AP Photo/Wade Payne

Tennessee vs. Ole Miss Delayed After Fans Throw Objects onto Field

Paul Kasabian

An ugly scene developed at Knoxville's Neyland Stadium on Saturday evening as University of Tennessee football fans pelted the field with objects following a close call near the end of a 31-26 loss to Ole Miss.

Joe Rexrode of The Athletic provided more imagery:

Down 31-26, Tennessee faced a 4th-and-24 from its own 36-yard line with 54 seconds remaining.

Undeterred, quarterback Hendon Hooker fired a pass down the middle of the field to tight end Jacob Warren, who split Ole Miss defenders and tried for the first down.

He appeared to fall right before or at the line to gain as Ole Miss defensive back Otis Reese tackled him. The call on the field was that Warren was one yard short, and that stood upon review.

Fans started throwing objects on the field as Ole Miss got the ball back. The game was forced to stop as the scene got more dangerous.

Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports described some of the objects relayed via the SEC Network broadcast:

As shown on the SEC Network broadcast, cheerleaders exited the field, and a golf ball struck Kiffin, who showed it postgame.

Kiffin apparently got hit with more than that, though, as he told Nick Suss of the Clarion Ledger:

The Ole Miss sideline was also littered with debris as the game halted for more than 20 minutes.

The Rebels moved toward the middle of the field as coaches, officials and law enforcement met to discuss their options.

Ultimately, the scene calmed down, and the game continued.

Ole Miss went three-and-out as Tennessee burned its timeouts. If there wasn't already enough drama, a Velus Jones Jr. punt return past midfield and a Hooker 14-yard run got the ball to the Ole Miss 33-yard line with 18 seconds left.

However, Hooker then went down with an injury, and he was replaced by Joe Milton II, who found Walker Merrill for 12 yards. A miracle was not meant to be, however, as an incomplete pass and a 13-yard Milton run ended the game.

Emotions were already running high pregame thanks to the return of Kiffin, who led the Tennessee program in 2009 before resigning after just one season and leaving for USC in Jan. 2010. The sloppy departure created an uproar in Knoxville, and fans made sure Kiffin knew of their displeasure with their pregame jeering as he was interviewed.

Then the game started, and it was a back-and-forth affair between two SEC rivals in front of a raucous crowd.

Still, none of that was an excuse for the fans' behavior, which received just criticism postgame:

After the game ended, Kiffin was escorted into the locker room by security. More objects were thrown in his vicinity, and Kiffin returned the favor by tossing his visor over the tunnel to a fan above, as shown by Ben McKee of Volquest.

As shown by Josh Pete of 247Sports and CBS Sports, a fan threw a full water bottle at Kiffin, who snagged it with a one-handed catch:

Vols head coach Josh Heupel addressed the fan behavior postgame.

Heupel also had no update on Hooker. As Trey Wallace of OutKick tweeted, Hooker didn't appear to put pressure on his right leg following the aforementioned run.

As for the two teams, Ole Miss improved to 5-1 (2-1 SEC), and Tennessee fell to 4-3 (1-2 SEC).

   

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