​BATON ROUGE — Was there a loser in the Lane Kiffin decision saga?Late last season, Ole Miss was in the midst of its best regular season in program history, ultimately going 11-1. The Rebels, thanks to Kiffin, his star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, were on their way to the College Football Playoff for the first time.In the middle of that, Kiffin was conversing with LSU about its football head coaching job opening. Come season’s end, Kiffin decided to take the LSU position. Despite wanting to stay on to coach the Rebels through the CFP, Ole Miss leadership would not allow him to do so.KIFFIN: LSU NO PRESSURE VS OLE MISS ‘Hatred’ all Lane Kiffin’s way, he says LSU players can just go play vs Ole MissLSU-OLE MISS CONTENT HUB LSU vs Ole Miss | Predictions, odds, key matchups and injuriesAround 10 months later, Kiffin and his new team, the Tigers, are gearing up to travel and meet his old team, Ole Miss, inside his former home stadium Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday, Sept. 19.The way he sees it, both sides won coming out of the Kiffin sweepstakes.”In games, there’s winners and losers. But sometimes in decisions and things that go on, there’s not always a winner and a loser,” Kiffin told reporters during his weekly LSU press conference Monday. “If you think about it, they’ve been playing this matchup for a long time, and this is the first time in the last 64 years that both are in the top 10. So that says to me it’s the most relevant matchup of these two teams in 64 years. I think that’s a really neat thing that we were able to be a part of building a program there.”(Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding’s) doing a great job continuing it as a top 10 program. I think it’s a really, really good thing that I think a lot of people could look at it and say, ‘Hey both sides are doing really well and both sides won.'”Ole Miss may see that notion differently, but Golding did help guide the Rebels to the College Football Playoff semifinal after Kiffin’s exit. But Charlie Weis Jr., who was on staff with Kiffin at Ole Miss and now is the offensive coordinator at LSU, did serve of Ole Miss’s OC during the playoffs.Four players in senior defensive end Princewill Umanmielen and linebacker TJ Dottery, along with sophomores Winston Watkins Jr. and Devin Harper, followed Kiffin from Oxford to Baton Rouge.There are loads of familiarity between the two staffs and teams, as this matchup is coming so soon after the coaching changes. Who does that help?According to Kiffin and his experience, the former coordinators facing their former bosses tend to have the upper hand. His first Ole Miss team put 48 points against his former boss Nick Saban and Alabama in the 63-48 loss in 2020.”I think this is a really unusual thing when you talk about the familiarity with the offensive players. But there’s so much familiarity,” Kiffin said. “When I worked for Saban, I think after I left, it benefited me as the coordinator, the opposite side of the head coach