Security Measures at Ole Miss Will Be Heightened for Lane Kiffin's High-Profile Return with LSU

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi will assemble the state's largest law enforcement presence ever for a college football game this weekend, highlighting the heightened security in place around the stadium and off campus for the much-anticipated game on Saturday night against LSU and former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin.

Ole Miss students were warned this week that nobody wearing an opposing team's apparel will be allowed to enter the student section at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and that anyone spotted by security in opponent gear or colors during the game will be removed.

This unusually strict protocol was enacted with tensions between the Southeastern Conference rivals as high as ever, following Kiffin's departure for LSU late last year at the end of the regular season, just before Ole Miss entered the College Football Playoff. The Tigers are ranked seventh and the Rebels are eighth in the latest Associated Press poll.

Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, announced earlier this week that between 65 and 70 troopers and officers from the highway patrol and commercial transportation enforcement division would be in Oxford to "maintain a highly visible and proactive presence through the conclusion of the weekend." The operation also will include a helicopter and a mobile command center to coordinate surveillance of the scene, not for a specific threat but rather to be proactive.

Louisiana State Police have sent 15 officers to work with Mississippi law enforcement, Tindell said, to help ensure safe and efficient transportation and operations for LSU's traveling party.

Oxford police, which have six horses for officers on mounted patrol, will increase that on Saturday to at least 10 officers with outside help from police in Mobile, Alabama, according to Oxford police spokesman Breck Jones.