Texas Tech denies claim of racial slur
Texas Tech on Thursday denied claims by Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin that a Red Raiders player spit on one of his players and possibly used a racial slur in the Texas Bowl.
A scrum between the teams came after Ole Miss’ Dayton Wade fumbled in the fourth quarter Wednesday night 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, which Ole Miss lost 42-25, Kiffin said the penalty should have been on Texas Tech senior linebacker Dimitri Moore instead of Watkins. Both players wear No. 11.
Kiffin said after the game that Watkins wasn’t in the fight, and that Moore was fighting Ole Miss lineman Jayden Williams and that “everybody knew” because Texas Tech coaches were yelling at their own player.
“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 [Williams] 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 to clarify if a Texas Tech player used a racial slur toward one of his players, Kiffin said he wasn’t sure.
“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.”
Moore and Williams are both Black.
“We are disappointed an opposing head coach decided to insinuate serious allegations that are false and irresponsible,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said in a statement released by the school Thursday. “I have discussed these allegations with Dimitri Moore, and he disputed the two claims that were brought forth against him.”
Pinstripe Bowl
Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 71 yards on 16 carriers with a touchdown and became Minnesota’s all-time rushing leader in the Golden Gophers’ 28-20 win against Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
After rupturing his Achilles in the 2021 season opener against Penn State, Ibrahim returned for a sixth season and finished his career with 4,668 yards and 53 rushing touchdowns in 40 games since joining the Golden Gophers as a twostar recruit from Baltimore.
Ibrahim broke the school record held by Darrell Thompson ( 4,654 yards from 1986-89) on a 10-yard gain with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Before breaking the record, Ibrahim scored a gritty 4yard run with 13:39 remaining in the half before sitting out the final periods. The TD gave him 20 and moved him past Gary Russell (19 in 2005) for the most single-season TDs in school history.
Cheez-It Bowl
Jordan Travis threw for 418 yards and two touchdowns and No. 13 Florida State beat Oklahoma, 3532, in the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
Johnny Wilson made a one-handed grab for a 58yard gain to set up Ryan Fitzgerald’s 32-yard field goal with 55 seconds left. The Seminoles (10-3) held on, sacking quarterback Dillon Gabriel on the Sooners’ comeback bid.
Baylor
Matt Powledge is returning to Baylor as defensive coordinator after a season away at Oregon. Bears coach Dave Aranda announced the hire. Powledge replaces Ron Roberts, who was fired after the 6-6 regular season and has since become defensive coordinator at Auburn for new coach Hugh Freeze.
Before spending this season as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Oregon, Powledge was on Aranda’s original staff at Baylor.
Powledge, a Texas native, was the Bears’ safeties coach and special teams coordinator in 2020 and 2021.
Late Wednesday games Arkansas 55, Kansas 53:
KJ Jefferson passed to Rashod Dubinion for a 2point conversion in the third OT and Arkansas (7-6) held off a furious second-half rally by Kansas ( 6- 7) in Memphis.
The Jayhawks had rallied from 25 points down in the second half to force overtime, but a failed on a 2point conversion pass from Jason Bean to Lawrence Arnold ended a four-and-a-half hour bowl marathon.
Oregon 28, North Carolina 27:
Bo Nix threw a 6yard touchdown pass to Chase Cota on fourth down with 19 seconds left and Camden Lewis’ PAT bounced off the left upright and went through to give No. 15 Oregon (10-3) a wild victory against North Carolina (9-5) in the Holiday Bowl at Petco Park in San Diego.
Cota caught the ball at about the 1 and got it across the goal line as he was being tackled by Don Chapman. The play was upheld on review. Lewis then banked in the PAT.
Texas Tech 42, Ole Miss 25:
Tyler Shough threw for 242 yards and a touchdown and ran for two more scores as Texas Tech took advantage of three early turnovers to build a big lead and held on to beat Ole Miss (8-5) in Houston. Shough, who finished with a career-high 111 yards rushing, accounted for three TDs in the first two quarters to help the Red Raiders (8-5) to a 26- 7 halftime lead. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart had 361 yards passing with two TD throws and a scoring run, but threw three interceptions and lost a fumble.