The inter-team scrum came after Ole Miss Dayton Wade fumbled early in the fourth quarter and Texas Tech recovered. A jostling erupted between the players, and Ole Miss wide receiver Jordan Watkins was awarded a personal foul penalty.
After Ole Miss lost 42-25, Kiffin said he should have penalized Texas Tech’s Dimitri Moore, the Red Raiders’ number 11, instead of Watkins, who wears Ole Miss’ number 11. .
“They announced our 11 and it was Jordan Watkins who wasn’t in the fight. It was their 11 who was fighting the 71. [Ole Miss lineman Jayden Williams]and everyone knew because my own coach was yelling at the guy,” Kiffin said.
“It contained racial slurs. That’s not the point of what we’re talking about. [it’s] About the spilling part. I brought my 71 to the officer. Right or wrong, can you see him crying?
Asked to clarify whether the Texas Tech players used racist slurs against one of the players, Kiffin said he wasn’t sure.
“Don’t go, I’m not listening. [I’m not going to] Say it certainly happened that he gave our players a racial slur,” Kiffin said. [incident], but I hadn’t heard that. So it’s obviously going to be a big problem. ”
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.
“When a kid spits on a player and gets accused by a national audience of being him, I’m going to defend the player,” Kiffin said. “So Jordan has to deal with this.” I won’t.”
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….Then I talked to their head coach. I say: ‘Yeah, it’s you.’ It was really bad that the guy was spitting and our guy was penalized.” He said: ‘Yeah, I know.'”