Hotty Toddy ...

 ... and all that jazz.

Final score from Oxford, Miss., where The Grove broiled under a merciless September sun until it gave way to hectic, sweaty night: Ole Miss 32, Lane Kiffin 24.

Wait, did I say "Lane Kiffin"?

I meant LSU, of course. Although you might have been forgiven for thinking otherwise.

You might have been forgiven because The Return of the Prodigal Son (known in some quarters around Oxford as "The Return of the Prodigal S***head") was the storyline to Ole Miss-LSU, whose rich history of football enmity became merely garnish for the main course this time around. This time it was all about LSU coach Lane Kiffin, last seen winging away from Oxford on an LSU charter, trailing less-than-good wishes behind him.

It wasn't that Kiffin grabbed for the cash. Lots of coaches do that (hello, Brian Kelly, who fled Notre Dame for LSU under similar circumstances). It's that he strung Ole Miss along, then high-tailed it for Baton Rouge while acting like the injured party because Ole Miss wouldn't let him stay and coach the Rebels in their bowl game. 

This was cheeky even for Kiffin, a notoriously cheeky sort. And this was on top of the fact he poached several of Ole Miss players on his way out the door, and took most of his Ole Miss staff with him.

So this really was brother-vs.-brother Saturday night, a familiar theme in the heart of the old Confederacy. And what happened?

An endless rain of boos. A few catcalls, vulgar and otherwise. A guy waving a facsimile corn dog with Kiffin's face on it.

And one hell of a football game.

Ole Miss jetted out to leads of 17-0 and 24-7, and then here came LSU. Tied it at 24, finally, in the fourth quarter -- after which the splendid Trinidad Chambliss ran and passed the Rebels right back down the field, scoring the winning touchdown on a 14-yard dash to the pylon with 6:14 to play.

So was it over? Heck, no it wasn't over.

LSU's equally splendid Sam Leavitt immediately ran and passed his guys 69 yards the other way, and there the Tigers were, camped on the Ole Miss 6-yard line. But Leavitt couldn't close the deal, missing tight end Zach Grace at the goal line on third down and bouncing a fourth-down pass off the helmet of Ole Miss defensive end Kam Franklin.

The football settled obediently in the hand of defensive back Jaylon Braxton in the end zone, and the thing was done.

Ole Miss 32. LSU 24.

Trinidad Chambliss, surely the biggest man on the Ole Miss campus now since William Faulkner, was 33-of-48 passing for 363 yards and two scores. Sam Leavitt threw for 158 yards and once score and ran for 63 yards and another. And Lane Kiffin, gracious in defeat, professed to be glad the whole ordeal was over.

"I'm sure I'll be criticized for saying that (Editor's note: He wasn't), but, yeah, I am," Kiffin said in the postgame. "I was thinking that all week, especially today, and I would have said that in a win or a loss ... It was just really a lot of emotions of gratefulness for this place and the six years. It went well beyond football."

It did. And then sweltering night fell, and the lights came up, and, blessedly, football was all that was left.