Ole Miss player DeSanto Rollins files lawsuit against football coach Lane Kiffin, university

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss defensive lineman DeSanto Rollins filed a suit against Rebels coach Lane Kiffin and the university in a United States District Court on Thursday.

In the filing, Rollins, a Black male, said Kiffin kicked him off the team in March, and levies the following allegations:

• Racial discrimination on the part of Kiffin and Ole Miss
• Discrimination on the basis of disability – or perceived disability – on the part of Kiffin and Ole Miss
• Sexual discrimination on the part of Ole Miss
• Intentional affliction of emotional distress on the part of Kiffin
• Negligence and gross negligence on the part of Kiffin and Ole Miss

In a statement released Thursday night, Ole Miss said it never received a lawsuit, and that Rollins was never removed from the team. He remains on the Rebels' online roster.

The Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network, obtained a letter addressed to Kiffin, Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce, Mississippi Commissioner of Higher Education Alfred Rankins Sr. and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch dated May 3, 2023, detailing Rollins' Tort Claims Demand. The parties have 21 days to respond to the complaint, records show.

Rollins had appeared in three games for the Rebels. The native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages from Kiffin and Ole Miss, and $30 million in punitive damages from Kiffin. He is also seeking a temporary restraining order, as well as an injunction reinstating him.

"(He) remains on scholarship," the statement from Ole Miss reads. "In addition, he continues to have the opportunity to receive all of the resources and advantages that are afforded a student-athlete at the university."

What did Lane Kiffin allegedly tell DeSanto Rollins?

According to the suit, Rollins' mother asked Ole Miss trainer Pat Jernigan to find a counselor to monitor her son. Jernigan then scheduled a meeting with Josie Nicholson, Ole Miss' assistant athletic director for sport psychology. They met on Feb. 28.

The filing claims that Ole Miss defensive line coach Randall Joyner notified Rollins on March 1 that Kiffin wanted to meet with him again. In a March 7 meeting with Nicholson, Rollins told the counselor that he did not yet want to meet with Kiffin because he was "not in a good place." After further attempts to schedule a meeting on the part of the staff, Rollins says he met with Kiffin on March 21.

The suit reproduces a dialogue between Rollins and Kiffin in which Rollins alleges that Kiffin berated him for not meeting with him when asked, despite Rollins notifying the staff of his mental condition. Rollins alleges Kiffin kicked him off the team.

Rollins alleges Kiffin said the following to him at the meeting:

"See ya. Go, go, and guess what, we can kick you off the team, so go read your (expletive) rights about mental health. We can kick you off the team, for not showing up, when the head coach asks to meet with you and you don't show up for weeks. OK, we can remove you from the team.

"It's called being a (expletive). It's called hiding behind (expletive) and not showing up to work. You show up when your boss – so, when you have a real job, OK, someday, and your boss says, 'Hey, come in and meet,' I advise you to go meet with him, and not say, 'No, I'm not ready to meet with my boss, maybe a few weeks from now.'"

DeSanto Rollins' allegations against Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin

According to Rollins' allegations, he did not receive a mental health evaluation after suffering a concussion in the Grove Bowl in April 2022. That July, he endured an injury to his Achilles tendon that the filing says left him suffering from "severe depression, anxiety, frustration, embarrassment, humiliation, a loss of sleep and loss of appetite that substantially limited his ability to perform major life activities of walking, jumping, standing for long periods of time, standing on his toes, climbing, eating and sleeping."

The suit says Rollins suffered similar symptoms when he reaggravated a previous injury to his lateral collateral ligament in his knee that August. He alleges that Kiffin and the Ole Miss coaching staff forced him to practice afterward. He alleges Ole Miss failed to provide him with mental health resources in response to his injuries, or the death of his grandmother the following January.

Rollins alleges that Joyner pressured him to transfer following the 2022 season and that Kiffin met with him in February to tell him he would be moving to the scout team offensive line because he wouldn't transfer, and that if Rollins didn't like it, he should quit. The court filing says Rollins suffered more mental and physical health issues in response to the alleged meeting with Kiffin, including anxiety, panic attacks, hives and difficulty sleeping.

Lane Kiffin's previous remarks about mental health at Ole Miss

Kiffin said this summer that Ole Miss' entire staff is Mental Health First Aid certified. Ole Miss has claimed that it was the first program in the country to do that.

Rollins alleges that Kiffin has never kicked a white player off the team for requesting or taking a break, and that a white player who had been removed from the team had been allowed to return. The filing also alleges that women's volleyball players and white softball players had been allowed to take breaks to deal with "mental issues."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.