LSU falls to Ole Miss 38-17 for third straight loss

Will the rumors about LSU coach Les Miles' job status start intensifying?

Miles' Tigers lost 38-17 to Ole Miss on Saturday. It was the Tigers' third-straight loss and came days after the Baton Rouge Advocate wrote that there were indications Miles would be coaching to keep his job as LSU's coach against the Rebels and Texas A&M.

If those indications have any truth, the evidence presented on Saturday wasn't very compelling in Miles' favor.

The Tigers gave up 24 unanswered points to start the game and didn't get on the board until QB Brandon Harris found Tyron Johnson for a touchdown. The Tigers got back to within seven at 24-17 (when Leonard Fournette fumbled into the end zone and the ball was recovered by an offensive lineman), but Ole Miss pulled away after that.

Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly had four total touchdowns – two each on the ground and in the air - and set the Ole Miss record for total touchdowns in a season. The person whose record he broke? None other than Eli Manning. Not bad for a quarterback in his first season with the team after transferring to junior college for a season following an unceremonious parting with Clemson.

Kelly finished with 280 yards passing and 81 yards rushing. Fournette, everyone's presumed Heisman winner when LSU was No. 2 and undefeated before losing to Alabama, ran for 108 yards on 25 carries. He also had four catches for 72 yards. Harris threw for 324 yards, but many of those came with the Tigers forced to play catchup.

The game also featured a second-half scrum between the teams that had to be broken up by the officials and featured multiple personal foul penalties.

But while Kelly went into the Ole Miss record books and the Rebels head into a pivotal Egg Bowl showdown that may be for second place in the SEC West, Miles future will be the dominant takeaway from the game. He said after the game that he didn't feel he was in danger of losing it. A $15 million buyout probably helps with that comfort.

And it's important to note that LSU's schedule at the end of the season is much tougher than the first half. Ole Miss went to the Peach Bowl last season and Arkansas was thought to be one of the season's most improved teams.

Of course, preseason projections mean nothing. And the LSU fanbase has very high expectations. With a win against Texas A&M next week, LSU will finish the regular season 9-3. A very good season for a lot of teams. But on the heels of an 8-5 season in 2014, a possible one-game regular season improvement is seen as a disappointment. Is it enough of a disappointment to make a coaching change seem incredibly realistic? We're about to find out.

For more LSU news, visit Tigerbait.com.

For more Ole Miss news, visit RebelGrove.com.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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