The weird and wild side of college football is already on full display at the 2022 SEC Media Days gathering. Don’t believe me? An LSU fan had Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin autograph a mustard bottle at the College Football Hall of Fame on Monday.
Yup, this week should be a lot of fun.
After he was scheduled to speak on the opening afternoon of SEC Media Days, Kiffin spent a moment signing memorabilia for SEC fans inside of the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. While it can be seen that some traditional items were being passed around – a hat, a ball, a t-shirt, etc. – one item, in particular, stood out above the rest.
In a video posted to Twitter by ESPN/SEC Network reporter Laura Rutledge, Kiffin can be seen holding up a mustard bottle that he was asked to sign. And to make it even stranger, it appears as though the man that was giving Kiffin the bottle is wearing a purple and gold plaid LSU Tigers shirt and a camouflage LSU hat.
I present @Lane_Kiffin signing a mustard bottle @OleMissFB pic.twitter.com/yHvWFEPtLL
— Laura Rutledge (@LauraRutledge) July 18, 2022
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The troll, or reference if you’d like, is traced to the recent game between Tennessee and Ole Miss from October 2021.
As the infamous story goes, the game between the Vols and Rebels in Knoxville was briefly stopped in the fourth quarter after trash was being thrown on the field following a call that the crowd did not agree with. Within moments, beer cans, water bottles, and pom-poms were raining down from the cold Knoxville sky as cheerleaders ran into the tunnel for cover and the Ole Miss team had to step away from the sideline/the crowd.
Among other random pieces of trash being thrown, two items from that incident have been made famous by Kiffin and college football fans: the mustard bottle and the golf ball.
When Tennessee took their baseball team to play No. 1 Ole Miss earlier this spring, Kiffin threw out the honorary first pitch of the game. In standard Kiffin fashion though, the former Tennessee head coach used the golf ball from the incident as the first pitch. Kiffin later revealed in an interview that he keeps that golf ball in his office desk drawer, despite sometimes forgetting it’s even there.
“I have signed a lot of mustard bottles and golf balls, which normally I haven’t,” Lane Kiffin said while speaking at SEC Media Days on Monday. “It has been a unique offseason.”
Is that a mustard bottle signed by Lane Kiffin? Yes. Yes it is. pic.twitter.com/gQBGpXbhku
— Barrett Sallee (@BarrettSallee) July 18, 2022
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Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel will be speaking at SEC Media Days on Thursday afternoon. In addition, Heupel is bringing three Tennessee student-athletes with him: DB Trevon Flowers, WR Cedric Tillman, and QB Hendon Hooker.
