people, who make the decisions don’t necessarily do so.” Watch all the games because there are so many going on.

For the second time this month, Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby will lead his last-place Bulldogs (2-9, 0-7) against a former boss. The 40-year-old head coach faced Tennessee and coach Josh Heupel, who had Lebby on his team at UCF in 2018 and 2019, on November 9th in a 33-14 loss.

Now he faces Kiffin, who he worked with during his first two seasons at Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021, when the school led the SEC in total offense.

Kiffin, a frequent social media user who enjoys trolling others, took a dig at Lebby and Mississippi State when the first-year coach was hired.

“We have been exchanging text messages and communicating all season,” Lebby said Monday. “But no, not this week. He will continue to find ways to have fun on social media. He always has been and he always will be.”

Ole Miss owns a 65-46-6 series advantage and has won five of its last seven games, including a 35-3 “Egg Brawl” win by the Bulldogs in 2018 that was later vacated.

Another loss to the Rebels would give MSU its first winless SEC season since 2002.

–Field level media