Golf balls and flying mustard bottles: Revisiting Lane Kiffin's contentious 2021 return to Tennessee

Lane Kiffin is making his return to Oxford, Miss., this weekend to take on his former team, the Ole Miss Rebels. While there is both College Football Playoff hype and what's expected to be a supercharged atmosphere for the occasion, this isn't Kiffin's first rodeo.

But this is familiar territory for Kiffin, as the LSU head coach has coached against one of his former teams before. In 2021, Kiffin returned to Tennessee to play the Vols for the first time since his messy departure from Knoxville back in 2010.

Although Ole Miss won 31-26, the game was complete with golf balls and mustard bottles flying out of the hostile stands in Knoxville.

Let's take a trip down memory lane ... no pun intended.

MORE: The most hated man in Oxford: Dan Mullen has walked in Lane Kiffin's shoes

Revisiting Lane Kiffin's 2021 return to Tennessee

Kiffin had returned to Tennessee with Alabama twice as the Tide's offensive coordinator, but that wasn't quite the same as him returning as a head coach. The Ole Miss-Tennessee clash took place in mid-October with the Rebels entering 4-1 and ranked 13th in the country. Tennessee was 4-2 and led by first-year head coach Josh Heupel.

Ole Miss went to the locker room with a 24-12 lead, and although Tennessee scored a touchdown on its first drive of the second half, Ole Miss made it a two-score game again late in the third quarter. The Vols tried to make things interesting late, scoring a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter to make it a 31-26 game.

The Vols got the ball back with 3:14 left, and chaos erupted in Neyland after a 23-yard Hendon Hooker pass on fourth down to Jacob Warren that put Tennessee just short of the first down.

Shortly after the refs confirmed Warren was short of the line to gain, and the ball was going back to Ole Miss. Fans inside Neyland booed the refs and began throwing objects onto the field. The whole ordeal caused a nearly 20-minute delay. 

While it was mostly water bottles and trash that were thrown, there were other objects too. Kiffin dodged a yellow golf ball that was pelted at him, which he picked up and laughed while showing the official: 

— Random SEC (@therandomsec) September 15, 2026

There was also, hilariously, a rogue mustard bottle: 

— Everything Ole Miss (@EverythingRebs) September 15, 2026

Several fans had to be escorted out by police during the delay: 

And a sideline report on police clearing people out. pic.twitter.com/rehrUkHNUP

— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) October 17, 2021

After the lengthy delay, Ole Miss was forced to punt after a three-and-out, but Tennessee was unable to score to keep the game going. The Rebels escaped with a 31-26 victory. 

After the game, Kiffin said in the postgame interview that he wasn't sure if he should be happy he got the win or not to be hit with a golf ball, pulling it from his pocket: 

"Who brings a golf ball to a football game?" pic.twitter.com/k8qml6MELa

— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) October 17, 2021

“I’m disappointed in the way the game ended with things being thrown from the crowd,” Tennessee's Heupel said. “I know that’s very few of our crowd members. For the most part of the game, what an unbelievable atmosphere to see Vol Nation show out the way they did.”

The incident resulted in 18 arrests and 51 fans ejected. 

Kiffin also added in his postgame presser that he was keeping the ball as a souvenir. 

"I still have my souvenir golf ball," Kiffin said after the game. "I also got hit with bottles with some brown stuff in them. I don't think those fans would waste moonshine. You've got one of the most passionate fan bases in America. A call didn't go their way."

Tennessee was fined $250,000 for the whole ordeal.

MORE: Lane Kiffin's full timeline of controversial exits from jobs

Why did  Lane Kiffin leave Tennessee?

Kiffin's exit from Tennessee wasn't exactly graceful, as if that's surprising to you now. Following his disastrous stint as the Oakland Raiders head coach, he returned to college in 2009 to coach the Vols.

In Knoxville, he replaced longtime Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer in 2009. Fulmer had brought decades of success to Tennessee, including a national title in 1998.

The Vols finished 7-6 in Kiffin’s only season at the helm before reports emerged that he was set to accept the open USC job, replacing his former boss, Pete Carroll.

Kiffin described the USC job as his “dream job.” He had previously spent six seasons with the Trojans from 2001-2006 as an assistant coach under Carroll. For Kiffin, replacing his longtime coaching mentor in Los Angeles was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“I felt like I loved the time at Tennessee,” Kiffin said in the E:60 documentary The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin. “I loved the people there, but I just can’t watch USC for years on TV and say, man, I had that job and I said no. And whether I was right or wrong, that’s just how I felt.”

After it was confirmed he was taking the USC job, he held an awkward press conference to try and smooth things over. It did not, in fact, make things any better.

Tennessee students began gathering on-campus and chanting "F— you Kiffin," and even set a mattress on fire:

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MORE: 'He sold them on a dream:' The hate, pain Lane Kiffin left behind at Ole Miss 

Lane Kiffin head coaching timeline 

Years	Team	Record
2007-2008	Oakland Raiders	5-15
2009	Tennessee	7-6
2010-2013	USC	28-15
2017-2019	Florida Atlantic	26-13
2020-2025	Ole Miss	55-19
2026-Present	LSU	2-0