Texas Tech Player May Have Used Racial Slur Against Ole Miss Offensive Lineman
HOUSTON -- The TaxAct Texas Bowl was, at times, heated between the Ole Miss Rebels and Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday, and Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin provided some insight in one of the instances on the field after the game.
Late in the contest, Texas Tech recovered an Ole Miss fumble, and there was a scrum after the play between players. The officials originally penalized Ole Miss wide receiver No. 11 Jordan Watkins, but Kiffin claims that Texas Tech's No. 11 should have been the one penalized, not his.
According to Kiffin, Tech's No. 11, linebacker Dimitri Moore, possibly spit on and used a racial slur towards Ole Miss offensive lineman Jayden Williams.
“There was a racial slur involved," 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.
"It was really poor to have that many officials who communicate. They did some great jobs on other ones getting them right, but you talk about spitting on people and calling the wrong No. 11. If you meet Jordan Watkins, Jordan Watkins ain't doing that."
Kiffin went on to say he used a timeout during this instance to try and talk with the officials and have them get the call right on the field.
"I'm going to defend our players when a kid is spit on and accused to a national audience that it's him," Kiffin said, "and Jordan's got to deal with this."
Kiffin cannot vouch for certain that a racial slur was used on the field on Wednesday night, but he did say that he was told that following the incident.
“I’m not going to, because I did not hear it,” Kiffin said. “[I’m not going to] 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.
"I talked to their head coach afterward," Kiffin continued. "He was like: ‘Crazy officiating out there.’ I go: ‘Yeah, that was really bad on that one that your guy spit and our guy got the penalty.’ He was like: ‘Yeah, I know.’”
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