'A different animal': Ole Miss begins preparation for 'challenging' trip to LSU

This Saturday No. 7 Ole Miss hits the road for only its third time this season. After a front-loaded home-portion of the schedule the Rebels now leave the comforts of Oxford for two straight weeks.

But these next two games are not your normal run-of-the-mill road games. No, these are two trip right into the teeth of the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division to LSU and Texas A&M.

Trips to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech and Nashville to play Vanderbilt provide some experience for a team full of first-year players on the Ole Miss roster. But that is about the extent of it.

Neither the Yellow Jackets or Commodores, or the environments at their respective stadiums, served as proper preparation for what is to come at Tiger Stadium and Kyle Field to close out October.

“We’ve played really well on the road. Obviously, this is a different animal,” said head coach Lane Kiffin of playing at LSU. “First two places that we played, no disrespect to those two places, but this will be a real atmosphere and crowd noise for our guys to go into. Presents a lot of challenges of just staying focused and doing things really well. Very challenging.”

This weekend will not be the first time Kiffin has taken an Ole Miss team down to Death Valley. The Rebels ended the 2020 regular season at LSU in a makeup game from earlier in the year.

Though, the atmosphere will not be identical as there was limited capacity and rain storm hovered over Baton Rouge for most of the game.

Saturday’s forecast of mid-80s and sunny should create a more legitimate atmosphere when Ole Miss and LSU kickoff at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Related: What are the latest bowl projections for Ole Miss following win over Auburn?

Kiffin is making a second trip but some players are set to experience Death Valley for the first time.

Walk-on wide receiver Dayton Wade is among those making the trip to LSU for the first time in their careers.

Wade’s personality is one that no stage is too big, including walking into Tiger Stadium for the first time. The former Western Kentucky player made the decision to come to Ole Miss for games like Saturday’s.

“I can’t wait for it,” Wade said. “Coming to Ole Miss, I like away games better because everyone’s against you. Either you’re going to shrivel into a ball or you’re going to rise to the occasion feeding off that energy. I like to feed off that energy.

“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a very hostile environment. My coach was just talking to us and broke it down. He was like, ‘Hey, it’s going to be different. You’ve never played in it before but it’s going to be an experience.”

The SEC announced on Monday that Ole Miss’ game at Texas A&M on Oct. 29 is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.

Over a three-week span, including last week’s game against Auburn, the Rebels will have played in the morning, mid-day and evening time slots.

Next week’s game against the Aggies is set to air on the SEC Network.

With the times for kickoffs not known until two weeks out after the first couple games of the season, time of games do not really matter to the players. They just want to play.

But some players, like Wade, they have a sweet spot in mind they would prefer to start a game.

“That 11 a.m. game, we get that 11 a.m. game out of the way we get to go home. We don’t really mind,’ Wade said. “But from the fans and keeping the fans interacted and in tuned with us, like the same page as the fans, we want that 6:30 night game. The energy’s different. It’s just different.

The 2:30 game is like, it’s just 2:30. It’s like school. Ain’t nothing special about 2:30. It’s not early morning, late nights. It’s like, ‘Good afternoon.’ I would definitely choose a night game.”