How Ole Miss Trolled Penn State Before, and During, the Peach Bowl

A Rebels staffer posted a fake Penn State quote that rocketed through social media. Lane Kiffin thought it was "really cool."

If you noticed the Twitter/X account @WEARE_PENNST23 that popped up late this week, you weren’t alone. The account, created in December 2023 according to its bio, posted some provocative takes, including a fake Penn State player quote. It gained major traction after Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin reposted the account a few times, but things were fishy to say the least. Well, Kiffin confirmed Saturday after the Peach Bowl that an Ole Miss student assistant named Fisher Ray created the account for the purpose of trolling Penn State and its fans.

“I thought it was pretty funny actually because they discovered that it was Fisher Ray. … So Fisher is now kind of famous,” Kiffin said after Ole Miss defeated Penn State 38-25 in the Peach Bowl. “But I thought it was really cool last night when he showed it to me. He's like, these Penn State fans now, they're into this. They researched his password and email and were able to figure out which guy it was that started it. It was all in good fun. I hope the fans had fun with it.”

The account’s biggest hit came on a post with more than 250,000 views regarding Penn State linebacker Kobe King. It fabricated a quote from King that said, “Ole Miss will wish they never had to play us after we do what we came here to do. They can have that belt. We’ll embarrass them on the field. Should be a long day for the Rebels.” The problem? King hadn’t spoken to the media since Penn State’s win over Michigan State on Nov. 24.

Kiffin apparently had no issue with a member of his staff posting a fake quote. “I'm not going to start making social media rules on people,” he said.

Said King after the game, "I found out last night. One of my teammates sent it to me. It didn’t really matter. I didn’t pay much attention to it. They did what they did. It’s disappointing."

Things were ugly for Penn State in the Peach Bowl, so the Nittany Lions and their fans didn't have a lot of room to complain. “I'm glad we won so you wouldn't be bringing that up in the press conference and they'd be saying that motivated them,” Kiffin added.

Social-media savvy Penn State fans investigated the account Friday night, discovering the email account Ray used by attempting to log into X and submitting a request to change the password. Penn State coach James Franklin was not asked about the account after Saturday’s game.

The account made just eight posts, all within 48 hours of Saturday’s opening kickoff. Outside of the King tweet, it falsely posted that Penn State players were discussing the “softness” of Ole Miss’ offensive line while touring Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame. It also took a "shot" at Rebels tight end Caden Prieskorn, a Michigan native, by saying Penn State would show him how real Big Ten tight ends play. Preiskorn held up his end of the bargain, taunting Penn State with 10 catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns.

The account's final post quickly followed the Peach Bowl's conclusion Saturday. “Guess this account won’t be needed anymore,” it said.

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Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.

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