By late November, LSU was the heavy favorites, and 15th-ranked Ole Miss was the upstart trying to pull off the upset and make an unexpected trip to Atlanta.

Our old rivals would have loved nothing more than to ruin LSU’s run at a national title. To make it feel as familiar as possible to old school fans, the Rebels quarterback was even a Manning.

Eli was putting the final touches on Maxwell Award winning season in which he also would be named the SEC Player of the Year.However, the hardware which would elude him was the SEC championship. LSU made sure of that.