Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin claims a player on the Texas Tech squad facing his team spit on and used racial slurs against his players during a heated scrum toward the end of the game.
The Ole Miss Rebels brought their 2022 season to a close on Wednesday night in this year’s edition of the TaxAct Texas Bowl. In the game, they appropriately battled a university from the state in Texas Tech. Unfortunately for Kiffin and his team, they ended the season on a sour note as they were throttled by Tech yesterday.
Ole Miss was down 26-7 at halftime and never really got much closer in what would eventually be a 42-25 defeat that saw Texas Tech get a 111-yard rushing performance from Tyler Shough and Loic Fouonji racking up another 100 through the air.
However, the story that got a lot of focus after the matchup had nothing to do with the final score and instead centered on some alleged antics by a Texas Tech player.
Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin claims opposing player spit one on of his players
Following a fumble by Ole Miss receiver Dayton Wade early in the fourth quarter, a scrum ensued that saw players from both side pushing and shoving after Tech recovered the ball. Miss receiver Jordan Watkins was called for a personal foul penalty despite being nowhere near the altercation, and the team’s head coach Lane Kiffin let his displeasure with the referee’s miscue be known after the game.
During his post-game press conference, Kiffin claimed his player was called for a foul that should have gone to a Texas Tech player with the same number. However, while giving his thoughts on the clash and the penalty’s handed out, Lane Kiffin revealed the reason behind the scrum, and claimed it included racial slurs used by a Texas Tech player and spitting.
“There was a racial slur involved — that’s not the point of what we’re talking about — [it’s] about the spitting part. I brought our own [No.] 71 up to the officials, right or wrong, you see him crying? He’s not crying, not because he got spit on, it’s because something was said.
“… I’m not going to, because I did not hear it, say that that happened for sure, that he gave a racial slur to our player. I was told that that was said in that [incident], but I did not hear that. So that would obviously be a giant issue.”
– Lane Kiffin (via ESPN)
It is unclear at this time if the accusation will be investigated further by Texas Bowl officials.
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