How Lane Kiffin further illustrates his value to Ole Miss football with innovative spring game

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OXFORD — Jaxson Dart stewed. He and his team had been cheated, in his view, out of a healthy lead they’d spent the first half of Ole Miss football’s spring game building.

Maybe a questionable penalty call during seven-on-seven action was the source of the Rebels quarterback’s irritation. Perhaps pass interference went uncalled. Or maybe an errant whistle negated a big play for Dart’s Red Team.

Nope. Nah. Negative. Dart was steaming about hot dogs.

Twenty of them, to be exact ‒ all gulped down by world champion competitive eater Joey Chestnut in the span of about 90 seconds. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin inserted Chestnut into a hot dog eating contest to win a boatload of points for the Blue Team, which needed a boost.

“From that point on, I was pretty irritated,” said a laughing Dart, whose team eked out a 71-70 win. “I would think that the football part would matter more.”

You would think that, wouldn’t you? It’s a spring football game, after all. Programs have been subjecting fans to 60 minutes of sterile, full-contract football for decades.

Kiffin doesn’t care ‒ not about what others think, and certainly not about tradition and convention, which he shirked by turning the Rebels’ Grove Bowl into a two-hour party. Four quarters of flag football influenced the score, sure, but so did a dunk contest, tug-of-war, an obstacle course and the hot dog eating showcase that drew all of the headlines.

Chestnut’s presence will load the Rebels up with social media fodder. He even took questions from the media postgame and offered a glowing review of Oxford and his Ole Miss experience.

But, in Kiffin’s mind, Saturday was probably more about what the Rebels didn’t do. They didn’t suffer any injuries. They didn’t bore their fans and visiting recruits to death. And, most importantly, they didn’t give the rest of college football a…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lane-kiffin-further-illustrates-value-005436531.html

Author : The Clarion Ledger

Publish date : 2024-04-14 00:54:36

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