College football is rapidly undergoing dramatic change.
The sport has never been more volatile.
Now a football coach made one jaw-dropping allegation against an opposing player.
College football may never be the same with players able to freely transfer and not sit out a year, and players being allowed to receive as much as seven figures through NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals.
Another common practice that began a few years ago was players opting out of their bowl games in order to train for the NFL draft and avoid injury.
The opt-outs have neutered some of the bowl games, but the TaxAct Texas Bowl between Ole Miss and Texas Tech had plenty of juice.
Ole Miss lost to Texas Tech 42-25, and after the game, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin accused an opposing player of spitting on one of his players and using a racial slur.
From The Associated Press:
“A scrum between the teams came after Ole Miss’ Dayton Wade fumbled early in the fourth quarter and Texas Tech recovered. There was pushing and shoving between players and Ole Miss player Jordan Watkins was given a personal foul penalty. After the game…Kiffin said that the penalty should have actually been on Texas Tech’s Dimitri Moore, who is No. 11 for the Red Raiders, instead of Watkins, who wears No. 11 for Ole Miss.”
Kiffin elaborated, “They announce our 11, which is Jordan Watkins, who wasn’t in the fight, it was their 11 that was fighting 71 (Ole Miss lineman Jayden Williams) and everybody knew because their own coaches were yelling at the guy…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 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 asked if Moore, who is black, used a slur toward one of his players, Kiffin responded, “I’m not going to, because I did not hear it, (I’m not going to) say that that happened for sure that he gave a racial slur to our player,” Kiffin said. “I was told that that was said in that (incident) but I did not hear that. So that would obviously be a giant issue.”
Upon hearing Kiffin’s allegations, Moore replied, “I can’t state strongly enough that these accusations are false…It is disappointing to have my final game as a collegiate student-athlete overshadowed by the false accusations stated Wednesday night…Since I have arrived at Texas Tech, I have strived to represent my teammates, this coaching staff and most importantly, my family, in the highest manner. It has been an honor to represent this program as we closed our season with a great team victory last night.”
After a promising 7-0 start to the season, Kiffin’s Rebels finished an underwhelming 8-4.
This is certainly not the bowl outcome that Kiffin wanted.