It’s been more than 1,200 days since Ole Miss football’s last trip to Knoxville, but the infamous memories have hardly gone away.
To rewind the clock, Josh Heupel’s inaugural Tennessee football team was 4-2 through the Vols’ first six games in 2021 with an exciting showdown against No. 13 Ole Miss on the horizon. It was also the first time that Lane Kiffin returned to Tennessee as a head coach, as opposed to when he returned as a coordinator at Alabama.
With Tennessee down 31-26 entering the game’s final minute, the Vols’ offense failed to convert a 4th-and-24 as tight end Jacob Warren was brought down just inches before the first-down marker. Video review upheld the decision, which angered the passionate and exhausted Tennessee fans in Neyland Stadium. Fans began throwing pom-poms, empty water bottles and cans, and even a mustard bottle. During a television interview, Kiffin said that he was “hit” with a golf ball, as he held up the yellow range ball to show the SEC Network cameras.
In 2022, Kiffin threw out a golf ball as the ceremonial first pitch for a baseball series between Tennessee and Ole Miss in Oxford, calling back to the chaotic situation from the previous fall.
On Wednesday’s episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Kiffin, a guest on the show, shared his side of the infamous golf ball story from Knoxville in 2021. Kiffin complimented the pageantry and intimidation factor of Neyland Stadium before going into the story.
“Maybe everybody didn’t hate me at the beginning, but then, it’s like a crowd storm,” Kiffin said, recalling the environment. “They feel it, and then the hatred just kept building… They threw things at me, like a golf ball. And like, anything they could get.”
More from RTI: Nico Iamaleava Has Reportedly Found A New Home In Transfer Portal
Check out the three-minute clip from This Past Weekend with Theo Von below:
Lane Kiffin talks about Tennessee and Neyland Stadium with Theo: pic.twitter.com/lu1Su0DNKi
— Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) April 16, 2025
Check out the full episode below:
