There are two ways of describing Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.

He’s the hot new thing on the SEC block, because former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin snatched him away from Division II Ferris State just last year.

Chambliss is also the 24-year-old playing college football at an age when some people, including former Ole Miss and current LSU offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., would make their way into a coaching career.

“You realize when you hired me at Alabama, I was three years younger than Trinidad is now?” Weis recently told Kiffin, who brought in the former Kansas student manager as an offensive analyst following the 2014 season.

Weis turned 22 on April 19, 2015, a day after Alabama’s spring game.

LSU’s starting quarterback, Sam Leavitt, won’t turn 22 until just before Christmas.

Chambliss turns 25 next August, when he’ll likely be in training camp with an NFL team.

“You got to remember you’re dealing with a really mature quarterback that doesn’t make many mistakes, so you’re gonna have to play really well for a long period of time,” Kiffin said. “Trinidad (is) 24 years old now, still playing college football. That’s the same as (NFL quarterbacks) Drake Maye and Caleb Williams.”

Kiffin’s return to Oxford, Mississippi, this Saturday will be a test of maturity for the quarterback he unearthed last year and the one he just acquired.

Chambliss, just a year shy of a fully developed prefrontal cortex, has been a sound decision-maker on the football field. He has 25 touchdown throws to just four interceptions at Ole Miss, including a run to the College Football Playoff semifinals where he didn’t throw a single pass to the other team.

Leavitt, unquestionably a playmaker, has racked up 709 total yards in his first two LSU games, including 113 rushing in the opener against Clemson, to go with six touchdowns. But the Arizona State transfer also has four interceptions, including three on consecutive first-half possessions in last week’s win over Louisiana Tech.

To contrast further, Chambliss has completed 71% of his passes in two games, which ranks inside the early-season top 30 nationally. Leavitt has connected on just over 62%.

From snap to throw, Chambliss gets rid of the football in 2.57 seconds on average, according to Pro Football Focus. Leavitt is a few tenths of a second slower at 2.9.

“If you look at Trinidad and running back Kewan (Lacy) last year, there’s very few negative plays. They both have phenomenal feet,” Kiffin said. “Even when we don’t block somebody, what happens is you don’t get negative plays because Kewan makes the guy miss and Trinidad scrambles around.”

Kiffin wanted Chambliss and Lacy to come with him to LSU, but newly promoted head coach Pete Golding pitched both on staying. He asked them to google Kiffin’s name, because Ole Miss fans had just flipped from wanting to build a statue of their old coach, Golding told ESPN, to not wanting to “piss” on Kiffin if he was “on fire.”

Chambliss is now a four-alarm problem for LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who had relative success containing him in 2025. LSU went on the road and held Ole Miss to 24 points, but the Tigers had only 19 on their side of the scoreboard.

They held Chambliss to 59% completion, but he still racked up 314 yards passing and 71 rushing. He did throw a pick.

Kiffin was asked Monday if anything from Baker’s game plan could roll into 2026.

“You guys are getting really schematical. I mean, I don’t know how I can answer that,” Kiffin said. “I’m sure both places are already worried about leaks within the building, getting game plans out.”

He wasn’t elaborating. But reasonable guesses can be made.

Pressure is important, with as few rushers as possible, because Chambliss can get the ball out quickly versus a blitz. Even if a defense brings four, they have to hold their rush lanes or Chambliss will slide out of the pocket for a scramble drill with his receivers.

Ex-Ole Miss edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen, who leads LSU with five sacks, and former Ole Miss linebacker TJ Dottery, who tops LSU with 14 tackles, should know Chambliss’s tendencies. But Umanmielen wasn’t sharing much intel Tuesday.

“We really just gotta keep them in the pocket, things like that,” Umanmielen said, refusing to talk about Chambliss by name. “Be grindy and gritty.”

It will be on Leavitt, the quarterback Kiffin just picked out of the portal, to limit Chambliss’s plays by taking care of the ball.

He was keenly aware of the necessity moments after his three-pick performance last Saturday. He talked about “calming” his feet and “trusting” his “process.” He wouldn’t spend much energy hyping up the Ole Miss game.

“But no,” Leavitt said, “it’s going to be an incredible opportunity.”

It’s Chambliss, a D-II national champ who led Ole Miss to within a couple of plays of a D-I title game, versus Leavitt, who helped Arizona State play within eight points of Texas in a 2024 CFP quarterfinal.

It’s the quarterback Kiffin and Weis coached to new heights a season ago and the one they hope will thrive in their fast-paced offense.

Chambliss, they know, will be ready.

“He’s got a lot of maturity in age and a lot of plays in big-time games,” Kiffin said of Chambliss. “You’re going to have to play really well for a long period of time against him.”