Morgan Freeman Named College GameDay Celebrity Picker for LSU-Ole Miss Game
OXFORD, Miss. — God Himself appears set to pick the Ole Miss Rebels over the LSU Tigers this weekend. Or, at least, the man who played Him.
Every week, ESPN's College GameDay has a celebrity guest picker with a tie to the school they are broadcasting from. This week's guest is one of the biggest names in the show's history with deep ties to Mississippi: Morgan Freeman.
The Academy Award winner will serve as guest picker Saturday when GameDay broadcasts live from The Grove ahead of LSU's trip to Oxford, and anybody who's followed Ole Miss football for more than a season already knows why ESPN picked him. Freeman is a Mississippi native who's shown up at Rebels games for years, often enough that the university handed him its Honorary Alumni Award last year, an honor reserved for non-graduates who've shown real, sustained support for the school.
This is his first appearance on the GameDay set, which is a little surprising given how long he's been in the Ole Miss orbit. The timing works out well for ESPN, too, since this trip to Oxford carries more weight than most.
A Grove Tradition With Some Serious History Behind It
Saturday marks only the third time GameDay has set up shop at Ole Miss. The first trip, back in 2014, brought Katy Perry to the picks table right before the Rebels pulled off the upset of No. 1 Alabama that year. The second trip, in 2021, put then-Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin behind the picks board on his own campus.
That detail matters more than it might seem, because Kiffin is walking back into The Grove this weekend on the visiting sideline. He left Ole Miss after the 2025 regular season to take over as LSU's head coach, and now he's returning to face the program he built for six seasons. It puts him in rare company: Kiffin becomes just the second head coach in AP Poll history to face a Top 10 opponent he was coaching the previous season.
This is also the first time LSU and Ole Miss have met as ranked Top 10 teams since 1962, which raises the stakes on Freeman's booking. He's been tied to this program for years, and Saturday is the first time GameDay has cashed in on that connection.
What Acadiana Fans Need to Know Before Kickoff
GameDay's live window from The Grove runs 8 to 11 a.m. CT Saturday across ESPN, ESPNU, Disney+ and the ESPN App, well ahead of the night's main event. LSU and Ole Miss kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The one wrinkle Tiger fans should watch closely: LSU listed quarterback Sam Leavitt as doubtful on the teams' first injury report of the week, along with a handful of other Tigers in various states of availability heading into Oxford. That's the kind of news that can shift a game plan fast, and it's worth checking the team's updated status as the week closes out before setting any expectations for how LSU lines up on offense.
Between the Freeman booking, the first Top 10 meeting between these two since 1962, and Kiffin walking back into the building he used to run, Saturday has plenty riding on it before the Tigers and Rebels ever kick off at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
7 Wide Receivers from Acadiana Currently in the NFL
Gallery Credit: Jude Walker
