Ole Miss chief hints Donald Trump could attend Lane Kiffin's return as college football's most anticipated game of the year takes huge new twist

Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter has hinted President Donald Trump could attend Saturday's huge game against LSU. 

Former Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin will return to Oxford for the first time since his acrimonious departure for the Baton Rouge last season. 

The game is the most anticipated college football matchup of the year with a fierce atmosphere expected after the circumstances surrounding Kiffin's departure.

All eyes will be on Vaught Hemingway Stadium on Saturday night - and rumors have even swirled that President Trump will attend. Trump has attended numerous big sporting events while in office, including last year's College Football Playoff National Championship game. 

And Carter admitted he has also heard the same speculation from 'Ole Miss folks that are close to the president' as he hinted he could attend.

While the school is not planning for the enormous security operation that would be involved should Trump decide to attend, Carter insists they are braced 'for anything' in case they receive word Trump wants to be there. 

'We have not heard anything from President Trump's camp officially,' Carter said in a radio interview with SuperTalk Mississippi. 'I've kind of heard the rumors as well. 

'There's some Ole Miss folks that are close to the president, and they've mentioned that that could potentially happen.

'But as of today, we have not heard anything officially from his team, so we'll continue to go with that for now.'

'Obviously that would be a big undertaking from a standpoint of logistics and getting him and all of his entourage in and out (of Oxford) with airspace and security, those types of things.

'So I would assume by this point we'd know something, but we'll be prepared for anything as this weekend approaches.' 

Carter also responded to Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry jokingly suggesting to ESPN that the National Guard might be required to protect Kiffin.  

'I'm thinking about having to send [Kiffin] in on an F-16 and maybe the team on a C-130,' Landry told ESPN on Monday. 'Security is going to be really tight. You know, we might need the National Guard out there to protect our team. I think it's going to be an interesting weekend.'

Carter replied: 'Honestly, I've kind of tuned out the Governor of Louisiana. That's not something that we're focused on here on campus.

'We're going to host a football game. It's going to be a great game with the two teams on the field, a Top 10-ranked matchup. And we're going to make sure we have plenty of security, the game's going to go on and everyone is going to be just fine.

'But we try to stay focused on the things we can control here, and obviously some of the rhetoric coming out of Louisiana is not something that we can control.'

Kiffin has also tried to play down the significance of his return and the 'unusual' backdrop to the massive game. 

 'Well, I think it is unusual,' Kiffin said. 'Like you said, one team you built and then now a new team that you're building, and so probably a really unusual situation that way.

'I know obviously a lot's going to be made about me, but this is about the players being prepared really well and playing really well. Pete's (Ole Miss coach Pete Golding) not going to tackle anybody. I'm not going to throw any touchdowns.

'I told the players today, man, you don't have anything to worry about as far as attention on you all week. There's just gonna be so much attention, hatred, everything on me. I said, you just get to go play.

'It won't be about all the other stuff and all the noise and everything. It'll be about how well did we practice, how well did we prepare, so how well did we play on game day.'