Seems like old times

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 22, 2008 - UPDATED: 10:28 a.m.

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Neither Les Miles nor Houston Nutt pretends to be well-versed in the long-standing history and tradition of the LSU-Ole Miss rivalry.

“Go to hell, Ole Miss” wasn’t exactly a phrase that made much of an impact in Miles’ native Ohio or Michigan where he played and coached.

Growing up in Arkansas, Nutt was more wrapped up in the Razorbacks and their annual blood feuds with Texas than he was in figuring out what “Hotty toddy, gosh almighty” meant.

As players wrapped up in their own lives and then young assistant coaches focused on climbing an uncertain career ladder, Miles and Nutt had plenty of other opponents and rivalries to occupy their consciousness.

Once the two men arrived at their current stops, it didn’t take long to get a crash course in the annual tussle between Southern next-door neighbors that dates to 1894.

“I have to admit, I had to get here to know there was some history,” Miles said this week as 18th-ranked LSU (7-3, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) prepared to square off with Ole Miss (6-4, 3-3) at 2:30 p.m. today in Tiger Stadium.

“When I got here, I heard all about it and certainly became a student of that history and understood it fully,” Miles said. “I can’t tell you the number of people who routinely remind me of what this game means to them. It’s been a great rivalry and one that will certainly continue to be.”

Added Nutt, who took over at Ole Miss on Nov. 28 after a 10-year run at Arkansas, “One of the first things I heard about from the day I got here was how big the LSU game is to people here. Because of the history and tradition, and so many great games through the years, there’s a huge emphasis put on this game from our side. There were so many people who didn’t know me from Adam and when they came up to me they weren’t talking about Mississippi State. They were talking about LSU.”

If both coaches heard that much about a series the Tigers have seized by the throat the last six years, does that mean the rivalry is alive and well?

Do memories of 1958 and the Tigers’ gritty 14-0 triumph on the way to a national crown come to mind? Or the most famous moment in Tigers football history — Billy Cannon’s Halloween Run in 1959?

Is Doug Moreau’s 1964 two-point conversion catch making a comeback in the memory banks of longtime fans? Are Ole Miss faithful reminiscing about a young quarterback named Archie Manning walking into Tiger Stadium and spoiling LSU’s season with a 27-24 Rebels triumph?

Have Ole Miss fans conjured up painful snapshots of Bert Jones-to-Brad Davis and a slow-moving clock from 1972 to fuel their competitive fire? Or is it a more vivid and recent image of Eli Manning stumbling and the Rebels’ chances withering in a 17-14 loss that was LSU’s last close call on the way to the 2003 national championship?

“There are still a lot of us who want it to be a big game because we’ve lived through a lot of great ones,” Archie Manning said. “I guess 1958 and ‘59 might have been the height of the rivalry, but it was still a hell of a rivalry when I was there 10 years later. I think there have always been great rivalry games in the SEC as it’s grown up and developed, but there was a long time there where LSU-Ole Miss was one of the top rivalries in the South and maybe all of college football.”