In the world of social media that we live in today, sometimes it takes just a brief moment to earn fame.
That turned out to be the case for Jordan and Kellie Rippy on Saturday night inside Rupp Arena. The couple, who live in Westmoreland, Tennessee, came to Lexington and attended the game, which was won by Tennessee 103-92.
As the Vols rolled to victory, Jordan and Kellie were caught by the ESPN cameras. Jordan, a Tennessee fan, was having an indecipherable conversation with Kellie, a Kentucky fan, who looked generally displeased with the situation.
Jordan and Kellie were kind enough to talk with A to Z Sports about the viral moment. While it wasn't clear what the nature of the talk was at the time, Kellie explained that she wasn't as mad as her face indicated at that moment.
"It looked a lot more hateful than I felt in the moment," Kellie said. "I guess I didn’t realize that my resting face looked that way. But in the moment, I was just kind of trying to process what was going on around me and I was like ‘we can’t defend anything, we can’t rebound', and I was just trying to process like what in the world is happening here."
As far as what Jordan said to Kelly, he explained that he was simply talking about something that everyone inside Rupp Arena was seeing at that moment: how bad Kentucky's defense was.
“I was telling her that Kentucky was pretty weak on the defensive front and Zakai Zeigler was just cramming it down their throat," Jordan said.
However, that didn't stop the memes from coming. User after user dropped their proposed dialogue that Jordan was saying to Kellie.
Suddenly Jordan and Kellie had become an internet sensation, particularly among Vol fans who were reveling in the team's first-ever 100-plus point outing inside Rupp Arena.
So when did they finally come to realize that they were becoming online famous? On the drive home, apparently.
“Our phone started blowing up, not at that particular clip," Jordan said. "When the technical foul situation was going on , what everybody thought would be a technical with Bradshaw and Awaka.
"We’ve seen a bunch of them. They might just keep coming the way it looks. For some reason, I’ve seen some people say I look like Lane Kiffin, but I don’t really see the resemblance."
“He didn’t sleep on the couch, we were fine," Kellie added. "Actually, the whole ride home, we were getting those screenshots of the Twitter posts, and the memes and all the things that were on Sportscenter and everything else. And we laughed about it because it was just hilarious. We were like how on earth did we get caught up in this?"
Jordan and Kelly have been to their fair share of Tennessee vs. Kentucky basketball games together. They've been married since 2010, having met through a mutual friend. While they say they've mellowed on the rivalry between each other a bit over the years, Kellie still wasn't thrilled with what she was witnessing on Saturday night, which explained her self-proclaimed resting face at the moment the ESPN cameras caught her and Jordan.
"I live with a Tennessee fan, so I’m used to hearing the trash talk," Kellie said. "I’ve gotten used to it over the years. I was just kind of in the zone because our defense was not in the arena. We couldn’t rebound to save our life. And I was just kind of upset with the situation at hand. Not necessarily him, just like ‘what is our problem here’?"
Will the two make an encore appearance in Knoxville for the teams' return matchup on March 9? According to Jordan, it's possible.
"I'm having a hard time getting her to go to Knoxville, but we might come up in a few weeks," Jordan said.
As far as the drive home after the game, it wasn't as bad as some on social media had been predicting.
“I didn’t have to hear much on the way home," Jordan said.
Tennessee fans probably hope there's another car ride home and that it goes the same way on March 9.
A to Z Sports thanks Jordan and Kellie for their time and comments for this story.
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