Lane Kiffin’s bitter divorce with Ole Miss reopened old wounds. He returns this weekend as Public Enemy No. 1

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The Library Sports Bar is everything a college bar should be. Old, battered stools stand alongside a weathered wood bar. Stickers celebrating bygone 21st birthdays cover the walls outside the bathrooms. The barroom gives way to the Boom Boom room (for bands), which leads to the patio, all designed for mobs of undergrads who want cheap drinks and a place to hang.

In 1997, John Desler, a former Ole Miss defensive back, and his wife, Leelee, bought the guts of the place from James Purvis, proprietor of Purvis Pool Hall and the town’s most renowned bookie. The Deslers slowly expanded The Library, eventually stretching its reach down nearly the entire block.

It was Leelee who decided to hang the flags out front, one for each of the Rebels’ football opponents. Every time Ole Miss won, she decided, she’d replace the opposing colors with a red flag that read, “Rebels Take the Win.”

Last season, all but one of the opponents’ banners disappeared. Eventually, 13 “Rebels Take the Win” flags fluttered down Van Buren Avenue, a visual affirmation of the best season here since Archie Manning was the biggest man on campus.

On this, the last Sunday afternoon before football returns to Oxford, the 2026 season flags stand at the ready as Elizabeth Heiskell ducks into The Library.

“I cannot wait to take that LSU flag down,” she says to everyone and no one in particular. “I mean, we’re all over it, but we want that win.”

Heiskell was born and raised in the Delta, the northwest section of the state often called the most Southern place on Earth. She attended Mississippi State, but wound up living in Oxford when her husband, Luke, had the harebrained idea to start a vegetable farm outside of town. Heiskell went from delivering vegetables to restaurants in a beat-up, old prison van with no air conditioning to the preeminent caterer in town, author of three cookbooks and a regular contributor to the “Today” show.

Her time in Oxford also shifted her loyalties. She is now as fierce an Ole Miss fan as you’ll find. She has a regular spot reserved in the Grove and closes texts with “ Hotty Toddy .” Both a Southern charmer and a Southern spitfire, she peppers her yarns with smirks and eye rolls and is unabashed about both possessing and sharing her strong opinions.

A year ago, her Rebel devotion and outspokenness got her into a little hot water. As football coach Lane Kiffin dithered about abandoning Ole Miss for LSU, Heiskell declared she would run “nekkid” around the Oxford square if Kiffin bolted. Heiskell’s vow went viral and she wound up discussing her proclamation live on “The Paul Finebaum Show” during the SEC Championship.

Of course, Kiffin left, a bitter and acrimonious separation that played out over 14 agonizing days, just as the Rebels prepped for their first College Football Playoff game in history.

Heiskell kept her clothes on. She did not and has not, however, kept her mouth shut. Sitting later at a quiet table in the back of Saint Leo’s, an Italian spot on the Oxford Square, she is asked to explain the vitriol directed at Kiffin. She gives one of her smirks.

“Well, he’s an immoral, son of a b*tch whore,” she says and then pauses. “Well, maybe leave the whore out.”

The Grove is quiet on a Monday afternoon, the tree-covered acreage at the center of the Ole Miss campus looking like little more than a nice place to catch some shade from the omnipresent heat.

“It will be a war zone.” That’s what Russ Eddins, sports editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian, predicts the tailgating epicenter will feel like this Saturday, when Kiffin returns to town. So worried is the Oxford-born senior he has suggested that his family, who still live on the outskirts of the city, not come.

The setup is, to Eddins’ point, ripe for catastrophe. ESPN has slated kickoff for 6:30 p.m. local time and will bring their flagship college football program “College GameDay” to campus. Whatever lather the pre-game show doesn’t create, the hours’ worth of day drinking undoubtedly will.

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Rick Cleveland first started covering Ole Miss football in 1981 as the team’s beat writer for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson. Now 73 and working for Mississippi Today , he is frankly surprised the Kiffin-Ole Miss partnership lasted as long as it did. He figured the coach, who has made a career out of chronically looking for his next move, would have left for another job long before he eventually did. Cleveland, in fact, is quick to remind folks that before he left for Baton Rouge, Kiffin also petitioned for the open jobs at Miami, Auburn and Florida.

Cleveland also presumed rightly that Kiffin’s professional wandering eye meant the pairing was destined for a bad ending. But even he is surprised at the level of venom. Despite decades of watching Ole Miss game, he can’t come up with a comparison to what the atmosphere might be like.

“I’ve seen much lesser situations where liquor bottles and beer cans have been thrown on the field,” he said. “This could get ugly.”

In her bright office a few blocks away from the Grove, Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill says she’s hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The “Mama Mayor,” as she likes to call herself, is counting on her flock to mind their P’s and Q’s.

“I think this will be,” she says, pausing to choose her words carefully, “a very spirited, heated game. I think the Rebels are prepared and the city of Oxford is prepared and I think we’ll send Lane Kiffin home with a frown on his face and an L on his schedule.”

That said, Tannehill does mention that the New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, mounted police have volunteered their assistance to monitor crowd control.

Hell hath no fury like a football fan scorned, and Kiffin’s messy exodus from the school he raised into a playoff contender is about as bad a divorce as you’ll find in recent memory. Rick Pitino returned to Kentucky as the head coach for rival Louisville but that was after a four-year detour in the NBA. Nick Saban did a similar U-turn, going back to LSU as the Alabama head coach after a crash and burn in the NFL.

Even Ole Miss has been through this before. In 1998, Tommy Tuberville took the Rebels to their first bowl game since 1992 and, after promising he would only leave town in a pine box, turned tail two days later for Auburn. After Tuberville left, bookstores sold “Liar, Liar” T-shirts with his face plastered alongside the messaging.

But no one left quite like Kiffin. He held clandestine conversations with LSU but kept coaching Ole Miss. Mississippi administrators insisted he choose. The Louisiana governor got involved, and Kiffin finally opted for LSU less than a month before the Rebels’ playoff game against Tulane.

After agreeing to the new gig, Kiffin said he wanted to stay for the postseason but Ole Miss, rightly guessing that he also would be working to pilfer their players through the transfer portal, showed him the door.

The school promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to head coach. Several assistant coaches who planned to go with Kiffin to LSU stayed on with the Rebels and commuted back and forth. They beat Tulane in the first round and upset Georgia in the quarters. But by the semis against Miami, Kiffin had called two of them back to Baton Rouge.

Ole Miss lost to Miami . Eight days later, four players followed Kiffin to Baton Rouge.

“When you leave your team as it’s headed to the playoff for the first time in school history, that’s the kind of thing that will be on your tombstone,” Cleveland said. “That’s always going to be on his resume.”

Instead of venting their fury on a T-shirt, locals first chased him to the airport with everything short of pitchforks and have since spilled all sorts of tea in John Talty’s tell-all book, “Lane Being Lane.”

From the outside, it all looked slightly over the top. Kiffin is, after all, just a football coach. But to understand the level of hurt he put on the community, you have to understand the history.

Fans aren’t just bitter that he left; they’re angry he made them feel inferior, furious at the digs he took on the way out and really miffed that he left for their rival.

“Tuberville left in the dark of night, literally, and people very much resented that,” says Tannehill, an Ole Miss graduate whose husband, Rhea, served as president of the student body. “But he didn’t leave tossing grenades back at the community.”

As Heiskell steers her black Audi SUV around campus for a drive-by tour, she rounds the corner in front of the Lyceum, home to the university chancellor and the first original building on campus. From the front passenger seat, Heiskell’s event coordinator, Sarah Virden, leans back and casually but candidly adds, “And you know, of course, about the bullet hole.”

On September 30, 1962, segregationist protestors rioted on campus, as Black student James Meredith attempted to enroll. The foment started the day before inside the football stadium. During halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky game, then-Gov. Ross Barnett grabbed the microphone and screamed to an all-White crowd, many waving Confederate flags and singing along to the marching band’s rendition of Dixie, “I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our costumes! I love and respect our heritage.”

Spurred by Barnett’s defiant message and federal officers’ arrival to escort Meredith, a mob of some 2,000 swelled by morning. Students drove around campus shouting, “Hotty Toddy! Gosh Almighty! Who the hell are we? Flim-flam, bim-bam, White folks by damn!”

By nightfall, the protests turned violent, people hurling bricks and taking down the American flag in favor of the Confederate colors. Two people were killed after protestors exchanged gunfire with federal officers, one of the bullets taking up permanent residence in the Lyceum doorframe.

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That fall, the Rebels would finish 10-0, topped Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl and claim a share of the national championship. A year later, they won the last of their SEC Championships before falling into a pattern of mediocrity only temporarily paused with the arrival of Archie Manning in 1968.

The school’s slow acceptance of integration – it did not roster a Black player until 1972 – coupled with its resistance to fully divest from its offensive traditions took a toll on its football success. Ole Miss didn’t ban Confederate flags at football games until 1997. Colonel Reb, the school’s Confederate homage of a mascot, was not replaced until 2003 and there was significant resistance to that move. Finally in 2016, the last strains of “Dixie” were finally played inside the stadium.

Along the way, Ole Miss became well known for a few things related to football – the Grove’s tailgating scene and the movie “The Blind Side” about the life of former offensive lineman Michael Oher – but not the one thing that matters most in football.

That is, if you will, the epidermis of this hurt, the outer but very sensitive layer of it all. In his six-year tenure, Kiffin won 55 games. In the nine years previously, they won 56 combined.

He made the Rebels relevant and, in return, the Ole Miss community made him palatable.

Kiffin arrived in town with a drinking problem and a reputation for drama. A short stay in the NFL ended with Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis calling his old coach a “flat-out liar.” Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton, who hired Kiffin off the garbage pile only to see him exit after one season, deadpanned that the coach’s stay there was “brief.” He left the Volunteers for USC, but lasted only three years before being fired on the LAX tarmac upon a pantsing at the hands of Arizona State.

Resuscitated by Saban as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, he irked the legendary coach so badly by accepting a job at Florida Atlantic that Saban canned him a week before the 2017 national championship game.

But he won at FAU, turning an outpost into a conference champion in two of his three seasons, making him hard to ignore. Kiffin could coach and two teams so in need of repair – Ole Miss and Arkansas – were willing to help him pack the baggage he invariably brought with him. Kiffin opted for the Rebels, and after two years in town, Kiffin waxed poetic about how Oxford had saved him.

“I think I needed Oxford and Ole Miss more than they needed me,” he told ESPN.

Lane Kiffin announced Sunday he will leave Ole Miss to coach at Louisiana State University (LSU), a Southeastern Conference (SEC)-foe. CNN’s Carolyn Manno reports on the “difficult decision” Kiffin says he made.

He had lost weight, stopped drinking and discovered hot yoga. He reconnected his family – his ex-wife, Layla, moving to town to be with their two youngest kids (their eldest was a student at USC). He even admitted to watching The Notebook .

He was not entirely a new Lane. He still loved to instigate, happily trolling coaches on X, but after years of dormancy, the swagger was welcome in Mississippi. “Come to the Sip” shirts and signs popped up everywhere.

“He had the ability to kind of draw the fanbase in,” Eddins says. “I wouldn’t say charming, but he was so in touch with the fans. Everything was just so much more fun.”

Especially the winning. After an initial 5-5 season, the Rebels won 10 games, went to the Sugar Bowl and finished in the top 25 for the first time since 2015. Four more bowl games followed, with regular spots in the rankings. If he made it a little too much about him, well, a narcissist can no more avoid staring at his reflection than a leopard can change his spots.

But he was their narcissist. Fans loved him, and they thought he loved them right back.

“We did nothing but support him, lift him up and love his children,” Heiskell says. “I mean, I took casseroles when his mama and daddy died. And then he up and left and we were like, ‘Why? What more could you want?’”

Had it ended there, had he skulked off to LSU, it would have been bad. But in May, after the dust largely had settled, Vanity Fair published a profile of Kiffin . In an effort to explain away his decision, Kiffin reintroduced old ghosts. He told the magazine that recruits wouldn’t come to Mississippi, but they had no issue with Louisiana.

“Parents are sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world,’” Kiffin told Vanity Fair .

“That is not who Oxford is, and he knows that,” Tannehill said. “To degrade our community, absolutely it hurt. The Oxford of today is not the Oxford of 60 years ago.”

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The Battle over Ole Miss: Why a flagship university has stood behind a nickname with a racist past

Tannehill, now in her third term, has overseen a boon in town. Cranes dot the landscape as more and more townhomes and developments take shape. They bring their own set of problems. Tannehill thinks more about water supply and sewage than she ever thought she might, and locals fret that the escalating costs ultimately will price them out.

But the best small college town in America, as decided this year by USA Today , is a vibrant community with old-city charms and modern appeal. Along with frequenting the 187-year-old Neilson’s department store, visitors can eat in one of four Michelin recommended restaurants.

Like a lot of SEC schools in recent years, the university has worked to change its academic profile by luring out-of-state students. Ole Miss offers scholarships ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 for non-resident students based on a sliding scale of combined GPA and test scores, and its student population reflects the recruitment. More than 50 percent of its students now come from out of state.

It is not perfect. The demographics still tilt White – 70 percent of the undergrad population compared to 24 percent Black students (for what it’s worth, LSU is 56 percent to 19 percent) – and as recently as 2014, three fraternity brothers were charged after hanging a noose around the Meredith statue that stands outside of the Lyceum.

But Oxford and Ole Miss neither defend nor hide from their past. Eddins says freshmen learn about the school’s history with all its warts in orientation, and the school’s website addresses it directly.

“Painful memories of segregation live within our campus and should not be forgotten,” it reads.

“What Kiffin said, it’s just not really how it is,” Eddins said. “And those comments aren’t going to be forgotten. I mean, I’m from here. I know I won’t forget.”

Billy Abb Cannon was born in what was then called Harmanuel, Mississippi, a post office community in the northwest corner of the state that is now a proper ghost town. A 1959 story in the Clarion Ledger says his mother, Virgie, so badly wanted a girl she had no name picked out for a boy. Cannon’s father, Harvey, selected the middle name in honor of a local mill owner, Abb DeWeese.

Post World War II, the farming communities in the Piney Woods areas were dying out and, seeking better work, Harvey moved his family out of Mississippi. After a stopover in Memphis, they eventually settled in Baton Rouge.

Billy Cannon went on to become an All-American high school halfback there, and when it came to choosing a college, the proximity to his new home plus the promise of a between-semester job at a local dealership pointed Cannon away from favored Ole Miss to LSU.

There is still an abyss in my gut, from Halloween night 1959 – the night, according to the Mississippi River lore, when there arose the great Tiger Stadium roar that has not ceased since. It was the night of Billy Cannon’s Run, the 89-yard punt return that many still call the greatest ever in football. I was for the losing side.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ed Hinton penned those words some four decades after the third-ranked Rebels lost, 7-3, to No. 1 LSU. That’s how deep the wound cut; that’s also why Kiffin leaving for LSU stung as much as it did.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State play for the Golden Egg every year; the Rebels and Tigers play for blood. In 2008, the two student bodies voted to name the rivalry game the Magnolia Bowl; it is not nearly so refined.

“The only time I could cuss was when I said, ‘Go to hell, LSU,’” said Virden, Heiskell’s event coordinator, referring to the chant Rebel fans scream during the national anthem – against any and every opponent.

The two schools started playing one another in 1894 – actually seven years before the game against Mississippi State got its start – and, fueled by proximity and excellence, roared through the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s with meaningful games.

Doug Moreau caught a two-point conversion to seal an LSU win in 1964, and Archie Manning engineered two Ole Miss comebacks in 1968 and 1969. Ole Miss fans will angrily tell you about the “Night the Clock Stopped,” when LSU’s Bert Jones threw an incomplete pass with four seconds left, seemingly ending the game. Except the clock showed one second remaining. Running back Brad Davis pulled down a one-handed catch and the Tigers remained undefeated.

Cannon’s run remains the high or low point, depending on your school allegiance. It’s a burr dug even deeper in the side of Ole Miss fans after Cannon, an LSU player, became the first – and still only – Mississippian to win the Heisman Trophy.

“So much of Ole Miss’ disdain goes back to that game, but every year it was one of the biggest games in the country. Not just in the South or the Deep South, in the country,” Cleveland said. “It meant something all the time.”

The rivalry started to turn one sided after Manning left and really tipped with the arrival of Nick Saban at LSU in 2000, followed by Les Miles. The Tigers grew into a national power as Ole Miss bumbled through various coaches and an NCAA quagmire brought on by Hugh Freeze. The Tigers won 16 of 21, including five in a row from 2016 to 2020.

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It finally ended on October 23, 2021, in Kiffin’s second year. Ever since, the two teams have swapped victories each season, with Kiffin stoking the flames. Faithful to his social media trolling, the coach especially enjoyed zinging LSU and Brian Kelly.

Thirty minutes after the No. 13 Rebels upset No. 4 LSU, 24-19, last year, Kiffin tweeted a picture of a quote from Kelly that read in part, “We’re going to keep that Magnolia Trophy right here in Baton Rouge right where it deserves to be.”

And his dog, Juice, “tweeted” a picture of a white hat with Rebel blue and red lettering that read, “Brian Kelly can’t run the damn ball.”

A little more than two months later, Kiffin took his job.

“Lane took this program to the cusp of what they’ve been trying to do for so long, and then he left for their archrival,” Cleveland says. “People really believed in him. They really believed him, and turns out, he just had everybody snowed.”

Heiskell will host a brunch at her home the morning of the LSU game. Later, she’ll take up her familiar spot in the Grove. She will be there, she says, to support “the boys,” as she calls her Ole Miss players.

Even absent the mayhem, this is a big football game. Both teams have legitimate national championship aspirations. The Rebels have two Heisman Trophy candidates in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy (hence the political campaign-esque “Trinidad/Kewan” signs all over town), and LSU boasts one of the nation’s best defenses.

How life at a small football powerhouse shaped Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss into a star on the biggest stage

The SEC has not won a national title in three years, ceding control to the Big Ten. The league currently has six teams sitting in the top 10 (Texas, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Alabama). Ole Miss will play three of them this season.

“I mean, LSU is one game,” Heiskell said. “We’re looking at a full season. We’re looking at a national playoff. We’re looking at a Heisman Trophy winner. People outside, all over the land, they’re concerned with the drama and that’s fine. So sure, come to town. Spend a ton of money with us, rent out our hotels and fill our bars. But we’ve got bigger things on our minds than just beating LSU.”

As she considers what it will be like to remove that flag from the lineup outside The Library, Heiskell throws open the door to the bar. The woman whose Instagram handle is “Debutante Farmer” then adds an exclamation point to her declaration.

“F**k yeah!” she yells, and the door slams shut behind her.

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图书馆体育酒吧具备了大学酒吧应有的一切要素。老旧破损的凳子矗立在饱经风霜的木质吧台旁。洗手间外的墙上贴满了庆祝往昔21岁生日的贴纸。酒吧间通往Boom Boom房间（乐队演出区），再往前走就是露台，所有的一切都是为了迎合大批想要廉价酒水和闲逛场所的大学生而设计的。

1997年，前密西西比大学橄榄球队后卫约翰·德斯勒和他的妻子莉莉从詹姆斯·珀维斯手中买下了这家店的大部分产权。珀维斯是珀维斯台球厅的老板，也是镇上最著名的赌博经纪人。德斯勒夫妇逐步扩建了这家名为“图书馆”的咖啡馆，最终使其几乎占据了整个街区。

是莉莉决定在门前挂起旗帜，每面旗帜代表叛逆者队（Ole Miss）的一个橄榄球对手。她决定，每当奥莱米斯大学（Ole Miss）获胜，她就把对手的旗帜换成一面写着“叛逆者队获胜”的红旗。

上赛季，除了一个对手的横幅外，其余的都消失了。最终，13面“反叛者队获胜”的旗帜在范布伦大道上迎风飘扬，这无疑是对自阿奇·曼宁还是校园里最耀眼的人物以来，这里最辉煌赛季的最好证明。

在足球重返牛津前的最后一个星期日下午，2026 赛季的旗帜已经准备就绪，伊丽莎白·海斯凯尔走进了图书馆。

“我迫不及待地想把路易斯安那州立大学的旗子降下来，”她自言自语道，仿佛在对所有人说话。“我的意思是，我们都全力以赴，但我们想要的是胜利。”

海斯凯尔出生并成长于三角洲地区，这是密西西比州西北部的一个地区，常被誉为地球上最南端的地方。她曾就读于密西西比州立大学，但最终却搬到了牛津镇，因为她的丈夫卢克突发奇想，想在镇外开办一个蔬菜农场。海斯凯尔从开着一辆破旧不堪、没有空调的囚车给餐馆送菜，一跃成为镇上首屈一指的餐饮服务商，著有三本烹饪书籍，并且是“今日秀”节目的常客。

她在牛津的时光也改变了她的忠诚度。如今，她已是密西西比大学最狂热的球迷之一。她在格罗夫（Grove）拥有一个固定的位置，并在短信结尾加上“辣妹托迪”（Hotty Toddy）。她既有南方人的迷人魅力，又有南方人的泼辣个性，讲故事时总带着一丝嘲讽和白眼，并且毫不掩饰自己鲜明的观点。

一年前，她对奥莱米斯大学的忠诚和直言不讳让她惹上了点麻烦。当时，橄榄球教练莱恩·基芬正犹豫是否要离开奥莱米斯大学转投路易斯安那州立大学，海斯凯尔公开表示，如果基芬真的离开，她就“裸奔”绕着牛津广场跑一圈。海斯凯尔的这番言论迅速走红网络，最终她还在东南联盟锦标赛期间做客“保罗·费恩鲍姆秀”，现场谈到了这件事。

当然，基芬离开了，这是一场痛苦而激烈的离别，持续了令人煎熬的 14 天，而此时反叛者队正准备迎接他们历史上第一场大学橄榄球季后赛。

海斯凯尔没有脱衣服。然而，她并没有保持沉默。后来，在牛津广场一家名为圣利奥的意大利餐厅后方一张安静的桌子旁，有人问她为何对基芬恶语相向。她露出了她惯常的冷笑。

“嗯，他是个不道德的混蛋，”她说，然后停顿了一下。“嗯，或许可以把‘混蛋’这个词去掉。”

周一下午，格罗夫一片静谧，这片位于密西西比大学校园中心的树木繁茂的空地，看起来只不过是一个可以躲避无处不在的酷暑的好去处。

“那将会是一片混乱。”学生报纸《每日密西西比人报》的体育编辑拉斯·埃丁斯预测，本周六基芬大学返校时，赛前聚会的中心地带将会像战区一样。这位出生于牛津的大四学生对此忧心忡忡，甚至建议仍然住在郊区的家人不要前来。

正如埃丁斯所言，这样的安排简直就是灾难的温床。ESPN已将比赛定于当地时间下午6:30开球，并将把其旗舰大学橄榄球节目“大学比赛日”（College GameDay）带到校园。即便赛前节目未能激起轩然大波，但白天几个小时的饮酒狂欢无疑会造成更大的混乱。

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里克·克利夫兰 (Rick Cleveland) 于 1981 年开始报道密西西比大学 (Ole Miss) 的橄榄球，当时他是杰克逊《克拉里昂日报》(Clarion Ledger) 的专职记者。如今 73 岁的他为《今日密西西比》(Mississippi Today) 工作，坦言自己对基芬 (Kiffin) 与密西西比大学的合作关系能持续这么久感到惊讶。他原本以为这位教练会一直寻找新的工作机会，早就离开密西西比大学了。事实上，克利夫兰经常提醒大家，在前往巴吞鲁日之前，基芬还曾申请过迈阿密大学、奥本大学和佛罗里达大学的空缺职位。

克利夫兰也正确地推断出，基芬的花心倾向注定了这段合作关系的失败。但即便如此，他还是被这种恶毒的气氛所震惊。尽管他看了几十年密西西比大学的比赛，却仍然无法想象那种氛围会是怎样的。

他说：“我见过比这轻微得多的情况，当时有人把酒瓶和啤酒罐扔到场上。这可能会演变成一场恶战。”

在距离格罗夫购物中心几个街区外的明亮办公室里，牛津市市长罗宾·坦尼希尔表示，她希望一切顺利，同时也做好了最坏的打算。这位自称“妈妈市长”的市长指望着她的选民们谨言慎行。

“我认为这将是一场，”她停顿了一下，斟酌着措辞，“非常激烈、精彩的比赛。我认为叛逆者队已经做好了准备，牛津这座城市也做好了准备，我认为我们会让莱恩·基芬带着愁容和失败的战绩回家。”

尽管如此，坦尼希尔确实提到，新奥尔良和阿拉巴马州莫比尔的骑警已自愿提供协助，以监控人群控制情况。

被轻视的球迷的愤怒，犹如地狱之火，而基芬从他一手打造的季后赛劲旅肯塔基大学狼狈离去，堪称近年来最惨烈的“离婚”之一。里克·皮蒂诺在NBA执教四年后重返肯塔基，执教宿敌路易斯维尔大学。尼克·萨班也经历了类似的转变，在NFL遭遇惨败后，他回到路易斯安那州立大学，执教阿拉巴马大学。

就连密西西比大学也曾经历过类似的事情。1998年，汤米·图伯维尔带领反叛者队自1992年以来首次打入碗赛，他曾信誓旦旦地保证自己不会死，结果两天后就转投奥本大学。图伯维尔离开后，书店里开始出售印有他头像和“骗子，骗子”字样的T恤。

但没有人像基芬那样离开。他曾与路易斯安那州立大学秘密接触，但仍然执教密西西比大学。密西西比大学的行政人员坚持让他做出选择。路易斯安那州州长也介入此事，最终，在叛逆者队与杜兰大学的季后赛开赛前不到一个月，基芬选择了路易斯安那州立大学。

基芬同意接受这份新工作后表示，他想留下来参加季后赛，但奥莱米斯大学正确地猜到他也会通过转会门户网站挖走他们的球员，于是把他赶出了球队。

学校提拔防守协调员皮特·戈尔丁为主教练。几位原本计划跟随基芬前往路易斯安那州立大学的助理教练留在了叛逆者队，每天往返两地。他们在首轮击败了杜兰大学，并在四分之一决赛中爆冷战胜了佐治亚大学。但在与迈阿密大学的半决赛中，基芬将其中两人召回了巴吞鲁日。

密西西比大学输给了迈阿密大学。八天后，四名球员跟随基芬来到了巴吞鲁日。

克利夫兰说：“当你离开球队时，球队正朝着校史上首次季后赛迈进，这将会成为你墓碑上永远铭刻的事迹。这将永远是他履历上的亮点。”

当地人没有把怒火发泄在T恤上，而是先是拿着除了干草叉以外的所有东西追赶他到机场，之后又在约翰·塔尔蒂的揭秘书籍《莱恩就是莱恩》中爆料了各种各样的内幕。

从旁观者的角度来看，这一切似乎有些过激。毕竟，基芬只不过是个橄榄球教练。但要理解他给社区造成的伤害有多深，就必须了解这段历史。

球迷们不仅对他的离开感到愤恨，还因为他让他们感到自卑而愤怒，对他在离开时冷嘲热讽感到愤怒，并且对他跳槽到他们的竞争对手那里感到非常恼火。

“塔伯维尔是在夜深人静的时候离开的，人们对此非常不满，”坦尼希尔说道，她本人是密西西比大学的毕业生，她的丈夫雷亚曾担任学生会主席。“但他离开时并没有对社区恶语相向。”

海斯凯尔驾驶着她的黑色奥迪SUV在校园里进行巡视，她转过街角，来到了校长官邸——校园里第一座原始建筑——所在的礼堂前。坐在副驾驶座上的海斯凯尔的活动协调员莎拉·维尔登向后靠去，漫不经心却又坦率地补充道：“当然，你也知道那个弹孔的事。”

1962年9月30日，黑人学生詹姆斯·梅雷迪斯试图入学时，种族隔离主义抗议者在校园内发动骚乱。这场骚乱的导火索是前一天在橄榄球场内发生的。在密西西比大学对阵肯塔基大学的比赛中场休息时，时任州长罗斯·巴内特拿起麦克风，对着一群挥舞着邦联旗帜、跟着行进乐队演奏的《迪克西》齐声高喊：“我爱密西西比！我爱这里的人民！我们的服饰！我热爱并尊重我们的传统。”

受巴内特挑衅言论和联邦官员前来护送梅雷迪思的鼓舞，到早上时分，约有2000人聚集起来。学生们开车在校园里四处游荡，高喊着：“霍蒂·托迪！我的天哪！我们到底是谁？骗子，傻瓜，该死的白人！”

夜幕降临，抗议活动演变为暴力冲突，人们投掷砖块，并扯下美国国旗，升起南方邦联旗帜。抗议者与联邦执法人员交火，造成两人死亡，其中一颗子弹嵌在了莱西姆剧院的门框上。

贝特曼档案馆/盖蒂图片社

那年秋天，叛逆者队以10胜0负的战绩结束赛季，在糖碗杯比赛中击败阿肯色队，并分享了全国冠军头衔。一年后，他们赢得了最后一个东南联盟冠军，之后便陷入了平庸的泥潭，直到1968年阿奇·曼宁的到来才暂时打破了这种局面。

学校对种族融合的缓慢接受——直到1972年才招收了第一位黑人球员——以及其不愿彻底摒弃带有冒犯性的传统，都对学校的橄榄球成绩造成了影响。直到1997年，密西西比大学才禁止在橄榄球比赛中使用邦联旗帜。学校的吉祥物“叛逆上校”（Colonel Reb）是对邦联的致敬，直到2003年才被替换，而这一举动也遭到了强烈的抵制。最终，在2016年，体育场内终于响起了《迪克西》的最后一段旋律。

一路走来，密西西比大学因一些与橄榄球相关的事物而闻名——格罗夫的赛前聚会场景和讲述前进攻线球员迈克尔·奥赫生平的电影《弱点》——但却没有因橄榄球中最重要的一件事而闻名。

也就是说，如果你愿意的话，这只是伤痛的表皮，是外层但却非常敏感的那层。基芬执教的六年间，球队赢了55场比赛。而在此前的九年里，他们一共只赢了56场。

他让叛逆者队重新焕发活力，作为回报，密西西比大学的师生们也让他变得受欢迎。

基芬刚到奥克兰时，酗酒成性，还以爱惹事生非而闻名。他在NFL的短暂执教生涯以奥克兰突袭者队老板阿尔·戴维斯称其为“彻头彻尾的骗子”而告终。田纳西大学体育主管迈克·汉密尔顿曾将基芬从教练的“垃圾堆”中挖走，却眼睁睁看着他一个赛季后就离开，汉密尔顿面无表情地表示，基芬在那里的执教时间“很短暂”。离开田纳西大学后，基芬转投南加州大学，但仅仅三年后，就在洛杉矶国际机场的停机坪上被亚利桑那州立大学的教练狠狠地羞辱了一番，随后被解雇。

萨班重新启用他担任阿拉巴马大学的进攻协调员，但他接受了佛罗里达大西洋大学的工作，这让这位传奇教练非常恼火，以至于萨班在 2017 年全国冠军赛前一周解雇了他。

但他执教佛罗里达大西洋大学（FAU）期间取得了成功，在他执教的三个赛季中，有两个赛季将这支原本实力较弱的球队打造成了联盟冠军，这让他难以被忽视。基芬拥有出色的执教能力，而当时急需重建的两支球队——密西西比大学和阿肯色大学——也愿意帮助他收拾他总是带来的包袱。基芬最终选择了密西西比大学，两年后，他开始滔滔不绝地讲述牛津是如何拯救了他的。

“我认为我比牛津大学和密西西比大学更需要我，”他告诉ESPN。

莱恩·基芬周日宣布，他将离开密西西比大学，前往路易斯安那州立大学（LSU）执教，LSU是东南联盟（SEC）的对手。CNN记者卡罗琳·曼诺报道了基芬所说的这个“艰难的决定”。

他瘦了下来，戒了酒，还迷上了高温瑜伽。他和家人重归于好——前妻莱拉搬到城里和他们最小的两个孩子一起生活（他们的大儿子当时在南加州大学读书）。他甚至承认自己看过电影《恋恋笔记本》。

他并非完全变了一个人。他依然喜欢挑衅，乐此不疲地在X频道戏弄教练，但蛰伏多年后，他的这股嚣张劲头在密西西比州却备受欢迎。“来参加Sip”的T恤和标语随处可见。

“他有一种吸引粉丝的能力，”埃丁斯说。“我不会说他魅力四射，但他和粉丝的联系非常紧密。一切都变得更有趣了。”

尤其是胜利。在赛季初战绩5胜5负之后，反叛者队赢下了10场比赛，打进了糖碗杯，并自2015年以来首次跻身前25名。随后他们又打进了四场碗赛，并在排名中保持稳定的位置。如果他有点过于关注自己，那也没办法，自恋者就像豹子无法改变身上的斑点一样，无法避免审视自己的倒影。

但他对他们来说是个自恋狂。粉丝们爱他，也以为他同样爱他们。

“我们除了支持他、鼓励他、爱护他的孩子们之外，什么都没做，”海斯凯尔说。“我的意思是，他父母去世的时候，我给他送去了砂锅菜。然后他突然就走了，我们当时就想，‘为什么？你还想要什么？’”

如果事情就此结束，如果他偷偷溜去路易斯安那州立大学，那就糟了。但到了五月，尘埃落定之后，《名利场》杂志刊登了一篇关于基芬的专访。为了解释自己的决定，基芬重提旧事。他告诉杂志，球员们不愿意来密西西比州，但他们对路易斯安那州却毫无异议。

“这个周末，家长们坐在这里说，校园的多元化感觉太棒了：‘感觉这里没有种族隔离。我们希望我们的孩子也能这样，因为这才是真实的世界，’”基芬告诉《名利场》杂志。

“牛津并非如此，他自己也明白这一点，”坦尼希尔说道。“诋毁我们的社区，这绝对令人痛心。今天的牛津已非六十年前的牛津。”

John Korduner/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Getty Images

关于密西西比大学校名的争论：为什么这所顶尖大学会坚持使用一个带有种族歧视历史的昵称

坦尼希尔如今已是第三个任期，她任内小镇发展迅猛。随着越来越多的联排别墅和开发项目拔地而起，起重机遍布各处。然而，这些项目也带来了新的问题。坦尼希尔比以往任何时候都更加关注供水和污水处理问题，而当地居民则担心不断上涨的成本最终会让他们无力承担。

但据《今日美国》今年评选，美国最佳小型大学城是一个充满活力的社区，既保留了古城的魅力，又兼具现代气息。除了可以光顾拥有187年历史的尼尔森百货公司外，游客还可以在四家米其林推荐餐厅中选择一家用餐。

与近年来许多东南联盟（SEC）院校一样，密西西比大学致力于通过吸引外州学生来改变其学术形象。该校为非本州学生提供3000美元至20000美元不等的奖学金，奖学金金额根据学生的GPA和考试成绩综合评分而定，其学生构成也反映了这一招生策略。目前，该校超过50%的学生来自外州。

它并不完美。人口结构仍然以白人为主——本科生中白人占70%，黑人学生仅占24%（顺便一提，路易斯安那州立大学的白人学生与黑人学生的比例为56%比19%）——而且就在2014年，三名兄弟会成员因在莱西姆体育馆外的梅雷迪思雕像上悬挂绳索而被起诉。

但牛津大学和密西西比大学既不为自己的过去辩护，也不回避过去。埃丁斯说，新生在迎新活动中会了解到学校的历史，包括其中的种种不足，学校的网站也对此有直接的说明。

“种族隔离的痛苦记忆仍然留在我们的校园里，不应该被遗忘，”声明中写道。

“基芬说的那些话，根本不符合事实，”埃丁斯说。“而且这些话不会被遗忘。我是说，我就是本地人。我知道我不会忘记的。”

比利·艾布·坎农出生于当时名为哈曼努埃尔的密西西比州，这是一个位于该州西北角的邮局小镇，如今已成一座名副其实的鬼城。1959年《克拉里昂日报》的一篇报道提到，他的母亲维吉非常想要个女儿，以至于还没想好男孩的名字。坎农的父亲哈维为了纪念当地一位名叫艾布·德威斯的磨坊主，为他取了中间名。

二战后，松林地区的农业社区逐渐衰落，为了寻找更好的工作，哈维带着家人离开了密西西比州。他们在孟菲斯短暂逗留后，最终定居在了巴吞鲁日。

比利·坎农后来成为全美高中橄榄球半卫，在选择大学时，路易斯安那州立大学离他新家很近，而且承诺在学期之间在当地一家汽车经销店工作，这让坎农放弃了热门的密西西比大学，转而选择了路易斯安那州立大学。

1959年万圣节之夜，我的内心至今仍留有一道深深的伤痕——据密西西比河畔的传说，那晚老虎体育场爆发了震耳欲聋的咆哮，至今仍未消退。那晚，比利·坎农完成了他那记89码的弃踢回攻，至今仍被许多人誉为橄榄球史上最伟大的回攻。而我，是输球的那一方。

《亚特兰大宪法报》记者埃德·辛顿写下这些话时，距离排名第三的叛逆者队以3比7负于排名第一的路易斯安那州立大学已经过去了大约四十年。这足以说明那场失利带来的伤痛有多么深重；也正因如此，基芬离开密歇根大学加盟路易斯安那州立大学才如此令人痛心。

密西西比大学和密西西比州立大学每年都为了金蛋奖杯而战；叛逆者队和老虎队之间的比赛更是血战到底。2008年，两校学生会投票决定将这场宿敌之战命名为“木兰碗”，这个名字远没有那么文雅。

“我唯一能骂脏话的时候就是说‘去死吧，路易斯安那州立大学’，”海斯凯尔的活动协调员维尔登说道，他指的是叛逆者队球迷在奏国歌时对任何对手喊出的口号。

这两所学校从 1894 年开始交锋——实际上比与密西西比州立大学的比赛开始早了七年——并且，由于地理位置接近和实力强劲，在 50 年代、60 年代和 70 年代，双方进行了多场意义重大的比赛。

1964年，道格·莫罗接球完成两分转换，帮助路易斯安那州立大学锁定胜局；1968年和1969年，阿奇·曼宁带领密西西比大学两次上演逆转好戏。密西西比大学的球迷至今仍津津乐道于“时钟停止之夜”：比赛还剩四秒时，路易斯安那州立大学的伯特·琼斯传球未果，看似比赛已经结束。然而，计时器显示还剩一秒。跑卫布拉德·戴维斯单手接球，帮助老虎队保持不败战绩。

坎农的辉煌战绩至今仍是人们心中的巅峰或低谷，这取决于你支持哪所学校。对于密西西比大学的球迷来说，坎农作为路易斯安那州立大学的球员，成为第一位——也是迄今为止唯一一位——赢得海斯曼奖的密西西比州人，这更让他们耿耿于怀。

“密西西比大学对这场比赛的蔑视很大程度上源于那场比赛，但每年它都是全国最重要的比赛之一。不仅仅是在南方或深南部地区，而是在全国范围内，”克利夫兰说。“它一直都意义非凡。”

曼宁离开后，这场宿敌之争开始呈现一边倒的局面，而随着尼克·萨班2000年入主路易斯安那州立大学（LSU），以及随后莱斯·迈尔斯的到来，局势更是彻底逆转。在休·弗里兹执教期间，密西西比大学（Ole Miss）经历了多位教练的更迭，并深陷NCAA的泥潭，而路易斯安那州立大学则一路高歌猛进，最终成为全国劲旅。在过去的21次交锋中，路易斯安那州立大学赢下了16场，其中包括2016年至2020年的五连胜。

Derick Hingle/Icon Sportswire/美联社

这场恩怨最终在2021年10月23日结束，那也是基芬执教的第二个赛季。此后，两队每个赛季都互有胜负，而基芬则不断挑起事端。这位教练一贯喜欢在社交媒体上“怼人”，尤其热衷于嘲讽路易斯安那州立大学和布莱恩·凯利。

去年，排名第 13 的叛逆者队以 24-19 爆冷击败排名第 4 的路易斯安那州立大学后 30 分钟，基芬在推特上发布了一张凯利的引言图片，其中部分内容是：“我们将把木兰花奖杯留在巴吞鲁日，让它留在它应有的位置。”

他的狗 Juice 还“发推”了一张照片，照片上是一顶白色帽子，上面印着 Rebel 的蓝色和红色字母，写着：“布莱恩·凯利根本跑不动球。”

两个多月后，基芬正式上任。

“莱恩把这个项目带到了他们长期以来一直努力的目标的边缘，然后他却跳槽去了他们的死敌那里，”克利夫兰说。“人们真的相信他。他们真的相信他，结果证明，他只是蒙蔽了所有人。”

海斯凯尔将在路易斯安那州立大学比赛当天上午在她家举办早午餐会。之后，她会像往常一样出现在格罗夫的某个地方。她说，她会去那里支持她口中的“小伙子们”，也就是她对密西西比大学球员的称呼。

即使抛开混乱场面，这仍然是一场重要的橄榄球比赛。两队都渴望赢得全国冠军。叛逆者队拥有两名海斯曼奖候选人：四分卫特立尼达·钱布利斯和跑卫凯文·莱西（因此城里到处都是类似竞选标语的“特立尼达/凯文”）。而路易斯安那州立大学则拥有全美最强防守之一。

在一支小型橄榄球劲旅的经历如何将密西西比大学四分卫特立尼达·钱布利斯塑造成最大舞台上的明星

东南联盟（SEC）已经三年没有赢得全国冠军，将主导权拱手让给了十大联盟（Big Ten）。目前，SEC有六支球队位列前十（德克萨斯大学、佐治亚大学、路易斯安那州立大学、密西西比大学、德克萨斯农工大学和阿拉巴马大学）。本赛季，密西西比大学将与其中三支球队交锋。

“我的意思是，路易斯安那州立大学那场比赛只是一场而已，”海斯凯尔说道。“我们着眼于整个赛季。我们的目标是打进全国季后赛。我们的目标是赢得海斯曼奖。外界，全国各地的人们，都关注着这场比赛的戏剧性，这无可厚非。所以，当然，欢迎来我们这里。在我们这里消费，包下我们的酒店，把我们的酒吧挤得水泄不通。但我们心中有比击败路易斯安那州立大学更重要的事。”

当她还在琢磨着该如何把那面旗帜从图书馆外的旗帜阵中移除时，海斯凯尔猛地推开了酒吧的门。这位Instagram账号名为“初次登台的农妇”的女子，随后又在她的宣言中加了一个感叹号。

“太棒了！”她大喊一声，身后的门砰地一声关上了。