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IOWA CITY, Iowa — An Iowa football player is claiming a Nebraska player used a racial slur toward him during Friday's game at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa defensive tackle Faith Ekakitie declined to identify the player or what precisely was said when asked by reporters following the game. Ekakitie said he responded to the player.

"I feel like when it’s that upfront and that weighing, then if you are just going to completely ignore it at the time, you’re a coward, in my opinion," The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported Ekakitie as saying. "Someone comes at you personally like that and decides to attack you, it’s easy to say, 'I don’t want to get confrontational' and kind of ignore it. But that’s not just an attack on me, it’s an attack on everyone else that is of my ethnicity. So I think you can’t just ignore that kind of stuff.

“There’s not a whole lot maybe I can do right then, but I’m going to let him know that’s not OK, that’s not right, that’s not how your parents raised you. That’s the most I can do in that moment.”

Nebraska released a brief statement Friday night.

“The Nebraska football staff and athletics administration are aware of the post-game comments by the Iowa student-athlete," an NU spokesman told the Journal Star.