Storming the field is a longstanding tradition in college football, but its downsides are often stated by critics and leagues even fine their schools when fans do so. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has been a part of many and has mixed feelings on the topic.
Kiffin made an appearance on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, where he was asked the most aggravating tradition in college football and chose field storming. He pointed out safety issues for coaches and players as being a main reason why.
“The fan storming thing is a little tough,” he said. “They don’t do it in the NFL. I get it. It’s pretty cool, but then it can be aggravating because they’re storming and you’re worried about them hitting you, what’s going on, what are they gonna do? It’s very invasive at that point. But I think if they could just let everybody out and then let the fans on so they can tear the goal post down, because that stuff is cool.”
Von relayed a personal story he had of a field storming when he attended Vanderbilt‘s upset of Alabama this past season. He experience some of the downsides of field storming when Commodores players hugged him in the excitement, resulting in some injuries.
“I was at the Alabama-Vanderbilt game and that was pretty cool,” he said. “Some guy on the sidelines squeezed me so hard it bruised one of my ribs, or dislocated it. Then every other player kept hugging me. So it was just one after another, just the biggest guys you’ve ever even seen all hugging you.”
“Yeah, but you were at a historic moment that will probably never happen again,” Kiffin responded. “So I mean, it was a once-in-a-lifetime.”
Ole Miss fans also stormed the field this past season after a 28-10 win against No. 3 Georgia. Some fans even did so prematurely before the final whistle had sounded, resulting in Kiffin having to tell them to get back on the sidelines with 16 seconds remaining.
Fans later got to storm the field once the game was officially over and of course took down the goal post. But Lane Kiffin was even critical of storming the field then as Ole Miss was fined as a result.
“I’m kind of torn on that,” the coach said at the time. “Obviously, it’s enjoyable for fans and all that stuff but we also have policies where those aren’t supposed to happen and you’ve got to keep the players safe and the other teams safe. …So, don’t really like that aspect of it that we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do. So, it was a little frustrating at that point, the game is still going on and it’s happening.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
