With an anemic defense that’s ranked 121st in the country, the Ole Miss Rebels’ odds of victory in the 107th Magnolia Bowl in Baton Rouge against the No. 6 LSU Fighting Tigers appear to be slim. However, this rivalry is filled with entertaining and awkward finishes—from Billy Cannon’s Heisman Trophy-clinching punt return on Halloween Night in 1959 to former LSU coach Les Miles mismanaging the clock (didn’t we see that movie a lot?) in 2009 with the Tigers only needing a field goal to win.
Ole Miss coach Matt Luke will bring his team into Baton Rouge on Saturday in hopes of providing another shocking moment in a series filled with them. Meanwhile, the Tigers are the feel good story of the 2018 season thus far, with a pair of Top-10 wins over Miami and Auburn.
While the series does have a host of results that are head scratchers, LSU owns a comfortable 61-41-4 lead. Although LSU has an 13-5 advantage since 2000, the Rebels have won four times of the past 10 meetings. The last three meetings indicate that a blowout is in order as the losing team has been defeated by at least 16 points.
Can Ole Miss buck the trend and bring an end to the Tigers’ hot start? College fans will have the answer as to whether the Rebels and Tigers can give us another mesmerizing game late Saturday night.
The Magnolia moniker is derived from the plant being the state flower of Mississippi and Louisiana, and was selected by students of both universities as the permanent name of the rivalry in 2008. H&A
Kickoff for Ole Miss (2-1) – LSU (3-0) is 8:15 p.m. CST on ESPN
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Cover photo: Leonard Fournette against Ole Miss. Photo courtesy LSU Athletics
