Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin accused a Texas Tech player of spitting and using racial slurs in an altercation with his players during the Texas Bowl Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after the game, which the Rebels lost, Kiffin was addressing his response to a dispute between multiple players after an Ole Miss player fumbled in the fourth quarter. The subsequent fight for possession intensified after the play to include arguing and shoving.
Ole Miss player Jordan Watkins received a flagrant penalty for the altercation, but Kiffin believed that it should have gone against Texas Tech player Dimitri Moore, who wears the same number as Watkins and was seen yelling at Ole Miss player Jayden Williams.
“They announce our 11, which is Jordan Watkins, who wasn’t in the fight,” Kiffin said. “It was their 11 that was fighting 71 and everybody knew because their own coaches were yelling at the guy.”
Kiffin went on to say that a racial slur had been used during the players’ argument. Moore and Williams are both Black.
“There was a racial slur involved, that’s not the point of what we’re talking about, [it’s] about the spitting part,” Kiffin said. “I brought our own 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.”
When reporters asked Kiffin to directly address the use of a racial slur, the coach clarified that he didn’t personally hear the comment in question.
Ole Miss went on to lose 42-25 to the Red Raiders, marking the fourth bowl game defeat of Kiffin’s college coaching career. Before his time with the Rebels, the coach worked at Florida Atlantic from 2017 to 2019, a comeback attempt after a marred tenure at USC from 2010 to 2013 that involved NCAA sanctions. He also coached at Tennessee for a year after a two-year stint in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders.
