Yikes…Ole Miss football player reportedly files lawsuit against Lane Kiffin, university

SDS article:

In July of 2022, the complaint says Rollins injured his Achilles tendon in his right foot. In late August of 2022, the complaint says Rollins injured his LCL in his left knee. Both injuries left Rollins feeling depression and anxiety, among other things, according to the complaint. The complaint says the football coaching staff, team trainers, and nutritionist “knew, or should have known, that Rollins suffered severe depression…” and failed to refer Rollins for a mental health evaluation or treatment.

Rollins claims he was told to enter the transfer portal by the Ole Miss coaching staff, then was told during a February 2023 meeting with Kiffin that he was being moved to the scout team offensive line.The complaint says Rollins’ mother then called Ole Miss trainer Pat Jernigan and asked that Rollins be referred to a counselor. The complaint says Jernigan scheduled a February 2023 meeting for Rollins with Josie Nicholson, the Assistant Athletic Director for Sport Psychology.

The complaint says Nicholson told Rollins to take “a step back from football in order to take care of his mental health.” At a follow-up meeting with Nicholson in March 2023, Rollins was informed Kiffin wanted to meet him, according to the complaint. Rollins did not speak with Kiffin until two weeks later, according to the complaint.

Someone is looking for a pay day......shocking!

 

Are you an attorney?

 

I predict Kiffin gets fired and resurfaces at FIU.

 

te said VIABLE lawsuit, tommy…

 

What you mad at FIU for?

 

I said "viable", I did not say "can't file".

 

The year Kiffin was at Tennessee, going into the locker room at halftime, he shot a bird at Gator fans.

I think we could find someone else.

 

Mental health is a real issue. But it doesn't protect you from losing your position on a competitive sports team. If you are not competing, you are not competing.
Cut him from the team and have the university help him with any legit mental health issues. That seems like the fair and prudent thing to do.

 

Not only can we, but also I think if it comes to that we will have to.

 

IMO, superfluous and I want to believe not winnable. Viability to me also means once the initial arguments are made, the judge dismisses the case.

 

Didn't Deion run off most of the team he inherited at Colorado? As best I can tell, no one seems to care about that.

Ole Miss says this kid is still on the roster and on scholarship.

Kiffen demotes one kid to the scout team who clearly had issues, and wouldn't meet with him, and he and Ole Miss get sued. I'm calling BS on this one.

 

Lane comes across as a no-class jerk, to be sure. The jury is NOT still out on that one. But as lawsuits go this sounds like a dead letter from jump street - unless the kid gets his case before a sympathetic jury. All bets are off at that point.

 

I like your Dad's input there. My Dad's input was along similar lines. Dented but undaunted was the order of the day.

 

Nice one. And not the least bit hypocritical - almost.

 

Bad look for Kiffin, which I'm sure all that haters/opposing recruiters will jump on. However, based on the limited information provided, it doesnt seem like Kiffin/Ole Miss' actions were much different than that of most coaches these days. It's a cutthroat business.
Sanders cut scholarships and ran off half the Colorado team and people love him. Go figure.

 

100% here.
Same goes for Hugh Freeze and Petrino.
Hard pass on all 3 for me.

 

Or give him a medical RS.
Severe depression is worse than a torn ACL left untreated.

If the staff knew they should have done that, tough thing is sometimes even the professionals miss things.

 

I don't know anything about this situation, but I have met and worked with the athletic support staff here a good bit. The description of their actions runs quite counter to my experiences, which have all been excellent. They have always been ardent advocates for their athletes, and I've even worked with them on a few outgoing transfers in which they did everything they could to assist in students getting to a new school with as much of their credit going with them as was possible (and, yes, always quite by the book). That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it would definitely be a very outside of the norm with which they handle these kinds of things in my experience the last 7 or so years.