Kiffin rips referee up and says Texas Tech player spat on one of his players
Released at 9:03 am on Thursday, December 29, 2022
- Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin speaks with officials about penalty calls in the first half of the Texas Bowl against Texas Tech on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michael Wyck)
HOUSTON (AP) — Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin said a Texas Tech player may have spit on one of the players at the Texas Bowl Wednesday night and made a racial slur. said.
The inter-team scrum came after Ole Miss Dayton Wade fumbled early in the fourth quarter and Texas Tech recovered. There was pushing and pushing between players, and Ole Miss players Jordan Watkins and Jaden Williams were both given personal foul penalties.
After Ole Miss lost 42-25, Kiffin should actually penalize Texas Tech’s Dimitri Moore, the Red Raiders’ number 11, not Watkins, who wears Ole Miss’ number 11. said it was.
“They put out our 11 and Jordan Watkins wasn’t in the game. It was their 11 that was fighting 71[Williams]and my coach was yelling at the guy. So everyone knew,” Kiffin said.
“It contained racial slurs, but that’s about the spitting part, not the point of what we’re talking about. I brought my 71 to the officials. Right or wrong can you see him crying?
When asked to clarify whether the Texas Tech players used racial slurs against one of their players, Kiffin said he wasn’t sure.
“I didn’t hear it (I don’t say), so I’m not going to say that it was certain he gave our player a racial slur,” Kiffin said. I had heard they said that in the incident, but I hadn’t heard that, so obviously that would be a big deal.”
Both Moore and Williams are black.
Kiffin said he was very upset during the match because he didn’t believe it was fair for his players to take penalties that should have been taken by someone else. On two plays after the incident, Kiffin called a timeout and yelled the entire stoppage along the sidelines to the referee crew.
Ole Miss had eight penalties for 86 yards in the game, while Texas Tech had three penalties for 15 yards. In addition to two personal fouls following the fight, Rebels ejected two players for Target. An obvious pass interference penalty was also not called on his conversion attempt for two points late in the fourth quarter.
“When a kid spit on a player and a national audience accused him of being him, I’m going to defend the player,” Kiffin said. “So Jordan has to deal with this.” I have to
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire was not asked about the incident, but Kiffin spoke with him about spatting after the game.
“I’m actually watching over there and I’m laughing because one of them got off,” Kiffin said. “He’s yelling at the players. They’re crazy about him…I talked to their head coach later and he said: ‘You’re refereeing crazy.’ ‘ I say: ‘Yeah, that was your man’s vomiting and our man got a penalty.’ He said: ‘Yeah, I know.'”