Why do Ole Miss football players dunk a basketball after big plays?

OXFORD ― Ole Miss football’s unique sideline celebration allows players to show off their skills in a different sport.

The No. 11 Rebels (4-0, 2-0 SEC) host No. 4 LSU (4-0, 1-0) on Sept. 27 (2:30 p.m., ABC). Any Ole Miss player who scores a touchdown or forces a turnover gets to dunk on a basketball hoop on the sideline.

The hoop is on the sideline for all home and road games. It is only about eight feet above the ground, allowing for flashier dunks. Usually the opposing team’s logo is on the backboard.

Coach Lane Kiffin started the basketball celebration in 2023. He took inspiration from other teams that have players celebrate with props after big plays, but also from his father. Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father and a coaching legend in college and the NFL, was known for entertainment value.

Monte boxed Joe Fraizer while the coach of NC State in 1981. At a pep rally before a game against William & Mary, Kiffin arrived at the field in a helicopter and tumbled out of the open door when it was about five feet above the field.

“I would have been really young, but the NC State stories,” Lane Kiffin said in 2023. “The things he did. He rode the horse in. He parachuted in. Boxed Joe Frazier. There’s probably some of that in there.”

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_

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